Interviewer: Elizabeth Piumetti
Interviewee: Jake Kuwata
In a class that discusses community development, it’s important that we understand people in a deeper way and learn about their identities and their feelings on belonging. Therefore, what better way to explore this topic than with a fellow classmate of mine. I had the privilege of getting to know Jake Kuwata and more about his attitudes towards belonging, especially during his time at ASU.
Jake is a current ASU student who is studying Tourism Development and Management with an emphasis on hotel leadership. With this degree, he plans to pursue a masters online and work his way up through the hotel industry to become a general manager; Four Seasons is the hotel chain of choice but he’s willing to be flexible and take opportunities as they come.
When it comes to the dimensions of identity that he feels impacts his identity the most is his ADD diagnosis. For Jake, having this diagnosis does affect the way that he interacts with others and how he views the world. For instance, speaking with others creates a challenge in that the disorder does cause a lack of focus and can lead to varying thought patterns; therefore causing him to take those extra steps to truly listen and have that attention on others. It’s a disorder that can’t be turned off whenever possible and it’s one that he has had to learn how to navigate with his whole life. As one with a suspected diagnosis, I understand the struggles he described and felt validated in my own experiences as this does change the way we view the world and those surrounding us. Relationships are formed with a bit more difficulty and it requires us to find those with common interests in order for a connection to occur.
However, another dimension that Jake brought up was his Japanese ancestry and this dimension has allowed him to have a positive experience with ASU that makes him feel like he belongs. First of all, ASU has a multicultural center where it’s a safe space for those in minority groups and is an area that has allowed Jake to visit and feel comfortable when on campus. In addition, his ethnicity has allowed him to connect with other Asian students on campus because of that similar connection of culture. Even if they come from varying backgrounds, they have similar views on how to treat others, elderly, school, etc, so it creates a connection based on culture. While he did mention that ASU could do better about the attitudes people have towards those differences, he does admit that for the most part, ASU is doing a good job of creating that inclusive environment. When asked if he feels his beliefs align with ASU’s, he agreed and believed that it is a good thing that ASU does try to build a solid school with varying backgrounds. As an institution, ASU does work to promote diversity in creating an innovative school and he does believe that this line of thinking is similar to beliefs that education should be available to a diverse group of people.
(Photo of ASU's Multicultural Center)
When asked about what people need to know about him in order to feel more accepted and welcomed, Jake brought up that there’s more to an individual than what they see on the surface. From an exterior glance, one would see his physical identity dimensions and his initial shyness but there’s more to him than that. We actually spoke in great detail about how people aren’t only bound by their surface level identity dimensions but that there can be other communities that they are a part of. For instance, we both found a common ground in anime and gaming and we discussed how those are communities we are a part of but wouldn’t be shown immediately to someone unless a more in depth conversation happened. The idea is that there's more to him than what is superficially shown and in order to bring out that comfortability, Jake wants individuals to not judge a book by its cover and actually get to know the person underneath.
At the moment, Jake is a part of the Tourism Student Association where he attends the varying meetings and events that they host. Being a part of this organization has pushed him to go out of his comfort shell and meet other people, ranging from other students to important figures in the tourism field. Despite being a shy individual, these events have allowed him to network and put his foot in the door, creating a presence in the field that he’s wishing to work in the future. The hope from attending these meetings is being able to create a connection with individuals that forge relationships he may need in the future. Beyond this, he does plan on pursuing a master’s at ASU, allowing him to have more of a voice at the school.
While he does attend in person classes, Jake also feels the lack of opportunities that are available for online students. When an individual is able to be integrated into a community, they are able to fulfill those relationship needs and are reported to have higher levels of mental and physical health. On the flip side, when individuals don’t have that strong sense of community, they run the risk of lower mental and physical health as they don’t fulfill those hierarchical needs (Sharpe et al, 2016). In the case of school and ASU specifically, some benefits of belonging in the community is creating relationships with other students and having the opportunity to network with higher ranked individuals in their future. From this, it creates a sense of pride to be a part of ASU and one wants to pursue more avenues with the organization. However, when one isn’t allowed to be a part of the organization, it runs the risk of that individual not feeling like they are a part of it and they lack that deep connection and belonging.
For ASU, they are incredibly struggling with this in the online department and that’s where most of the barriers Jake and I noticed came from. As primarily online students, there are many barriers that we face in order to be integrated into ASU. We actually had a lengthy conversation where many events at ASU are for in person students only and that many students have complained about not being able to be a part of research organizations because they are only available to in person students. Clubs and organizations are also a good significant indicator of this as many will have events that cater to those who live in the Phoenix area. And we also noticed that some events that had online options were limited to specific time frames that require to be on at that time or they can’t make it, which defeats the idea of online classes being flexible to one’s schedule. The focus on in person classes hinders the development of online students and is a huge barrier.
When discussing what ASU can do to be more inclusive to online students, we discussed that there should be more opportunities open for online students to pursue. For example, have more research and networking events that online students can attend and will be mindful of their flexible schedule. Moving further than that, we also brought up the issue of classes and how we feel that at least classes in the Tourism major don’t allow for discussions between classmates to occur. Jake mentioned that he enjoys in person classes because he has the ability to see and interact with the professor along with other students in the room. It’s easier to see the body language an individual has and more discussions are facilitated in a classroom setting than an online one. The problem that comes with online classes is that, since one can’t make personal connections with others, it becomes difficult to be able to engage in conversation in discussion boards. Though it would be incredibly hard and would require delicate handling, one way that ASU can improve on this is figure out what types of discussions students prefer and ask questions that allow for different perspectives to shine through. Of course, this would need to be handled with care so people feel comfortable sharing their perspectives but it would allow for more deep conversations and discussions that can penetrate the ice surrounding belonging.
Overall, speaking with Jake was a blast and I absolutely enjoyed being able to have the conversation with him on these topics alongside other interests we had. I got to learn a lot about how he views identity and issues surrounding ASU when it comes to the inclusion of online students. He was able to provide insight that I wouldn't have gotten from only my experience so it was absolutely wonderful.
(Screenshot of how long our conversation was. Since discord is an easier platform to use for communication, we decided to use that, which is why the names are displayed differently)
(A photo of us saying hello to the camera!)