Five student panelists took up the daunting challenge of presenting their identities in five minutes at Collis Commonground last night.
Chien Wen Kung '04, Zosia Krusberg '04, Yovany Jerez '03, Karim Marshall '03 and Brian Delgado '04 discussed their diverging conceptions of identity as Dartmouth students with the audience upon the conclusion of their speeches.
The premise of the event was to spur out-of-classroom intellectual stimulation and foster communication between people and organizations.
Kung downplayed his identity as an international student, as an Asian, as a Singaporian and as a male. Instead, he claimed humanity.
He referred to himself as "the blank slate upon which a genuinely human identity" could be formed.
Krusberg focused on the concept of time at Dartmouth -- and the lack of it -- as an identity-shaper.
"Dartmouth time is about filling out the little boxes in your calendar," Krusberg said, quoting a friend.
Krusberg criticized what she saw as the "intellectual attitude" of Dartmouth: "We figure out exactly what we need to do to get by."
She said that Dartmouth students are "little ants ... but we are not thinkers, and we are not Nobel Prize winners."
The subsequent three speakers focused on identity in terms of nationality and race.
Cuban-born Jerez said that he "didn't even know what it meant to be a Latino until I came here."
The early conceptions of his identity primarily consisted of other peoples' impressions of him, Jerez said.
"Most people looked at me, and saw nothing else but very Cuban."
As one of the few individuals in the United States born and raised in Cuba, Jerez questions the conception of Cuban identity.
"How many Cubans have you seen? What are you comparing me to? Are you comparing me to Fidel?" he said.
"There are many different identities that you uphold as a human being," he concluded. "I will never be 100 percent Cuban, never be 100 percent American, never be 100 percent Latino, never be 100 percent -- what's the word I'm looking for? Male? Man?"
While Jerez's Latino identity developed later in his life, Marshall felt very secure with his identity at a young age.
"One of the benefits in growing up in a totally homogenous environment is that it's really easy to solidify your identity," the Washington D.C. native said.
Marshall is active in diversity initiatives as a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha and a member of the Diversity Affairs Committee, a division of the Student Assembly.
"Trying to get people to look at one another without the stigma of race" is Marshall's goal.
Delgado was forced to confront this stigma upon coming to Dartmouth; the population at his high school on the East side was primarily "Jewish, Italian and white." Delgado estimated that he was the only Latino.
"'Are you really Latino?'" Delgado said he has been asked in the past. "'Your experiences don't match ours,' or 'you act too white.'"
City born and bred, Delgado "never felt that there was a need to leave New York," and identifies with that city because of its cosmopolitan mix.
"So, for 130,000 dollars, I have learned that identity is a fluid thing, and although we all may have the same base, we all have different kinds of frosting," Marshall concluded.
Graduating seniors Marshall and Jerez both praised Dartmouth and the role that it has played in the shaping of their identities.
"For all its faults, I wouldn't have gone to any other school," Marshall said.
The event was sponsored by the Dartmouth Asian Organization and the International Student Association.
