CLU global studies focus on L.A. immigrant groups

Four students at California Lutheran University are studying global issues this summer without ever leaving Southern California.

They're doing their research in Los Angeles, where immigrant communities offer a bridge to a global society, said Haco Hoang, a political science professor and director of global studies at the Thousand Oaks university.

"It's a challenge to bring diversity to this campus," Hoang said. "If diversity won't come here, then we'll bring our students to diversity."

The students are Pearson scholars, chosen by professors to do field research in immigrant communities for eight to 10 weeks over the summer. The scholarships, which pay for travel, meals and other costs associated with the research, are funded by a gift from the late Alma Pearson, a philanthropist who also helped build the campus library.

The scholars are Lulit Bereda, 21, a junior majoring in economics with a minor in global studies; Kelley Fry, 22, who just graduated with a triple major in political science, international studies and German; Tricia Johnson, 21, a senior majoring in Spanish and global studies; and Jessica Weaver, 21, who just earned her degree in international studies and French.

All four are studying the experience of immigrants in the United States. They come to their projects with a background in second languages and "global studies" - the new name for international studies - that separates them somewhat from their peers on campus, they said.

"You develop this awareness," Weaver said. "It's an experience that's wholly different from my own. I understand the difficulty a lot of immigrant communities go through. It's a point of view you would never get otherwise."

In her research, Weaver found that Korean-American college students who went to Korean language school as children resented it at the time, but then as young adults wished they had paid more attention, because at that point they valued their culture more.

Bereda, herself an international student from Ethiopia, found the Ethiopian community as a whole pushed students into college, rather than letting it be a personal choice as it can be here.

"Education is important in our culture," she said. "They have seen the world, and they know how it is without an education, so there's pressure on them to succeed."

Fry studied civic engagement in the Korean and Thai communities. She found Koreans were significantly more engaged, having formed churches, language schools and after-school programs. That, along with a well-educated population, allowed them to rely on their own resources.

The smaller, less-established Thai community, on the other hand, was more likely to rely on outside resources.

Johnson studied challenges and opportunities faced by Mexican immigrants.

For some of the scholars, the research has shaped what they plan to do with their lives. Weaver is leaving in August to teach English in China. Fry hopes to work with the Torrance-based nonprofit group Liberty in North Korea, which helps people who have fled North Korea, and educates Americans about the situation in that country.

"I don't think students realized they could have such a global experience by going down the 101," Hoang said.

--- Published in the Ventura County Star on July 20, 2010