The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

70 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT Alternatively, Foreign Service and Third Culture Kids may be perceived as more interesting than the average college student. Pettit was surprised by a less diversified system than she expected. “I found people, especially minorities on cam- pus, to be much more conscious of their differences and, as a result, more segregated. Black students tended to group together, Asians grouped togeth- er, and Hispanics grouped together. A lot of clubs of different minorities might detract from diversity more than promote it.” “I feel I understand racial differ- ences and cultures better than the average American,” acknowledges Katia Miller. “Everyone has his or her own belief, own tradition, and I’ve learned more about that overseas.” • You may end up hanging out with other TCKs and internation- al students. FS kids and TCKs often feel most comfortable with the kinds of people they went to high school with: international kids, for the most part. Mark Mozur says, “I found kids I could relate to through the Inter- national Club. I ended up hanging out mostly with Polish kids because Poland was where I had lived before coming to Harvard.” “Search out the international kids,” advises Steve Catt. “Like us, they are also having some difficulty adjusting and will love that you reach out to them. You will find they are probably more compatible with you than other Americans.” Ben Harburg, a senior at Tufts University who grew up in Spain and Switzerland, as well as in the States, reflects, “I’ve ended up feeling equal- Continued from page 70