{"id":27825,"date":"2016-04-21T08:39:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T12:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=27825"},"modified":"2021-10-05T07:14:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T11:14:58","slug":"third-culture-kids-find-a-home-at-eastern-mennonite-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/third-culture-kids-find-a-home-at-eastern-mennonite-university\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Third-culture kids’ find a home at Eastern Mennonite University"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the best of cases, a college career is often a time of tumult and transition, a succession of new faces, a million conversations that begin with: \u201cWhere are you from?\u201d<\/p>\n

For students like Nika Hoefle, whose family had moved from Minnesota to a small city in northern Thailand when she was 14, that question doesn\u2019t quite work like the simple ice-breaker it\u2019s supposed to be. Telling people she\u2019s from Thailand \u2013 which she considers home \u2013 can be awkward. It can almost come off arrogant. It often just brings the conversation to a halt.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t really know how to interact with you,\u201d says Hoefle, a senior majoring in history<\/a> as well as peacebuilding and development<\/a>. \u201cThe questions that people ask once they\u2019ve figured out that you\u2019ve lived abroad can be vague and difficult to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

E.g: \u201cOh\u2026 What was that like?\u201d<\/p>\n

How are you supposed to answer something like that?<\/p>\n

Hoefle is what\u2019s known as a third-culture kid<\/a>, or TCK. The term was coined decades ago to describe someone who\u2019s spent a \u201csignificant part\u201d of their formative years living in a country or culture different from their parents\u2019. The \u201cthird-culture\u201d bit refers to the mixed identities they develop as a result, neither fully belonging to their parents\u2019 culture, nor to the one(s) in which they\u2019ve lived.*<\/p>\n

About dozen on campus<\/h3>\n

The definition of a TCK is somewhat nebulous, and EMU doesn\u2019t track official enrollment numbers of students who consider themselves to be TCKs. But based on participation in a special orientation held prior to the start of each academic year, more than a dozen TCKs are now studying at EMU.<\/p>\n

One of Hoefle\u2019s classmates and fellow TCKs, Alena Yoder, lived in Kenya from second to seventh grade. Though the two lived overseas in entirely different parts of the world, they share the experience of feeling like outsiders, at times, in the country where they hold citizenship.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time, I just didn\u2019t fit in,\u201d says Yoder, a senior history major.<\/p>\n

She struggled to make friends and recalls her eighth-grade year after her family\u2019s return to Indiana as the worst of her life.<\/p>\n

Hoefle and Yoder are co-presidents of a TCK club<\/a> that meets monthly on campus to discuss their experiences of adjustment, challenge and growth. About 10 students have been active in the club this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a support group,\u201d says Hoefle. \u201cWhat we try to do as a club is be a safe place for people to talk about what\u2019s going on \u2026 Without that strong support group at EMU, I don\u2019t know how my transition would have gone. I can\u2019t really imagine it without those people, even though we were from such different places.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 20 TCKs among faculty and staff<\/h3>\n

Lori Leaman<\/a>, an education professor and faculty sponsor of the TCK club, said the group \u201cprovides that safe space for challenging each other but also for providing support during the challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is [also] a place where they can experience a sense of home \u2013 home that lies in relationships, not in geographical location,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Leaman co-sponsors the club with her husband, Jim Leaman<\/a>, a business professor who grew up in East Africa and is among the nearly 20 EMU faculty and staff who are TCKs. Lori Leaman says the large presence of TCKs across the entire university community, along with the focus on cross-cultural understanding that permeates the curriculum, makes EMU a particularly supportive place for TCK students. (The Leamans also spent 12 years in Nairobi, Kenya, where both of their children were born.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the emphasis on \u2018the common good\u2019 for every single person on this globe resonates with TCKs,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n

A ‘comfortable’ place<\/h3>\n

As their graduation rapidly approaches, Yoder and Hoefle both say they\u2019ve had great experiences at EMU.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people here on this campus who very much understand that TCK narrative,\u201d says Yoder, who plans to stay in Harrisonburg after graduation. \u201cIt feels comfortable here to be a TCK.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a legacy of her past, Hoefle expects she\u2019ll always have an unconventional notion of \u201chome,\u201d one that\u2019s not necessarily rooted to one specific place.\u00a0 Sometimes, she says, she\u2019s jealous of peers who have deep, deep roots in one particular community. Other times, she\u2019s grateful that her life has been so varied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s better or worse to have lived abroad,\u201d Hoefle says. \u201cIt just depends on what you do with it in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Hoefle’s opinion piece published in the Weather Vane, “The Truth About Being a Third Culture Kid<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

* Definition adapted from: Pollock, David C. “Being a Third-Culture Kid: A Profile.” Raising Resilient MKs: Resources for Caregivers, Parents, and Teachers<\/em>. Colorado Springs, CO: Association of Christian Schools International, 1998. 45-53.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the best of cases, a college career is often a time of tumult and transition, a succession of new faces, a million conversations that begin with: \u201cWhere are you ... read more about ‘Third-culture kids’ find a home at Eastern Mennonite University<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5725,14715,5595,14145,4513,14139],"tags":[6795,11468,10078,11912],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-27825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admissions","category-campus-life","category-history","category-peacebuilding-and-development","category-student-life","category-student-profiles","tag-diversity","tag-jim-leaman","tag-lori-leaman","tag-third-culture-kids"],"yoast_head":"\n'Third-culture kids' find a home at Eastern Mennonite University - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2016\/third-culture-kids-find-a-home-at-eastern-mennonite-university\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Third-culture kids' find a home at Eastern Mennonite University - 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