(Above is me and my new bestie Jane!)

The person I interviewed for my diversity assignment was a girl named Jane Leu. Jane is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. I am so happy I was able to get the opportunity to not only interview her but also make a new friend. Jane and I met in the lobby of my building and instantly we were able to talk and laugh with each other. Some things about Jane and I were very different but we found commonalities between us as well.

Jane and I first went over the assignment, we talked through the questions I was going to ask her. But before we really started the interview we talked just about our new lives here at Penn State. Jane started off by telling me about where she is from, I thought she was going to tell me she grew up in America but I then found out Jane grew up in China! I was shocked and so excited to hear about where she grew up, and how she was raised in the southeast part of China. 

She grew up with her mom and dad in a small home in the suburbs. Jane is an only child and has always wished of having siblings. She told me that a lot of her neighbors were children and people around her age so she was able to hang out with her neighbors as if they were siblings. Jane then told me about her family. Both her parents are huge into research and science. She told me about the dynamic of her relationship with her family. Her mom and dad have very different opinions, lifestyles, and beliefs, this gave Jane the decision to decide how she wanted to live her life. Her father doesn’t believe in celebration, birthdays and holidays such as the chinese new year. His mentality is that you should celebrate everyday a little instead of dedicating specific days in the year to “waste” all your celebrating. On the other hand, Jane’s mother enjoys celebrating Jane’s birthday and other special events with their extended family. Having two very different opinions in her life allowed for her to realize what she likes. Jane told me she enjoys celebrating her birthday but tries to enjoy everyday of life doing things she loves.

This brings me into my next series of questions I asked her, I asked her about what she enjoys doing in her freetime, her hobbies, and what she plans on studying. Jane told me she enjoys reading and watching her favorite soccer team, a team from Germany. Her favorite type of literature is science fiction. I wondered if she read in english or chinese, her response to this was, “I try to push myself everyday to read in english, even though reading in chinese would be more enjoyable.” Although english is her second language Jane has been studying the englisj language since she was 5 years old. This made her realize what she wanted to major in, english literature and hopes to be a literature translation one day. Books are an outlet for her and she loves to read in her room as alone time. 

Since Jane is from overseas she needed a visa to go to school in America. Penn State has been apart of Jane’s life since she was 9. Her took her studies here for her post doctorate and Jane traveled with her here in State College for a year. Jane knew since she was a little girl Penn State was the school she wished to study at. In 2016 Jane came back to Penn State with her mother for another year of studies. Jane had to transition from her life in China to now going to State College High School. Jane said for the first time in her life she felt like an “outcast”, she was different from everyone in her school. She did tell me that everyone was nice to her but she knew college would be her time to shine. In 2018 Jane decided to apply to colleges, she applied to Penn State, University of Iowa, Indiana University, and even schools in Canada. But she knew Penn State was her home. When Jane got in she immediately started the process of getting her student visa. It was easy to obtain and her major only required getting a new visa every 5 years. Jane and her mother have an apartment here and Jane likes to go there on weeknights to see and catch up with her mom. She told me she likes having her mom with her because it makes her feel more at home and not as different. She made it very clear to me though that she has yet to feel like she is left out here at school because of her background. But she did tell me about a time she went to Germany for an abroad program through school in China. She told me that the customs people in Germany laughed in her face when she told them she was from China and studying in Germany even though she studied German in school. 

Jane then asked me where I was from, when I told her just around 30 minutes outside of New York City she giggled. I told her I loved the city so much and she continued to laugh. I asked why, she told me she hated New York City, she told me it was crowded and very dirty unlike the city near her home back in China. That was the first difference Jane and I found between us, other than the fact that we are from very different places. One thing we found in common between us was the lack of religion in our lives. I grew up non religious and was told to believe what I wanted to believe. This is just like Jane, she grew up with no religion in her life, she was just told to treat people the way you want to be treated and good will come your way. I really agree with her beliefs so we were able to talk about and agree with each other religious view of the world we live in today. Another thing we found in common between us was the type of food we like. She loves her traditional food back home and I told her I loved chinese food as well. We talked about how their is such a wide variety of chinese food downtown and talked about our favorite places to eat at. Jane is my new friend and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to interview her. Jane and I decided to get a meal together once or twice a week for the rest of summer and hopefully into the school year. We gave each other our social media accounts and exchanged numbers. We are planning to have dinner on Thursday night together. I am excited to see where my new friendship takes us. I know Jane really appreciated talking to me and making a new friend as well.