Founder of GenZtea | Top LinkedIn Voice for Next Gen| Founder of The Group Chat Queen| Talks about how to build a global ?? community
You don't have to be an international student to mentor people from other countries. There is a misconception that just because you are born and raised in the US and don't travel to other countries, you can't have a global mindset. I totally get that. Americans think that we are the best and smartest and that no other countries exist. To be frank, we can't get our geography right (I had only one year of it in middle school). I always see on college campuses that international students are segregated from their fellow classmates who are domestic students. I don't know about your university, but for me, the cafeteria and the library are the best examples of this. There are Indonesian students on one section of the floor. Indians in another. Then you got the Chinese student near the Starbucks store. You even see different religious groups (Muslims and Christians) that only sit with each other, too. Don't even get me started on the subgroups within these groups, too. But that doesn't mean that they want to be. The fear of rejection is a real struggle (think language barriers and whatnots) I am keeping it real. Despite being born and raised in the US, I find it hard to build deep relationships with other people born in the US to this day. Therefore, I found my home in college with the international student office. I had dozens of friends, 7 mentees and I volunteered 100s of hours working to help international students feel a sense of belonging on campus. Now, the ironic fact is that most startup founders & investors I meet are at least 2nd gen immigrants. Here are the facts: 1. Around 55% of U.S. startups companies valued at $1 billion or more (unicorns) were founded by immigrants. 2. In major tech hubs, about 40-50% of startups have at least one immigrant founder What I learned is that it is the mindset that matters, not the appearance of someone's skin.