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Tags: International, Diversity, Identity, Own Space

People, a picture book written by Peter Spier, is what changed 7-year-old Mary’s way of making sense of the world around her. When she opened the book, she realized Earth was more than just a sphere. Indeed, it was a place where more than just one language was spoken, more than just one skin color was seen, and more than just one body type was allowed. Without going too far, our school was the ideal representation of diversity.

Mary Nakada is an alumnus who graduated from Roosevelt more than 18 years ago. After four years of college, and seven years of preparation, she came back to work as director of communication here at FDR.

People always say middle school is the period of time when you stop being a kid and become a teen. Mary felt that change as questions and thoughts started to sprout. “Who am I? Am I Peruvian enough? Am I Japanese enough?” She constantly got lost in all those thoughts and the process of getting to know who you are, what you want, and what is your place in this world; for her, this was no easy challenge.

Part of growing up is getting to know who you are. Part of that process includes finding people with similarities who understand you as a person, but as Mary said, “Even though I had a bunch of friends, there were times in where I felt excluded, and it can be very isolating and lonely, but it was because I was forging my own identity so naturally.” Being a teenager is already complicated, but being a teenage girl gets even worse, seeing as we consider every minor inconvenience a huge problem. However, this is why Mary was not a normal teenage girl. Instead of shying away, she used the difference to her advantage. As opposed to the rest, she didn’t complicate herself with if she belonged to this group or to that group, and instead, she let people believe what they wanted to believe. “I’m not an international student, as far as my parents are not coming from outside in, but for other students, I am Japanese too, and also Peruvian. I was in between groups, which for me was a blessing, I was able to be a part of everyone’s group.”

When Mary went into high school, she built new friendship bonds with multiple people who agreed with the idea of expanding the group to people who were different from them. Rather than belonging to the Peruvian, Japanese, or the American “box”, she built her own space, giving every international student and peers the opportunity to have a warm welcome and being friends. “I believe opening up to different cultures was what made my adaptation to University in Ohio so easy”.

Traveling to Ohio to start the new chapter of her life was not a challenge for Mary. When she went to college in the USA, she mentioned that having a similar size campus with small classes facilitated her ability to connect and form a closer relationship with teachers and students. Socializing with different cultures and nationalities at school was an element that allowed Mary to easily adjust to the outside world. Even though it was Mary’s turn to become an international student, she was already familiar with the concept and language which was a huge advantage.

Once her college career was done, she stayed seven years more in the states. It was thirteen years later when Mary returned home to work as the director of communication at Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Ever since then, she was no longer just an alumni of FDR, but an employee as well. Mary has been working for more than fourteen years in the school that shaped her and prepared her for the outside world. Throughout her working career as the director, she has worked with multiple alumni on campus, making their bonds stronger and remarkable.

We all have questioned and forged our identity so naturally at some point in our life to feel we belong, but as we adapt to fit in a particular group, we put ourselves into a box already labeled. Life’s purpose is about building our own space once we realize we do not have to fit into someone else’s ideas and expectations of who we should be. Now, let me ask you, How are you thinking of building your own space?