The human condition calls for a home. As humans, we need to have places to let down our walls and be our true selves, knowing that who we are is valued and welcomed. This is what home is.
Lawson (2018) describes “at-homeness” as “...the coming together of perceptions and experiences in a particular place that brings one a sense of coherence, a sense of continuity,” accompanied by feelings of “safety, belonging, and self-esteem” (p. 413).
For international students at Cal Poly, Lawson’s depictions of home can be a reality that is rarely experienced. They come to a new country without the safety and security provided by their parents. In a predominantly white institution, most stand out because of their skin color. Many speak a version of English influenced by the sounds, grammatical structures, and lexicons of their native languages. Achieving the sense of feeling at home is a difficult process for international students to embark on; belonging is not automatic.
This is where storytelling comes in. Andenoro et al. (2012) suggest that storytelling offers opportunities for construction of self-identity through interpretation and presentation of past, present, and future experiences to an audience. Furthermore, they claim, “The beauty of the storytelling is that it allows the narrator to see people and scenes within the narrator’s life as he or she constructs them. By dissecting their own understanding of those that they interact with, the narrators begin to develop a sense of who they are within their constructed reality and the relationships within it” (p. 106).
But a story cannot exist in a vacuum; the narrator must share their story with someone. It is how that audience responds that makes the storytelling experience meaningful. Polkinghorne (2013) addresses the act of being transported into a person’s story as “heighten[ing] our reception of the protagonist’s positions as replacements for our own previous views” (p. 15). This is what I would call empathy, as the listener enters into the storyteller’s experiences and adopts their emotions.
International students telling their stories may have more difficulty finding empathy, however. The differences between cultures often create tension. In listening to the stories of international students, there is a need for cultural empathy specifically, which has been described as a process of retaining one’s own cultural identity while accepting the other’s (Chung, 2002, pp. 155-156). Cultural empathy allows space for all experiences without elevating one culture over the other.
Belonging is felt in spaces where one can inhabit the fullness of their true self knowing they will be fully accepted. The construction of self and being met with empathy in storytelling are the means through which such belonging is attained, and for international students it can be a lifeline for feeling at home in an unknown place. International students at Cal Poly need to know their voices and their stories matter immensely.
Lawson (2018) describes “at-homeness” as “...the coming together of perceptions and experiences in a particular place that brings one a sense of coherence, a sense of continuity,” accompanied by feelings of “safety, belonging, and self-esteem” (p. 413).
For international students at Cal Poly, Lawson’s depictions of home can be a reality that is rarely experienced. They come to a new country without the safety and security provided by their parents. In a predominantly white institution, most stand out because of their skin color. Many speak a version of English influenced by the sounds, grammatical structures, and lexicons of their native languages. Achieving the sense of feeling at home is a difficult process for international students to embark on; belonging is not automatic.
This is where storytelling comes in. Andenoro et al. (2012) suggest that storytelling offers opportunities for construction of self-identity through interpretation and presentation of past, present, and future experiences to an audience. Furthermore, they claim, “The beauty of the storytelling is that it allows the narrator to see people and scenes within the narrator’s life as he or she constructs them. By dissecting their own understanding of those that they interact with, the narrators begin to develop a sense of who they are within their constructed reality and the relationships within it” (p. 106).
But a story cannot exist in a vacuum; the narrator must share their story with someone. It is how that audience responds that makes the storytelling experience meaningful. Polkinghorne (2013) addresses the act of being transported into a person’s story as “heighten[ing] our reception of the protagonist’s positions as replacements for our own previous views” (p. 15). This is what I would call empathy, as the listener enters into the storyteller’s experiences and adopts their emotions.
International students telling their stories may have more difficulty finding empathy, however. The differences between cultures often create tension. In listening to the stories of international students, there is a need for cultural empathy specifically, which has been described as a process of retaining one’s own cultural identity while accepting the other’s (Chung, 2002, pp. 155-156). Cultural empathy allows space for all experiences without elevating one culture over the other.
Belonging is felt in spaces where one can inhabit the fullness of their true self knowing they will be fully accepted. The construction of self and being met with empathy in storytelling are the means through which such belonging is attained, and for international students it can be a lifeline for feeling at home in an unknown place. International students at Cal Poly need to know their voices and their stories matter immensely.