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How do you picture college? Is there a grand quad where countless students sit and study? Are there enormous lecture halls where there will be terrifying exams? Yes and no! College is big (UMass is huge!), but it is not too big or too scary. Some of you may be the first in your family to attend college, just like Lizet from Make Your Home Among Strangers. However, you will fit right in among the student-filled lecture halls and the expansive green lawns.

First-generation college students face an endeavor that is not always easy, and sometimes it may truly be a challenge. To be the single family member taking on a higher education may expose students to stigma, guilt, and anxieties about college. Finding one’s footing in a new culture and environment can be difficult enough, but what if you are unsure of what to expect or you do not want to leave your family behind? UMass’s Center for Counseling and Psychological Health offers resources for stress, anxiety, and all your woes, while support and resources are offered for first-generation college students as well. Furthermore, students’ backgrounds may vary, but everyone has come to college to be a part of something bigger than themselves. The shared experience is a gift and opportunity; this is our common ground, we will use it to learn from, support, and engage each other.

UMass takes pride in its initiatives for inclusiveness and while finding your niche or adjusting may take time, there is definitely a place for you here. With a wide range of events, clubs, and educational opportunities, there are places to express how you are unique and connect over how you are similar. Perhaps you may not be sure how to picture college right now or how to feel about it. Hopefully, one day when asked how you picture college, your answer will have become that college is like home. There are plenty of strangers here to make your home among, but plenty of spaces for openness, discussion, and resolution to problems.  

At one point in Make Your Home Among Strangers, Lizet references Rawlings as the “foreign college world.” This description evokes ideas of a place one knows little about, a strange place where the culture may not make sense at first. All first years are coming to college with different backgrounds, but college is “foreign” to each and every one of them. Do not worry, everyone around you will be new to this.

Attending college is a major change in routine. College is structured distinctly from high school; meeting people, getting help, and taking classes will be quite different from what you are used to. During Lizet’s first year at Rawlings College she struggled in the transition, not knowing how to get an internship, having trouble making friends, and being unaware of helpful groups or organizations on campus. Facing difficulties is entirely normal; there will be bumps on the road. However, with the Common Read, the goal is to enable a smooth transition into college. After reading Make Your Home Among Strangers, you will be aware of potential challenges you may face in this big move. Luckily, UMass has the staff, resources, and organizations that will help the whole way.

In the book, Lizet has a tough time fitting in and finding her niche on campus. Early on she abandons participating in the Diversity Affairs event. The diversity initiatives at UMass offer extensive support, events, and cultural safe spaces to help you learn and get settled into the community. Later, Lizet had difficulties managing her workload before finding the study group she joined. Luckily, at UMass there are numerous tutoring resources, such as the Writing Center, to help you get all of your college-level work done. For every other hobby or interest, there is a vast network of student and university organizations to help you get involved.

College is a journey that nobody should have to go alone. Lizet tried this at first and it was an uphill battle. The Common Read is meant to function as a guide, not so much a do’s and don’t’s, but it can work as a foundation for thinking about how to approach this enormous transition in your life. There are support systems in every community, organization, and resource on campus. They will not all be right for you, but in the big “foreign college world” there is bound to be a right fit that will lead you to success – you just need to find it.

Make Your Home Among Strangers, this year’s Common Read, offers the reader a bit of friendly advice. This title urges the reader to take an opportunity to open their life up, to get to know people, and reach outside their comfort zone. Who are these strangers? These are the people you’ll enter college with, meet, and even live with! College is a step into the unknown, which we assure you, is not as scary as it sounds. To go to college is to make your home among strangers, it is to start a new stage of your life.

The urging tone of the title suggests taking a profound leap of faith or a journey into the unfamiliar. The title, of course, is derived from Lizet’s story, but is based in a universally applicable idea: we could all gain something from living with people we do not know, in a place that is foreign to us. At the beginning of my first year at UMass, I was hesitant to live in a dorm, to put myself out there and share a space with countless other people that I did not even know. To this day many of the people living in my hall, who were once strangers, are my closest friends. I did not come from a place unlike UMass or from particularly far away, meaning this transition was not a total culture shock. However, the advice that Jennine Capo Crucet relays in her title still rang true. Everyone stands to benefit from immersing themselves in new communities because such environments are conducive to learning and meeting new people. Plus, it’s a ton of fun!

Then, you may wonder, why does Lizet struggle with her experience at Rawlings College? Her difficulties would make this advice seem like a generally bad idea, but she did press on through challenges to accomplish her goals. Lizet did eventually proceed to graduate school, an option that you all will have as well. The idea is not that living with strangers instantly improves your life. Wouldn’t that be nice? What Jennine Capo Crucet is trying to convey is that there is more out there than what you already know, especially in this context, where college will open your eyes to communities and ideas you may have never heard of.

Written by Daniel Beckley, a recent graduate of UMass Amherst with a degree in English, Communication, and Public Policy.

Going to college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has its perks; you have access to award-winning dining, your library is larger than most, and you have a vast, beautiful campus to explore. So, where does the Common Read fit into all of this? The Common Read, though certainly beneficial, is more than a perk. Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capo Crucet was specifically chosen because of the value its messages have at this point in history. Every year, the Common Read Book Selection Committee chooses a book with themes and concepts that are enlightening and helpful to think about and discuss. Make Your Home Among Strangers was chosen because it deals with topics such as first-generation college students, diversity on campus, and home and belonging, among others. The emotional and eye-opening tale built with these concepts will be a valuable tool for thinking about your future at college and initiating dialogues with the people around you.

In Make Your Home Among Strangers, the protagonist, Lizet gains the opportunity of a lifetime when she is accepted to the elite Rawlings College. Lizet, a Miami area Cuban-American daughter of divorced immigrant parents, is the first in her family to attend college. She feels out of place at times in her new college environment. Many social, cultural, and political issues arise in this dramatic situation and working to understand them will help readers consider similar issues in the world and at UMass. Firstly, the issue of home and belonging is one that all incoming first-years will have to face. For many of you this will be your first time living away from home. Thinking about what home is and what that means may very well help you find a new place of belonging on campus. Another of the themes most significant to the plot is college students who are the first in their family to attend institutions of higher education. Diversity on campus is a theme worth thinking about because, at UMass, you will be surrounded by people from all walks of life. You will be attending a university of over 28,000 students – 5,500 of whom are in your class alone! There will be a ton to learn from people who are from an array of communities all with different experiences.

After reading Make Your Home Among Strangers, and even after meeting the author when she visits campus in the fall, you and all of the other incoming first-year students will proceed forward with big ideas and open minds. The Common Read is meant to facilitate a good education and becoming part of a community. Sharing an experience, such as this, together is the perfect way to do this! The Common Read programs offers a special opportunity to have common ground with all of the folks around you and, thus, eases building friendships, brings a sense of community, and establishes inclusiveness.

Written by Daniel Beckley, a senior at Umass Amherst, studying English, Communication, and Public Policy.

Incoming first-year and transfer students will join their peers in reading Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet. This is the sixth year of the Common Read program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Make Your Home Among Strangers was selected by over 240 students, faculty and staff.

Growing up, the dinner table was always a source of joy and connection with my family. The beautiful aromas of traditional indian cuisine mixed with the detailed recountings of one another’s days created a comforting and care-free atmosphere in my home. Stuffed with food, I often would not be able to finish my plate when my father would say “You must finish! There are starving children in India who would walk miles for the morsel that you are giving up!” “Send this to them!” I’d reply, not understanding the significance of not consuming a bit of food that seemed plentiful. I should mention that I grew up in a suburb of Massachusetts, a small state on the east coast of the United States, which is the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, filled with overwhelming abundance and prosperity. The quarrel that would ensue between my parents and I at the dinner table led me to think about those hungry children in India, and what dinner time would be like in the rural village of Madurai where my father grew up.

Raised in an underdeveloped region with scarce access to vital resources such as clean drinking water, proper nourishment, and adequate medical facilities, everyday life was a challenge for him and his family. Contrary to my meal time conversations of feeling “too full to ever eat again”, my father recounted many a night huddled close to his siblings and sharing a meal on a large banana leaf, excitedly discussing farfetched plans of moving to America where “there is so much food that you never feel hungry” and “there is so much money that nobody is unhappy”. These claims may seem outlandish and unrealistic to those who have grown up in America, who know that though there is lavish wealth, there is still widespread poverty, hunger, and mental illness that plagues millions of American citizens. However despite the numerous issues that Americans face, the nation’s founding principles of freedom of speech, religion, press etc., though no longer unique to the US, still transcend throughout the globe the image of America as a kind of “promise land” where happiness and affluence are guaranteed.

Similar to my parents’ realizations of the inaccuracy of such an image upon their arrival to the US, Rais Bhuiyan experiences the unfortunate truth that just like anywhere else, life in America entails perseverance, sacrifice, and determination in order to succeed. His unyielding strength in the face of such immense hindrances as his shooting and partial blindness did not deter him from achieving success; in hindsight it was this very injury that led him to embark on a humanitarian mission that has inspired people all around the world to seek empathy and tolerance towards their fellow human beings.

Bala Sivaraman is a junior at UMass Amherst majoring in communication.

What does it mean to forgive? To accept someone’s apology, to rectify any harmful sentiments made to them, or to exonerate one’s wrongdoing? Forgiveness can be expressed in various ways, each with varying levels of sincerity and intent. Children are taught to “forgive and forget” in order to move passed a disagreement, however this kind of practice as a form of conflict resolution is relatively ineffective when employed to prevent future disputes. Rather than forgetting, it is best to make an effort to understand the motivations behind one’s acts. By setting aside anger and frustration for investigation, one can empathize with another and even relate to him or her. This is the path that Rais follows after being shot by Mark Stroman, and his journey of forgiveness and understanding leads him to becoming connected with Stroman in numerous unprecedented ways.

Rais’ initial reaction after being injured was one of confusion. He simply could not fathom why he had been hurt, only to soon come to the realization that he was just one of the victims of a shooting spree at the hands of an angry and fearful man. Though his shooter was portrayed as a monstrous, racist fiend, Rais did not let this public perception deter him from learning about the troubled man behind such heinous actions. Learning about Stroman’s difficult childhood of being neglected by his mother, who told him repeatedly that he would have been aborted if she could have afforded the operation, Rais began to understand how such a lack of parental support led to Stroman’s turn to crime as a means of deriving attention and worth.

Without positive role models to aspire to, Stroman found himself abusing drugs and burglarizing at an early age, only to be sent to prison, where his solitary confinement did nothing but fester his emotional issues. Rais, having grown up in a loving family and attending a highly regimented military school in Bangladesh, did not develop in the same environment as his shooter. However what the both of these men have in common is a strong sense of loneliness; Stroman has no healthy familial connections, and Rais is left to fend for himself in a completely foreign country. Such autonomy often fosters a sense of worthlessness due to the failure to find a group of people to connect with. Rais’ utilized this common experience with Stroman to unearth the scared, insecure, and unloved man who desperately needed an ally to save his emotional wellbeing. Through his campaign to get Stroman off of his death row sentence, Rais became the ally Stroman needed, and it is because of his forgiveness that Stroman denounced his actions as the product of hate and intolerance, urging humanity to seek understanding in each other above all else.

– Bala Sivaraman is a junior at UMass Amherst majoring in communications.

Listen to the author of True American discuss his book and the difficult journeys that the people in it faced on an NPR segment titled “Post-Sept. 11 Hate Crime Reveals a ‘Hurting’ America.”

View the whole story here