When junior Christina Hur traveled to Seoul, Korea, this summer to attend Yonsei University, she didn’t realize her cultural identity would be questioned or redefined.
In the past, the 20-year-old has struggled between her American and Korean cultures. Hur grew up in a predominantly white Gresham community and had mostly white friends. But after spending the summer in Korea, she said she learned more about her Asian culture, and has begun to see herself in a different light.
“After going to Korea, I looked in the mirror and the darkness of my skin, my cheekbones, my smaller eyes were more apparent,” she said. “Before I would see my skin as a light brown, almost white, my eyes as round, and my nose pointed. I knew I was different than whites, but I pushed it out of my mind.”
Like Hur, many minority students at the University struggle with finding their cultural identities and must discover how to incorporate two or more cultures into their lives, said Student Life Diversity director Mark Tracy.
“I think that students of color have other issues that majority students wouldn’t face,” Tracy said. “Depending upon where they grew up, minority students will view their cultural identity differently.” For many minority students, the struggle to understand their different cultural backgrounds and establish their identity may not be understood in college.
“Some minority students do come to terms with their cultural identity in college,” Tracy said. “But I have seen grown men and women still struggling with this issue.”
Tracy said some minority students come from urban areas and have mostly interacted with other minorities, while others have grown up in rural areas with mostly whites and only a handful of other minorities.
“The social pressures from these two backgrounds go both ways,” Tracy said. “Minority students come in with different dynamics and how they perceive themselves or how they adapt to the University depends upon their diverse backgrounds.”

Junior Andrea Rodriguez, 21, grew up in a predominately white Portland community and said she also has struggled with finding her identity. In middle school, she said she wrote her last name as Rod because she wanted to disassociate herself from her Mexican heritage.
“I have felt torn. You want to fit in with the norm,” she said.
Rodriguez said she began to appreciate her Mexican culture by learning more about it through MEChA and her Latin American classes. She said as she has come to understand both cultures she has found the best elements from both backgrounds.
“It would be like choosing between my two parents, and you just can’t do that. I get to pick and choose what I want from each culture,” she said. “I am very fortunate. I have created my own culture.”
Tracy said that for some students who come to the University, it is the whitest place they have ever lived, and for others, the University is the most diverse place they have ever lived.
Before senior Jamar Hayles, 23, came to the University, he had not interacted with many white people. Hayles grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood in Long Beach, Calif.
Hayles said attending the University has broadened his cultural views, but he has never struggled to define himself between any two cultures.
“Coming to the University has been a good experience for me. Before coming here, I didn’t really think Caucasians liked black people,” he said. “But when I came here and interacted with them, they were nice to me, greeting me on campus and helping me with school work. This broke some of my earlier stereotypes.”
Freshman Allison Prasad, 18, said she has learned to assimilate herself with many different cultures. Prasad is Indian American, and has lived in both a predominately Asian community in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a black community in Portland.
“I am a puzzle piece of all these different cultures,” she said. “Every little nook and cranny of me is Asian, black and Indian,” she said. “I think to assimilate yourself you must be open-minded. If you are ignorant to other cultures you will feel like an outsider.”
As for Hur, she said she still struggles with incorporating the two cultures into her life, but her trip to Korea has helped.
“I am an Oregonian, an American and a Korean,” she said. “I am just me — I am Christina and within Christina, I am all these things.”