Larry Z
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Majors: Accounting & Economics
Hometown: Andover, Massachusetts
Age: 20
Parents' Home Country: China
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"When I was a child, I always viewed myself as a defect. I belonged in neither the Asian community or the American community. When I was home, I was Chinese but when I went to school the next day I was American. I didn’t get along with the Chinese kids because I was not fully Chinese and could not engage in deep conversation with them, but I also didn’t get along with Caucasian Americans because I had no relevance to their lives or culture. I could not put together the two pieces of my life that made me who I am today. As I got older, I started viewing this in a different light. I realized as I learned more that instead of me existing in two different worlds, it was a whole new one. I was Asian-American. That itself was my culture and that itself is who I am.
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Growing up, I was raised by my grandparents who did not speak any English. They taught me my first language (Mandarin) and taught me of all the values that they wanted to instill upon me and my brother. While I did not choose this, I enjoyed it as it was a way to feel connected to my family and where we came from. Being Chinese I was fortunate enough to have a big enough community and support for our culture that my family and I got to celebrate events like Chinese New Year or the Mid-Autumn Festival. We try our best to keep the culture and tradition that we have for future generations to come.
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Education is always a priority to me. I want to enhance anything that I want to do and take the opportunity to be humble and be better everyday. My father received his bachelors in Beijing University, masters in Boston College and his PHD in Physics in Harvard University. There is always going to be a huge pressure for second-generations to obtain an education. The history that our families have and what they came to America for will always fuel their expectations for their children.
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Culture is a platform that people can use to bring themselves together. The special thing about culture is that it’s non-exclusive, and that anyone can indulge in what a certain culture has to offer. We as humans all love to share our culture and what it means to us, so to be able to do that and bring in people of different ethnicities is an exciting thing."
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