Existence Of Asian-American Students

Introduction In this project, I will be going over research behind the underlying reasons why there is a large, disproportionate influx of Asian-American students choosing to pursue majors within the STEM fields. Could this observation be a result of parental pressure, culture factors, or something unique about the experiences of the individuals? It may honestly be a result of all these factors combined.
Data Collection and Method For this project, I had interviewed three second-generation Asian-American students whose studies currently coincide within the STEM fields. All of these interviewee subjects are quite unique, definitely come from very different backgrounds; Yet all carry with them different experiences they had been a part of …show more content…
One feature is that their ethnic values and cultural practices are still practiced and maintained in their homes. A question brought up within these interviews regarded this feature, all of of the subjects shared a few similarities. Within their families they did adopt certain nuances and values that can be described as “American” while still holding onto their own culture. Eric Liu is capable of speaking Mandarin, while Angelica Paguyo can speak two Filipino dialects (Ilocano and Tagalog). Bryan Dosono cannot speak, but can comprehend and understand Ilocano. Also within all of these interviewee subjects, they maintained the concepts of family and education as being of great importance. Angelica says, “Family oriented and giving back are also one of the big values that i have learned. we always put family first. they also taught me a lot about giving back. although we aren't rich, my family found ways to give back to our family left in the philippines. we were taught to share our graces.” Education is also stressed in order to find a job that offers stability and security as well as enough money to live a comfortable life. This stems from their parents not wanting their children to be losers, find success, and so that their immigration to the United States was not a waste of time. But an interesting thing that I found within all of …show more content…
This mindset is the belief that improvement in academics can occur as a result of simply putting more effort and actually trying. As a kid, Eric Liu’s mother could qualify as a minor tiger-parent for pushing her son to do well in not just academics, but to be excellent overall by enrolling him in various martial arts and teaching him the piano. When he would get piano chords wrong, his mother would slap his hands instilling discipline within him showing the true marks of Asian parenting. Similar with Angelica Paguyo, who as a kid, would sit down with her mother and do homework daily. But as she gradually grew older, this had eventually stopped in the sense that her mother wanted Angelica to be more independent, self-reliant, and to learn the skill of how to solve problems on her own. Of course, she would get help if she didn’t know the answer. This is similar with Eric Liu and his family. Both of their parents would eventually not be as directly involved with their children’s academics, but will still check up on them and show concern had they not gotten any A’s. But both of these individuals did notice that their parents felt as happy as long as they knew they were putting their best effort in and performing to the best of their abilities. Bryan Dosono, on the other hand, was a different