#29- Supporting Students in Multicultural Communities in Trinidad and Tobago by Sarika Moonian
Keywords: students, support, trinidad, impact, culture, persons, feel, share, challenges, part, find, kinds, tobago, people, love, institution, quantify, island, lime, student affairs professionals
Supporting Students in Multicultural Communities in Trinidad and Tobago by Sarika Moonian
Lixing Li 00:00
Hello everyone, welcome to Global Connections. I am your host Lixing. Today we have a special guest from Trinidad and Tobago. I am very happy to invite Sarika Moonian to our podcast channel. Sarika is one of our Commission’s ACPA membership scholarship awardees this year. Congratulations,Sarika! We’re very happy to have you here today to share your experiences and stories with Students Affairs and Academic Affairs. Before we start, could you introduce yourself to our audience?
Sarika Moonian 00:32
Sure, thank you Lixing. It’s really a pleasure to be part of ACPA, especially this commission, it’s very dear to me, because student development is something that I hold dear to my heart. And I see myself growing and continue to grow in this field. As a professional Well, I’ve, I’ve started in secondary education system in Trinidad, right. I would have been a teacher at that point. And that’s where actually my love for education grew. Because I was teaching management of business and law. And I saw students of, you know, different backgrounds, coming from a single parent who was struggling because of peer pressure and domestic issues and whatnot. And I found that, you know, in order to be able to impact students in our greater level, because at secondary school, you have so many avenues for, you know, teachers to impact students, that there’s a sort of a fallout when they have to leave that nest as we would call it right and go on your own, where you have to think and be more independent, and whatnot, at tertiary institutions. So that’s where I started to look for a career path in tertiary education, and mostly in administration, where I found myself and student affairs and also Academic Affairs, so I was able to work both sides of the spectrum, understanding the teaching and learning environment, and also the support that will help students while they navigate themselves in an artistry landscape, you know, depending on where whatever program they’re doing. I’ve always been in a business school. So business and IT, and teacher education is where I would have primarily been invested in. And I’ve been able to support students along the spectrum, whether it be from being top performers, or requiring additional support, or coming from single parent homes or first time first generation students in our programs, you know, there’s little to no support and any household. Right? In the Caribbean as well. It’s it’s important for us to know Trinidad, especially we are twin Island Republic. So even though we are part of the Caribbean Peninsula, each island has their own governance structures and their own matriculation and the system, right. So I found that understanding culture, and the impact of our culture and how we grew up is impacts the way in which we provide support, we ask for support. And we also give support, you know, so I thought that that’s a nice topic to segue into foster consideration, and you know, to have that kind of dialogue.
Lixing Li 03:39
Thank you! Thank you for other sharings! Yeah, we have learned that Sarika is from Trinidad and Tobago, yeah, she shares about some cultures and democratic backgrounds, which is very new to me. And you also just mentioned, there’s something about how you get into this field and how to get into your current work. Srika, you are currently serving as a student service manager, what are your daily jobs?
Sarika Moonian 04:07
Right? So as a Student Services Manager, what we what we do is impacting student life and engagement while they are at campus with us, right? So we look at programming that will help support them outside of the classroom, and also to engage them in ways that will at least contribute rich lead to the teaching and learning environment. Right. So it’s things that will be co curricular and extracurricular activities that will support the students and look at their holistic development, not just about the textbook, but how to go about life in general, because we will do activities that will help this health and wellness areas. So we have initiatives that will look at the financial stability. How well they up Roche finance and budget and for themselves, we look at their own health, are they taken care of them? What is their diet looking like? Because we have students who come straight out of secondary school. And we also have people who are primed in their career, and they are looking to switch to a new career paths. So our demographics as well, where I currently work, we have a mixture of students ranging from ages in as young as 17 years old, all the way to over 50. Right. So the demographic is wide in that regard, so we try to ensure that the activities that we prepare for students, kids are for the different audiences in which we have as students, so the students who are fresh out of school, you know, they need a little less hand holding and organizing themselves and getting that structure. But then we need a little bit more tweaking and bringing about the applied learning aspect and knowing how to put forward in the real work environment, how they can apply the the management principles and the it IT infrastructure that they come in, across to make it worthwhile in the world of work. Right. And then we have those who would have been out of the school system for quite a while, and then are coming back. So they need a reintroduction and how to do proper academic writing, you know, like a refresher and retooling on those kinds of activities. So, you know, it’s really is something like trying to ensure that we have something for everyone, and how we create the support needs, whether it be workshop, seven seminars, or stress relief sessions, knowing how to think about self care and managing your health, managing your mental health as well. And also maintaining your grades, looking at maintaining your GPA, your minimum GPA requirements to graduate on time, and not remain logged into the system, etc. So that’s where a nutshell what we do in student services. So we are a small institution. So you’ll find that for institutions that have 10s of 1000s of students, you know, we have several departments have do that. But in and where I’m currently at, and you write that we are rarely small. So you’ll find that we do a lot more in that one units for students.
Lixing Li 07:39
Since that you guys are working with a very diverse population of students, and you wear multiple hats to support students in different aspects. Really love to hear that your campus is very inclusive, this is great. And sort of to shift a little bit back to the culture you mentioned that we’ve just learned that Trinidad and Tobago is a country of diverse culture, and environment. And you also mentioned that the student population in your campus varies. So how culture impacts our language, therefore it has detract from the support offered to various groups. In your opinion, what are some common misconceptions people have about working with a diverse population? And how can they be addressed?
Sarika Moonian 08:28
So the thing about work culture is rarely our shared customs and beliefs, religious views, and basically the way of our life and our community. Right. And in Trinidad and Tobago, we are yes, we are a multinational organization or country Island. And so we have a lot of ethnicities that will have been either come into Trinidad as indentured laborers, or slavery, etc. So we have people from India, Africa, China, Japan, Philippines, Syria, etc. So we have a whole host of different countries being here and they’ve been here for quite some time sharing their history, their blood, sweat and tears literally, to build a nation right. And interestingly enough, we have not as a nation lost our touch to the roots. So we do have our indo well, we even though we subscribed ourselves as Trinidadians, we we still have some you know, who would say IndoTrinidadians, meaning that you recognize yourself with being from an Indian background? Right, so you have Afro Trinidadians, etc, who you would find that you relate to persons who come from Africa, your ancestors came from that part of the country or the island. Right? It would. And so we find that, you know, there’s some level of recognition to our heritage in that regard, but the way in which our language is fused together, you would find that, you know, some Indian words, or Hindi words will be mixed with some African words, and with patois, French, and Spanish, etc, all mixed into one, hallelujah, getsy, right? And it really lends to how we approach life in Trinidad. And we are very family oriented, very friendly and open set of people. Right. So you find that, you know, we will heal all persons, when you see them, you know, you don’t just pass people straight on the road, you will recognize you tell them hello, good day, whatever. So you have to be very friendly in that regard. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I, I know that we all have different views on what culture means that each one of us and that’s, that’s important, and no, because everybody will have some sort of experience, and lifestyle, exposures that will influence how they think, how they do, how they react, and etc, right. So, you know, it would be interesting for us to even look further and have, you know, persons explore culture as a research topic, that will affect the kind of support that we help students with. And we will also understand that, you know, in some traditions, you know, people will feel, I guess, more comfortable asking for help, as opposed to others who feel that they need to go it alone. And they wouldn’t raise the red flag, they wouldn’t ask for the help, even though they know the help is there. But they just get something in return them that they just don’t want to ask for any sort of assistance, because they feel that that will take away from the achievement. And I think that’s, that’s a big part to play, whether whether it’s, it’s a Trinidadian culture, or it’s just just a natural human nature, it’s something that, you know, to foster to look at student affairs professionals, how can that impact, you know, person’s asking for support or tapping into the support that we as institutions have readily available for them, because we could come up with a whole host of stuff, whether it’s policies, and procedures to identify these support mechanisms for persons, but if it is that they don’t feel that it is part of what they can achieve on their own, or that they’re not taking a cheap way out, but rather, helping them to get the best out of themselves by tapping into the support? You know, it’s really to me something would, that divested more time and energy to explore, you know, from different regions? I wouldn’t say, you know, because I know, we have so much rich information coming from the US, but we don’t have much from the Caribbean that looks at that support mechanism, even if it were impacted by culture, to some extent, right, and how that could affect, you know, us providing support for our own people. And you know, being confident in your own self, to know how to, to use what you have as a as a people to either help others or help yourself and the whole process.
Lixing Li 14:09
Yeah, yes. I love that. And how do you and your team culturally prepare students in a multicultural world?
Sarika Moonian 14:16
Well, I think the only way you could really prepare persons is that try to bring that conversation to the forefront, you know, recognize and unintentionally doing it so that people feel comfortable expressing themselves, sharing what where they came from, the struggles that they went through, and, you know, some of the little nuances of how we speak or how we interact with each other. So like we in Trinidad, we would say, Let’s go for a lime and everybody’s like what is a lime in the context of normal language? Lime, is that something sour? that’s a fruit,
Lixing Li 15:00
Yea, like lemon, lime.
Sarika Moonian 15:04
Lime is to go and have fun like a little party. So we say lime, or we go into, you know, have a nice vibes. Vibes is like you bring in that level of farm charisma, your attitude and all those kind of things that kind of positive, those little nuances that help us to differentiate ourselves and not be fearful of, you know, saying that this is what we mean. And, you know, having a safe space to be able to share that, you know, I think that that’s, that’s where we will. And what we try to do is because we from diverse backgrounds, and reiteration, cultural, all those kinds of traditions in Trinidad, you will find that we have a lot of holidays, that’s one, but we also have a lot of festivities that we try to bring programming entity, entity, the Student Life aspect. So you know, you get exposure to and people can enjoy and because, you know, that’s part of what Chinese philosophy likes it one in Japan, they do different kinds of bead work and whatnot, you have the craft aspect, which is using twines, until interweave different things, making baskets, all those little different things that, you know, as our ancestors would have made baskets to sell, right? Because that was that was the medium to use any market for selling produce, right, all your goods and stuff would have been used traditionally, from those coconut trees and the front leaves and branches in the forest that they wouldn’t leave together. Right. So it’s like understanding all these little things that help which is a now what we call entrepreneurship, right? And build any own business out of these local produce. And, and allowing us to be able to give a forum for students to share, like, because what we call as a PLN session, right, where you’re you have students who have an ability or talent to, let’s say, make beans, and beads and bands or beads, or who have a craft nature, we asked them to lead a session. So they could share their expertise. They could share their talents with others, and give that exposure to the culture of that area, or where you came from. You know, so we have like persons who know calligraphy, to find that those students who are from China, or will have heritage from Chinese background, they will be my clients are wanting to show how to do the drawings, and you know, those kinds of things. So it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, feeling, or giving presents the opportunity to be able to share in that space, you know, and I think that is one of the main ways in which we will be able to, as a curate affairs professional, identify those who are any smaller backgrounds or smaller cultures, right to be able to step out into the forefront, to share with others so that we have a better appreciation of, you know, how we interact with each other, not only just the language, but you know, your body movements, your the way in which you see things, you know, have so much that that iceberg and only 20% 80% rule, where you only see 2%, but there’s so much going on in the background, you know, and it’s really allowing us to do that, I guess, because we are also small, you know, it’s easier for us to, to reach out to the student body to find those who, you know, may just need a little nudging or a little bit more cooks and have a session, you know, to give them that confidence to be able to do it because then you’re not sitting in a in a classroom of 1000s of people, but few of us sit down together and we do things and you’re connected in a different way. You know, and also lends the student experience right. Because you want each each institution always wants, you know, students to feel treasured. And are they worth the worth something as not only just we have a new graduate certificate that yeah, you know.
Lixing Li 19:37
yeah, yeah. Wow, wonderful. You guys are really doing pathway meaningful work. Yeah. I love that. You share a lot of like fun things you’re doing and supporting students. What are the challenges in your work?
Sarika Moonian 19:51
I think the challenge is or always that, you know, everybody comes with the intention of doing program, right? So you’re here to learn our program. So you will always find that you will never get 100% buy in from everyone. So we just need to know what is that percentage that will allow you to feel fulfilled and doing what you do? Yeah. So you want to know that, yes, you have continued increase in participation, but at least the impact, which is getting any feedback from the students about how you have impacted their life, and how they are able to impact a real life or a person’s lives, I think that’s where we can measure our true worth and our true impact, right. So we will always have the challenge of those who will just come to just get their degree and leave and not want to do more, or be engaged more. But I think that’s one of the major challenges. And then now in a era where you find social media is, is the in thing. And, of course, using all these different platforms that takes away from our time or attention and focus. So you’ll find that, you know, student’s attention span is so much more shorter, right, that you need to get those chunks of information fast to them, in order for them to get it otherwise, they just lose focus, and they go, they go elsewhere. It also, that’s another challenge that, you know, we would have always have competing interests for. And our, you know, every one or two children will be strapped for, for finances at some point in time. So you always have that time manager as well. And when you’re when you’re looking at the toss up between how much support do you? Or how much funding do you provide for the support aspect for students? You know, and can we really quantify that truly, you know, impact that we could have in for those things, there’s so much more intangible than than putting into dollar figure. I think that’s where the challenges will, will lie. And in our Student Affairs profession, where you find that you give so much and so much of what we do as a student affairs professionals, and measured and in a tangible way, and it just I think it kind of, you know, you can I can quantify that feeling or that, you know, where student reaches to the point where they, they, they are at the point of giving up and not wanting to continue the program to the point where, you know, you just have this one conversation that they felt so comfortable with, and they say, You know what, I’ll continue on, I’ll push through. And you know, they get to graduate at the end, you can’t quantify those kinds of feelings and relationships and those kinds of things. I think that’s where we make the greatest impact as student affairs professionals, because of all the different areas that we are able to impact students and the smaller, finer things that would not necessarily be part of what we discuss in our classroom. So like the cultural impact the diverse nature of how we interact with each other’s these, you know, misconceptions that, you know, we could we can fill in the gaps and make life more worthwhile.
Lixing Li 23:30
Yes, absolutely. Thank you, for your sharing to us. Before we wrap up, what are your upcoming plans ance after receiving this membership award? And how ACPA and our commission could support you?
Sarika Moonian 23:45
Well, that’s interesting, because, I mean, I never thought I would have actually won the scholarship. We are because we are a small institution. You know, it’s always difficult for us to be part of the conferences that we have, but I mean, I look forward at least attend the conference and the future so that I can meet up with somebody you love the people understand different cultures, different experience different parts of the world, and, and also to be able to impact the commission by whether it is the provider a session like this, or even present in the future, you know, have in my own segments or whatnot. Yeah.
Lixing Li 24:33
Thank you.
Sarika Moonian 24:34
Thank you so much for the opportunity and to be here and continue to be part of a larger network of ACP.
Lixing Li 24:42
Sure. Thank you. So I have one last question that we are always asking our guest speakers. The question is what is one piece of advice you will share with our audience who is currently working or will be working with a population with diverse backgrounds in the multicultural world,
Sarika Moonian 25:02
One piece of advice is to stay positive. Because we will always encounter challenges no matter where we go or where we where we land up, whether it be one part of the world or the next, right. So we will always encounter challenges. So always be positive, and try to find ways in which we could continue to support even if it’s just one person at a time. And I think that’s where we will make a difference.
Lixing Li 25:33
I love that stay positive, just like the lime right? The good vibe, the positive vibe. I love that. Thank you so much again, for taking the time to join us. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors both in your work and your personal life. Thank you so much.
Sarika Moonian 25:51
Thank you. Bye.
Recent Comments