Asian Leaders
y 24, 2023
hwchronicle.com/features
dents of all marginalized identities but being able to advocate for Asian students from an Asian perspective is powerful. Also, Melody Lee became the Upper School Department Head of Science [this year].” Beyond the school community, Junior Prefect Nyla Shelton ’24 said she has observed increased Asian representation in the media. “This is an especially unique time with everyone watching Asian leaders blossom and become really popular among Generation Z and in the youth, and I feel like that’s really great,” Shelton said. “I’m always excited to see if there’s a new movie with Asian representation. I do have specific Vietnamese actors that I really love and resonate with and seeing them come into the spotlight is always great.” Shelton said she has learned to embrace her Asian American identity more in leadership roles. “Going to this school, I’ve definitely grown more confident with my identity and gotten more involved with the ASiA affinity group,” Shelton said. “In the sense of my leadership experience, not only do I own that as a larger part of my identity, but I also think I am innately more aware, or I try to be more conscious of decisions that Prefect Council makes and how to be as inclusive as possible. I am very consciously aware of what initiatives we’re doing and how best to make other students around feel comfortable just because of my experience as an Asian American.”
Multiethnic Inclusion x Diversity Club (MIxD) leader and SLIDE member Nilufer Mistry Sheasby ’24, who is South Asian, said she feels that there is less understa nding of South Asian culture than of East Asian culture within the c o m m u n i t y. “The biggest distinction between East Asian and South Asian culture is that East Asian culture has very much become something that’s super celebrated, and I think has almost become cool or trendy and the status quo right now, whereas you don’t see that same thing with South Asian culture,” Mistry Sheasby said. “I feel like it’s relatively unknown. It’s not as explored, and it doesn’t get as much airtime.” Mistry Sheasby said she recognizes a lack of diversity among faculty and staff, which she said has made exploring her South Asian identity more difficult. “There are very few South Asian faculty at the Upper School, which makes it a little bit hard to touch base with people about what I’ve e x p e r i e n c e d ,” Mistry Sheasby said. “When I encounter leadership struggles, I’ll usually go to my mom because she’s a South Asian woman, but I can’t think of anyone else at the school who I could really go to and would just understand what I’ve been through and what the challenges are. Even with the counseling team, it’s really hard, because sometimes when leadership struggles come
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up, and I try to explain them, ty,” Mistry Sheasby said. “There is there are not a lot of real ways to an expectation to excel and to sucput that into words to make peo- ceed and that’s just the norm. For a ple who aren’t part of the South lot of white individuals, even at this Asian community understand and elite school, to gain respect amongst not have it become super tricky.” their peers, you want to be likable, Mistry Sheasby said she you want to be cool and you want does not learn about Asian to be trendy, but for Asians, there leadership in her classes. is one added level that [you have “I don’t think we really talked to be] smart. It’s just a default, and a lot about Asian leaders in class this is perpetuated by whites and [whether they be] East or South your Asian peers. If you’re Asian, Asian,” Mistry Sheasby said. “East if you want to be one of the cool Asian culture is Asians, you gotta be often commodigetting straight A’s, fied, and the stoyou gotta be in all the It’s just one more best classes and you ries behind it are usually ignored. box that you have to gotta be achieving evThere’s definitecheck that your white erything and doing it ly an element of at a high level. It’s just peers don’t have to one more box that both East Asians check.” you have to check and South Asians really struggling a that your white peers — Nilufer Mistry don’t have to check.” lot with culture.” Sheasby ’24 Mistry Sheasby Incoming Senior said people should Prefect Elizabeth be more aware of Johnstone ’24 said the pressure on the Asian Amer- the large and diverse Asian student ican community at the school presence at the school helps to chaland how it affects leadership. lenge the model minority myth. “The election of four Asian Se“At a school like Harvard-Westnior Prefects really says a lot about lake, it’s great that we have such a our school environment and our big Asian population to disprove the school community and about how [model minority] myth, because you far we’ve come in terms of looking see different types of people doing a beyond differences in race and eth- bunch of different activities, from all nicity,” Miswalks of life and try Sheasby all doing difsaid. “It’s suferent things,” per exciting, Johnstone but it also said. “Expodoes say a lot sure to a bunch about someof different thing that we Asian Amerihaven’t really cans helps to fixed for East disprove the Asians and model miSouth Asians nority myth.” alike, which Johnstone is just really said she bea crippling, lieves that the over whelmschool is effecing level of tively promotp r e s s u r e .” ing Asian repM i s t r y resentation. Sheasby said “ A s i a n there are Americans still more expechave a long way tations for all to go, but at Asian students Harvard-Westto be more lake, we do a h ig h-ach ie vreally good job ing in the comwith represenmunity due to the model minority tation,” Johnstone said. “Because myth — the expectation for certain Asians and Asian Americans are a minorities, like Asians, to excel so- pretty big minority, it’s quite difficioeconomically, according to NPR. cult, when you’ve got so many people “The model minority myth is who identify as Asian in a communiperpetuated not just by whites, but ty, not to have some Asian leaders at also people in the Asian communi- some point, which is a good thing.”
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