Natalie Montanez is a Junior at Penn State, and I met her in the HUB. Natalie is Columbian and comes from a tiny but diverse town in rural Pennsylvania. She is actually roommates with a girl who graduated from my school a couple of years ago. We didn’t have much time to talk, so she gave me her phone number and we Facetimed later.
Natalie enjoys going to the gym, we once even bumped into each at the IM Building. She loves listening to all types of music and doing volunteer work, another thing we both have in common. She loves everything Disney and just recently went on a trip there with her best friends. Her friends all vary in ages, genders, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic standpoints. Natalie doesn’t look for specific people to talk to, so it is effortless for her to make friends, she says being brought up in such a diverse place plays a key fact into this. She planned on becoming an eye doctor, but now she is not certain, but she definitely still wants to work in the medical field.
She feels very connected to and proud of her Hispanic roots. Her family has loads of traditions such as putting an angel on the Christmas tree and not a star, kissing family members on the cheeks as greetings and having empanadas on Thanksgiving. She used to miss being home a lot because of the massive change of culture, but then Natalie realized how vast the culture Penn States has. There are so many different types of clubs and events celebrating the Latina/Latino community.
Coming to Penn State was a real shock for her, she wasn’t even going to apply, but when she visited her top choice, she hated. So then Natalie visited Penn State and then she knew right away that this was going to be her home. Penn State is so welcoming and has so many clubs, and organization aiding in the letting diversity thrive here on campus.
“Of coarse” Natalie says, when being questioned if she has ever been faced with prejudice or stereotypes. She spoke of one incident that happened with a friend where Natalie got a call from her Mom while hanging in this girl’s dorm, and the girl was like “pass the phone to me I can speak Spanish,” which really upset Natalie because her Mom speaks English just fine. Another incident is when she made an Ambassador for a group, where the majority of Ambassadors are white people, and somebody said it was because she looked mostly white. I can personally relate to this incident because being biracial I don’t really look black or wholly white and people always say phrases like you are the whitest half-black person I know.”, or personally my favorite” I thought being half black would mean that you could dance.”.
Natalie is a very polite person whom I have a great deal in common with. We both use Instagram and get our news from CNN and Twitter. We were both in the National Honor Society and Choir in high school. Plus we both love Penn sates and are so excited for the kickoff of the football season. She said her first football game will always be one of the memories when she thinks back to her first year at college. I just can’t wait to begin my fall semester here at Penn State.
