Andrew Chien

Andrew Chien grew up all his life in Saratoga, California, a 25 minute drive away from Stanford. Both of his parents are engineers immigrated to the United States from Taiwan. As a result, many of his interests lie in science and math. However, he also find other subjects interesting, such as economics and philosophy. Outside of academics, Andrew enjoys playing cello, Ultimate Frisbee, and solving puzzles. For his research, Andrew is looking at video advertising online and comparing it to television advertising, and looking into the traits that make a video advertisement successful. He will be looking at the broader contexts of word-of-mouth advertising and culture on the Internet.

Lo Min Ming

Hello! Glad you found your way here to check us out! I am Lo Min Ming, currently an undergraduate freshman in Stanford University. I am born from Singapore and have been living there for over 20 years until I come here. I have great passion in technology stuff, such as software and web development, and also in design aspects, such as digital abstract and 3D designs. Check out my portfolio at http://www.minming.net!
I am current doing my research on gaming cultures, specifically how gaming has evolved to be more than just a game, but a revolutionary culture on its own that are not only part of our lifestyle, but also a platform that crosses to our other social, entertainment and intellectual needs. I am specifically looking at these areas, from how online gaming community has exploded (XBOX Live), thus leading to various implications – allowing gaming without borders (essentially, gamers worldwide to communicate and play games together), crossing to our other entertainment needs (renting and watching movies from game consoles, playing gaming move tie-ins, etc) and part of our intellectual needs (gaming used as war training, helping us to understand society better, books on game’s storyline, etc).

Sophie Theis

My name is Sophie Theis, and I’m 18 years old. A freshman at Stanford, (finally) outside of the rigid requirements of high school and able for the first time to independently choose my course of study, two of the classes I settled on are particularly reflective.

I’ve been engaged in some form of art for pretty much my entire life, but now shifting from doing it to learning about it in my European modernism course has opened to me a really neat new perspective. Spanish is another subject I’ve pursued in and out of the classroom with a nearly lifelong passion; I have traveled a good deal in the Spanish speaking world, stocked my music library with almost a majority of songs in Spanish, and been absorbed by the Spanish speaking world, which appeals to me in part because of the unity across country borders of people who speak the language.

Yet the nature of the rhetoric of the literature of these programs creates discrepancies between the expectations and the actual experiences. Supposed to be liberating, meaningful, and authentic, the very nature of having pre-planned and pre-coded experiences jeopardizes the independence of the traveler’s perceptions and undermines their initial expectations regarding travel, public service, and good character.

Carlos Arellano

Carlos Arellano is a first year, prospective Economics major at the fine institution of Stanford University. If he is not spotted riding his vibrant pink skateboard throughout this magnificent campus, he can frequently be found in the weight room, or playing a pick up game of basketball on the nearby courts—as these activities, along with various other sports, are some of his passions. In High School, Carlos was named the salutatorian of his graduating class and this honor complimented several other awards. The College Board of education recognized Carlos as a distinguished AP Scholar, he held leadership amongst organizations such as student government, NHS, CSF, SHS, and he presided as president of the Puente Program, which is sponsored by the University of California system. His academics accomplishments were key in the scholarship application process, and they are the reason he attends Stanford on virtually a full ride. He hopes that by the end of his first quarter he can further understand how advertisements can be tailored to appeal to certain audiences in distinct environments. Furthermore, his specific research on Michael Jordan’s superstardom as a mechanism to promote sales for “Jumpman” industries is the basis for his final paper, in which he argues how this selling of celebrity status ultimately pollutes the genuine passions found in athletics.

Elliot Babchick

Elliot Babchick is a freshman at Stanford University, pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Science, Technology, and Society, hoping to satisfy most of the components of the major with management science and engineering, computer science, and physics courses. Born and raised in Florida, Elliot has spent his past three summers participating in drum and bugle corps from around the country, and hopes to continue participating in upcoming summers.

For his PWR1 class, Elliot decided to take a closer at his favorite pastime: procrastinating by surfing the web, particularly on YouTube and social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us. He realized that a lot of what he was seeing was somehow marketing a product right under his very eyes, and wondered how this was affecting him as a consumer compared to the way a traditional TV or magazine ad might. This led him to his current research topic, viral marketing, particularly in the form of viral video, and how it, with the help of the internet, is becoming the weapon-of-choice for advertisers to reach the upcoming generation of tech-savvy young adults, redefining the relationship between consumer and advertiser and also testing the boundaries of cultural sensitivity as ads are spread across borders with the click of a button in the “word-of-mouse” arena that is the world wide web.

Katherine Heflin

My name is Katherine Heflin, and I was born on December 15, 1988. I enjoy discussing politics, rowing lightweight (130lb. and under), and eating ice cream. My career aspiration is become a political advisor, and additionally it would be fun to make the lightweight national rowing team. I enjoy many types of music, although a few of my favorite bands include Queen, R.E.M., Sublime, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Cranberries.

My education history includes private elementary and middle school in my hometown, Topeka, Kansas, followed by attending boarding school for all four years of high school at Choate Rosemary Hall, in Wallingford, Connecticut. I am now a freshman at Stanford, and in this class my research topic is very much of academic interest to me. It focuses on activist groups and their advertisement of the Guantanamo Bay issue while attempting to gain the attention and advocacy of the American public.

Yu Xian Lim

Yu Xian Lim is a freshman at Stanford University. He is an international student from Singapore, a country where home and warmth is. A scientist at heart, he is considering physics as a major, and research as a career. Over the past few years, he had observed from the sidelines how the Korean Wave has infected many around him. To understand a little more about what he has missed, he is now doing research (as part of his PWR1 class) on how the Korean Wave in China has advertised Korea tourism. At this time of writing, his working hypothesis is that TV dramas have presented fantasies that appeal to women of different age groups.

Date of Birth: November 24, 1989
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Political Views: Liberal
Status: Single
Ethnicity: African-American, German, Native American (Chocktaw, Cherokee, Seminole, Creek)

Favorite Music: ENGLISH Amanda Rogers, Boys Like Girls, Corinne Bailey Rae, India Arie, Jason Mraz, Justin Timberlake, Keane, The Killers, The Melee, Mutemath KOREAN Ann, Brian, Bobby Kim, Brown Eyes, Clazziquai, Drunken Tiger, Dynamic Duo, Epik High, Fly to the Sky, Outsider, Park Hyo Shin, Primary Skool, Se7en, Shinhwa, Stony Skunk, T (Tasha), The TRAX, Verbal Jint, Viva Soul, ??, YDG CHINESE Jay Chou, Wang Lee Hom, Faye Wong, JJ Lin, Edison Chen, Jolin Tsai JAPANESE Gackt, L’Arc~en~Ciel, ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, FoxxiMisQ, Gazette, HYDE, M-Flo, Miyavi, X JAPAN, Yoshiki, The Flare, Utada Hikaru, Do As Infinity

Favorite Quotes: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” “Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.”

Bio: I was born at the UCLA Medical Center at 2:27 AM on Thanksgiving 1989. The number 227 has appeared in other areas of my life, such as being the last three digits of my telephone number, first three of a relative’s SSN, the number of words in my final English in-class exam essay, and my homeroom for four years, which would lead me to believe it holds a greater significance with me. I am a Sagittarius, and although I recognize the contradictions, broad generalizations and illogical claims made in the field of astrology I find it amusing to analyze personalities and compatibility using such “information,” even to the point of giving dating advice to my friends. In addition, I believe it is essential during my life to strive to better understand the people around me in terms of psychology and culture—the factors that give individuals their personality, morals, and other perspectives. From the time I was coloring drawings of myself with an orange crayon in a small private Montessori school, to when I started listening to Gackt, Jay Chou, and Kim Bum Soo, I have been fascinated by the cultures around me but confused about the cultures within me. My favorite sport is tennis, partly because of how globally popular it is, and partly because of how much independence, grace under pressure, and finesse are valued. I come from a diverse public magnet school of about 1600 students that I have grown up with for seven years; I enter a world where my class alone surpasses 1600, but I feel as though I am forming some deeper connections than ever before at Stanford. I am truly happy to be where I am today.

Research Focus: I will be exploring the ways in which South Korean media portrays androgyny and gender role reversals, and what implications these portrayals have in Korean culture.

Katie White

My name is Katie White. I am a freshman that is unsure of what subject I want to pursue to satisfy the major requirement. While it is likely that I will want to study English or Journalism, I want to take many more classes before I decide on my major. I hope to pursue a masters degree in business administration after getting my degree at Stanford. I recently moved out of my Marin County home into the all freshman Burbank Residence in Stern Hall. For the next nine months I will live with my high-spirited roommate, Autumn. In June, I will return to my family’s home in Greenbrae to live with my parents and sixteen year old brother. I am a member of the Women’s Varsity Crew team and hope to succeed both academically and athletically at Stanford.

I am researching gender stereotypes and the negative affects of Fulla, the Muslim Barbie. Fulla was designed by New Boy Studio Design to give Muslim girls an alternative to the Barbie doll. New Boy claims that Fulla is representative of “Muslim values.” However Fulla’s scandalous clothing, heavy makeup, sexually suggestive behavior, slender frame, and domestic activities, promote promiscuity and American cultural ideas, reinforce female stereotypes, and cause young girls to have low self-esteem. My paper will be an in-depth look at these negative implications of Fulla.

Ashley Chinn

Ashley Chinn is a freshman at Stanford University originally from the small town of Belmont, California. She has one brother who is six years older than her, and a mother and a father. Her mother was born in Tawaiian but has attended school in the U.S since she was in college. Her father was born in California and has resided here his entire life. Both of her parents work in financing, as does her brother.
Since she was young, she has been involved in many sports, some of which include soccer, basketball, volleyball, and tennis. However, she soon found that her biggest passion came in playing softball. She is a pitcher and has traveled throughout the country to compete in national tournaments. She is part of the varsity softball team at Stanford and is looking forward to competing at the collegiate level.

She also loves traveling and has been very fortunate to be able to travel to so many different places in her youth. Having already visited Europe four times and Asia once, she has grown to love traveling, finding it most fascinating to see the difference in culture, custom, religion, etc… Her favorite countries outside the U.S are Italy and Switzerland. She hopes to soon visit a country in Africa to see the history and diversity of their lifestyle. In her spare time she loves to shop, spend time with her friends, go to the beach, surf, and enjoy the good ol’ California sunshine.

Ashley is planning on majoring in psychology. Her academic interests include human biology, economics and international relations. For her research project, she is exploring the rhetoric of international advertisements. She is examining a recent Louis Vuitton ad that contains Mikhail Gorbachev in front of the Berlin Wall. This advertisement uses no celebrity icon, no slender body image, and no sex appeal. Instead it uses a former Soviet leader, a historical monument, and a country’s culture to market the product. Ashley plans to argue that the fashion industry has long used sex appeal and body image to sell products to consumers but is now beginning to break away from this usage of the human body and beginning to use poignant moments of history and the beauty of our cultures to evoke a more sensitive feeling from consumers.

Steve Scheele

Steve Scheele is currently a freshman student at Stanford University. He has many academic interests including History, Political Science, Foreign Language and even Earth Science/Geology. Combining his interest for world affairs, economics and political science, he plans to major in International Relations. He is on the varsity wrestling team for Stanford and plans to wrestle in the 141 lb. weight class. He recently graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle, WA, where he graduated as a Salutatorian, four-year letterman (Wrestling) and a National Honor Society Officer. Throughout his high school career, he also was an officer in the Model UN, a debate club member and participated in an extracurricular wrestling team called Seattle Wrestling Club.

Interests:

In my free time, I enjoy a wide variety of activities. I enjoy reading and also playing video games (when I have ample time). However besides these pursuits, I primarily enjoy the outdoors. Basically any activity in the Wilderness I enjoy. I have spent my last few summers backpacking through the Lost Coast (CA), the Trinity Alps (CA), the North and South Cascades (WA), and the Goat Rock Wilderness (WA). Three years ago, I summited Mt. Shasta and attempted Mt. Baker. This past summer I summited Mt. Adams in Washington as part of a month long wilderness adventure camp. Although I rarely get the chance, I also enjoy whitewater rafting, ocean kayaking, and other water oriented activities.

Jannah Thomas

My Origin
On December 12, 1998, I was born in Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California. However, I spent my toddler years in San Luis Obispo, California. Eventually, I settled permanently in Los Angeles with my immediate family.

My Family
My mother and father live together in Los Angeles. Delightfully, my grandmother, uncles, aunts, and some extended family live in Southern California as well. I also have an older brother who lives in Hawaii, where he attended college and graduate school.

My Education and Pursuits
I received my early education at Wilton Place Elementary School. I then pursued my middle school education at Berkeley Hall school and my High school education at the Archer School for Girls. My high school was an all girls school that espoused female empowerment, intellect, and ambition. Because of my rigid schooling system, I am currently attending Stanford to pursue a science/medical and research career. The biological sciences are most riveting to me.

My Interests
My favorite topics include genetics, virology, microbiology, and cellular biology. I also enjoy biology on a macroscopic scale. For example, I will study the anatomy and physiology of the human body as well. Although I am passionate about these subjects, I also enjoy classical music and foreign languages. I revel in Chopin’s Ballade no.1, Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, and the emotional intensity of Beethoven (and Brahms, Schubert, Dvorak, Rimsky-Korsakov etc). Furthermore, I will perfect my Spanish and Chinese over the course of my college career.

Jeri Canlas is a freshman at Stanford University, originally from San Jose, California. She is a well-rounded student who finds a balance between her two passions: academics (math and sciences) and social activities (tennis, stamp collecting, traveling, and listening to music). In her first rhetoric course at this institution, Jeri hopes to polish her writing skills that she has developed in high school. Being a Stanford "Techie," Jeri's main goal is to study the math,
science, and engineering depths. However, she still seeks to maintain the fundamental skills that are essential to getting the full experience of college learning. She believes that her values and morals lie in the humanities, where she is encouraged to think critically about the world around her and to formulate opinions based on her surroundings. She hopes to convey these values to others through her writing. The PWR course that Jeri has been assigned, Cross Cultural Rhetoric in Ads and Activism, could not be more fitting to her goals and interests. Advertisements and media are aspects of Jeri's life that not only consume her, but intrigue her. In her PWR class, Jeri is focusing her research on dominant male/submissive women stereotypes as perpetuated in advertisements in the media. Magazine covers, music videos, clothing commercials, and other forms of medium feed to the perceptions that men should be tough, muscular, and dominating, and women should be skinny, sophisticated, and submissive. It is a topic of reality that Jeri is excited to research during this quarter.

Pedro Gonzales

My name is Pedro Gonzalez and I am a freshman at Stanford University. I am focused on pursuing a career in the business field, which I plan to attain through a possible degree in Sociology with a major field of study in organizations, business, and the economy. I come from a Mexican background consisting of a family of five. I have two siblings, one younger, one older; consequently, making me the middle child. I am a first generation college student, with the hopes of attaining a better lifestyle, both educationally and economically, for the future generations of my family. My Mom and Dan have played influential roles in my pursuit for a higher education and have compelled me to strive forward in order to reach my goals.
I enjoy participating in group activities and getting to meet new people. I am a sociable individual that is always willing to offer assistance to those in need; accordingly, I am also receptive to any assistance that I am offered. Playing tennis and being active in various sports captivate my interests in my goal of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

In my research, I focus on how young men and women across America have been bombarded with sexually explicit images which contribute to the formation of their attitudes and beliefs regarding sexuality. These advertisements display attractive bodies which are employed to grab attention and stimulate desire; a desire the advertisers hope will then be transferred to the product. However, the ideas associated with social gender norms are displayed through the focus that the fragrance brand has on males and females. Advertising campaigns are pushing the socially acceptable limits of sexuality in ads with a male intended audience, while ads centered towards women comply with socially standard images focused on women’s beauty and elegance rather than sexually appealing images. Sexually focused advertisements' prevalence in mainstream American culture has impacted its youth by polarizing sexually acceptable ideas; consequently, shaping young men's and women's attitudes towards confinement within the gender norms.

Abiy Teshome

I am Abiy Teshome. I was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on June 5th 1988, and have lived in Kenya since 1994. I enjoy playing soccer, reading mathematics and sleeping. I consider myself an environmentalist, a learner, an athlete, and –of course- a sleeper. My main academic interests are mathematics and economics and I am aware that I have a long way to go before I can claim to have done much in any of these fields.

My research interests are centred around gender roles in society and in particular, that of masculinity. I am currently looking at how alcohol advertising seeks to portray the “ideal man” in a certain light, thus shaping society’s views of what it means to be masculine. It is turning out to be an intellectually challenging and rewarding process. Overall, the cross-cultural rhetoric class has been an invaluable introduction into the scholarly world for me.

Yasmeen Abdul-Karim

Hi, My name is Yasmeen Abdul-Karim and I am currently in my 3rd year of undergraduate education here at Stanford University where I am majoring in Psychology with a specialization in Health and Development. I hope to go on to Medical school and pursue a career in Pediatrics or Child Psychiatry. I was originally born in Long Beach, CA, but since then I have ventured around the US living in states including Georgia, New York, Colorado, and New Jersey. I now currently reside in Houston, TX but I think I prefer Jersey as my "home". I love to hang out with friends, read, envelop myself in beautiful natural wonders, and just be happyness (I spell it wrong purposefully! lol)

I enjoy learning about culture and how they interrelate to our daily lives and our perception of ourselves. So in essence this is why I chose Cultural Interfaces as my first choice for PWR 2 (The 2nd course in the Writing and Rhetoric Program required at Stanford). I am able to see culture in a multi-faceted way from communities on the web to those right here on campus. This passion can be viewed in my research project, which focuses on Muslim youth identity here in America post 9/11 and the struggle that has emerged to balance American and Islamic identity with a focus on the way media and press has been used to project misconceptions that can be misconstrued to demonize an entire faith, an entire people (you can read my blogpost on my topic here). I think that it's just so wonderful how the world is made up of cultures and subcultures; the appreciation of them will I believe lead to a better understanding of one another and the characteristics that make us truly unique.

Lleyana Jack

If you hadn’t guessed it already, that’s me surrounded by the red circle. It is a picture of my friends and I at a school dance and it pretty much illustrates two key things about me. 1) I like to socialize and 2) I like to dance. Very simple. So simple in fact that, if you search for Lleyana J on facebook, you will find a picture of me (of course) and only 3 things listed under interests: Languages, Dance, and People.

In regards to dance, I am just a normal person with an abnormal obsession with any and every kind of dance. Unfortunately, I was never involved in any kind of dance as a child, so I am by no means an expert on the subject. Just think of me as an aficionada of sorts. Some like to joke that my love for dance stems from the fact that I am West Indian, that dancing is in my blood. After living for years in Michigan, my Trinidadian accent is gone, but my love for dance is still there, so maybe they are right.

My love of socializing didn’t leave either, though I don’t know if it is called socializing when you’re eleven. Maybe talkative is a better word, and I have been talkative for as long as I can remember (This is somewhat apparent in the length of this profile). I am not really sure why but I have always enjoyed being around people and having discussions about any and everything (except for sports and cars :/). When I was younger, I remember that while other kids were worried about what the teacher would say to their parents about their grades, I would worry about what the teacher would say to my mom about me talking in class! Now in my second year at Stanford, I still am talkative, but I know now when to speak and when not to, especially during class.

Though I like to socialize, I don’t drink alcohol, which I think is a substantial part of social life in college, at least in the U.S. Because of my choice to abstain from consuming alcohol, I wonder what motivates others to consume it, especially in large amounts. This lead to my research topic: Alcohol consumption on college campuses in the United States. I am not sure exactly which way my paper is going yet, but right now I am looking at students’ expectations when consuming alcohol and why alcohol has become such an integral part of American college culture. (You can read my blog post on my topic here.)

Finally, getting to my interest in languages, I guess the picture doesn’t really show it off but just for the record, I like languages… a lot. I am currently a psychology major, but if there were a major in “languages” (In other words, just learning tons of languages) I would drop psychology in a heartbeat. I do plan on having Spanish and French, the two languages that I have been studying, as minors though. I think that my choosing this class had something to do with my love for languages, seeing as language and culture are closely linked. The similarities and differences between cultures have always captivated me. Also, I’m pretty curious about people and life in general (maybe it’s the psychology major in me). I just like to try and figure out what makes people tick, where they came from/ what experiences they have and how that affects what values they uphold and their beliefs in life. I feel like this class is a good place to start looking these questions.

Evan Romero

I, Evan Romero, am currently a sophomore at Stanford University and am majoring in Management Science & Engineering. The reason I have chosen Management Science & Engineering as my major is because of my appreciation for mathematics, economics, and the theories dealing with management. I was born and raised in Hialeah, Florida I am a second generation Cuban-American. I have a passion for sports. I played soccer, basketball, and volleyball in high school, and was blessed with the opportunity to play volleyball here on the Farm (nickname for Stanford).

Growing up in the city of Hialeah (Miami), I was constantly exposed to the Cuban culture. I have always been driven to learn about his Cuban origins. Being very proud of my Latin background, I love that I can share my culture with my fellow students at Stanford, and at the same time learn more about the other cultures on campus. That is the main reason why I chose to take the PWR2 course, Cultural Interfaces.

I’m basing my research on the Cubans that fled to Miami during the 1960’s to grasp a better idea of what my grandparents went through when starting their new lives. My grandparents left all they had behind in hopes of a better life in America, a country whose relations with Cuba were wounded because of several political disagreements. In the picture above, is my mother’s side of the family (including my grandparents which are the two standing behind each shoulder). My mother’s father arrived in 1960, and my mother, her mom, and sister arrived in 1961. Through interviews with Cuban-Americans that arrived in the 60’s (grandparents, parents, and other relatives), articles of magazines and newspapers dating back to that time, and vivid images of powerful situations such as the Bay of Pigs Crisis, I will build a presentation that will allow the audience to understand the emotional tension that came along with fleeing one’s native land in hopes of having a better life elsewhere.
In this blog, there is an example of some of the research that has been done on this topic: http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2007/10/the_trials_and_tribulations_in.html
Comment on my blog entry if you have any questions on my research or just want to get in touch.

Tara Perea

This is a picture of me and one of the students that I tutored

My name is Tara Perea and this year I am a sophomore at Stanford. Although I live in Northern California for much of the year, I am very proud of my hometown, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Part of this pride comes from my family and culture that resides in Albuquerque. This strong tie to my cultural background is one reason for my interest in this class about cultures, sub-cultures, and cross-cultural rhetoric, as I hoped to explore a culture that interested me and learn more about a particular issue.

At Stanford I am studying biomedical computation, which is a mixture of biology and computer science, both are subjects that interest me greatly. Along with academics at Stanford, I am involved in several community service projects, all of which include tutoring. I enjoy this community service work because helping people learn gives me such a great sense of fulfillment. I love it when I can see an improvement in the students that I tutor from week to week. This joy for education also helped me to choose my research project for this class. I will be investigating bilingual education in the United States, specifically focusing on the psychological, emotional, and cultural impact that it has on the students involved in these programs. If you would like to read a little bit more about my project, you can visit my blog post at http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2007/10/bilingual_education_the_effect.html.

Dan Strawser

Although currently residing in California, I am originally from a small town in the state of Pennsylvania. Before coming to Stanford, I studied for a year in Switzerland, an experience which definitely helped broaden my perspective. Presently, I am in my second year of study at Stanford and plan to concentrate in aeronautical engineering. Therefore, most of my classes involve mathematics and physics; however, I am also very interested in foreign languages. I have had varying levels of experience with French, German, and Russian. My experience with these cultures and my desire to learn more about them and others lead me to choosing this course, cultural interfaces. In the future, I hope to work in an international environment, using my technical knowledge in areas of the world where it is needed most. Outside of school, some of my hobbies include playing ice hockey and watching sports.

Nick Wiik

Name: Nicholas (Nick) Andrew Wiik

Year: Sophomore, class of 2010, age 19

Background: I come from a very diverse cultural background. If I had to affiliate myself with one cultural side of the family it would be my Dad’s Norwegian/Swedish side. He is a first generation American and so whenever we get together with that side of the family, at home and once in Norway and Sweden, I feel a strong Scandinavian cultural presence. On my Mom’s side of the family, I have Greek, Serbian, Italian, Irish, and Native American cultural heritages so the large mix dilutes any single cultural identity. “Home” for me is, and hopefully always will be, San Diego, California. I feel that it is a place with such a positive vibe and the people and weather always make me feel at home. Also, I have lived there for over 15 years and have all of my closest friends and much of my family there.

General Interest: I love life and what makes it great for me is my close friends and family. In my free time I love to surf, play guitar, hang out with friends, and play almost any sport including football, lacrosse, and basketball. I really enjoy traveling and I especially love surf traveling to places in Baja California and Central America. One thing that I would say is one of my biggest interests is the San Diego Chargers (an American football team). Since the moment I was born my dad had me cheering for the Chargers and now that I am older, I continue to live vicariously through the team and I can safely say that all of my closest friends share the same enthusiasm for the Chargers that I do. The picture above is a snapshot of me on the way to a Chargers game, wearing my jersey of course, and I feel that my facial expression accurately captures my enthusiasm for the team.

Reasons for Taking this Course: My small private high school and the neighborhood I lived in was not very diverse so when I came to Stanford understanding the numerous other people of different cultural backgrounds took some getting used to. So when I saw that this course studied the rhetoric of these cross-cultural interactions and how it is occurring today via technology I thought it would be interesting and informative.

Area of Research: Another very important part of my life is my Christian faith, which was a n inspiration for me to begin researching evangelism on the internet. I started out knowing little about the subject, but my freshman year roommate was incredibly involved in the online evangelism community so being around him and then studying his work on the subject stirred genuine interest in me on the subject. My vision for the research is to investigate the relationship between the personality and strategies used in evangelizing online versus in person. My premonitions have lead my to conclude that people are more likely to be more aggressive and take more risk online and I look forward to researching this to see how true, if at all, it is. You can read my blogpost on this topic here.

Eethar Al-Hassan

Eethar Al-Hassan is a sophomore at Stanford University most likely majoring in Computer Science. She is an international student from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Eethar’s family moved several times when she was child. As a result she has lived in the states of Minnesota, Washington and Nebraska before moving to Saudi Arabia at the age of six. Eethar has returned to the United States to go to college and is enjoying being back. Eethar is now doing research on westernization in eastern countries for her PWR2 class. She believes that experiencing life in both the Arab World and the United States has led to her interest in the topic and an understanding of its impact. Including her own culture she also plans to look at several others dealing with the same issue. Here is a link to a blogpost she wrote regarding western food in China.

Vanessa Lerma

My father and I at my Quinceanera- the Latino celebration of a girl’s 15th birthday. The doll in my hand is “mi ultima muneca,” or my “Last Doll,” a symbol for my passage as a girl into womanhood.

Mi nombre es Vanessa Lerma y soy de Dallas, Texas. Spanish, as demonstrated before, was my first language, although I was born in the United States. My parents, Marco and Maria Isabel Lerma were both born in a small town in Guanajuato, Mexico called San Felipe. Every year since I was born – all 19 years of my life – I’ve visited family and friends in Mexico, falling in love with my home and culture more and more each time. It was this love that inspired me to be involved in the Latino Community in my own hometown of Dallas, Texas. I was an active participant in my high school’s Latinos Unidos Club and eventually became president. As president, I organized community service events various food and clothes drives benefiting disadvantaged elementary schools, churches, homes, hospitals, etc. This attention to my community, in particular the underprivileged sector, has been a priority in my life since high school.

I am currently a sophomore at Stanford University, and although initially I came with the idea of graduating with a degree as a civil engineer, my expectations have changed. I plan to possibly major in Economics or Management Science and Engineering with a minor in Cultural and Social Anthropology. My very first challenge as a Stanford student was selecting my freshman dorm. Stanford offers an array of housing options, one of which is a Chicano/a theme dorm, which of course seemed ideal for someone as in love with their culture as I. However, upon further reflection I began to question whether I would be culturally ostracizing myself by living in this dorm. I chose otherwise, and had one of the most amazing years of my life, making friends there that I’m sure will last me a lifetime. And yet, I still wonder whether I should call Casa Zapata home at least one year of my Stanford career. I hope to address the issues, both positive and negative, that surround living in ethnic theme dorms – in particular whether it is possible to have unity in diversity. (You can read my blog entry on this topic at http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2007/10/nonminorities_in_ethnic_theme_1.html.)

As a first generation college student, I was overwhelmed and slightly intimidated by the idea of attending Stanford University. I was not sure I would be able to keep up academically, whether I would have access to the professors after classes, but most importantly whether I would “fit in.” My college experience thus far has been nothing short of incredible. Class choices are limitless, professors are concerned, and friends seem to be abundant. Teams, groups, and clubs all provide access to peers aroused by your same interests. I have found friends in El Centro Chicano, the Latino community center here at Stanford, as well as in Dance Marathon, the 24-hour dance off to raise money for pediatric AIDS. I chose this class, Cultural Interfaces, because I knew that those interested in crossroads, intersections between cultures and sub-cultures, would share a common outlook with me- that we are all alike in some way, and that we should work together for unity. I look forward to communicating with those students in Sweden to compare our cultures and our similarities.

Mbali Mphande

My name is Mbali Mphande, I’m an international student from South Africa. I was born in Soweto, Johannesburg and grew up during the trying times of apartheid. I’m currently in my junior year, double majoring in Psychology and International Relations at Stanford University. Growing up during the apartheid era, and seeing the effects of poverty, racial conflicts, and illiteracy, I have become more interested in social justice and equality, and as a social activist, I’m involved in many international organizations like CARE International, 46664 Nelson Mandela Foundation, World Vision, UNICEF, Stanford STAND, WID (Women in Development), and UNDP, that deal with poverty-related issues such as HIV/AIDS, education, sanitation, shelter, and health programs. I’m pursuing a career with United Nations, which I believe will give me a broader platform to reach out to many underprivileged people. I hope to focus my attention on the developing nations, and as a human rights activist, human rights are my primary concern.

I am fluent in thirteen African languages and English, and would like to learn more languages including Swedish. I enjoy interacting with people from all walks of life. During my spare time, I volunteer in different community activities, for example, while in the United States, I have been working with children in different elementary schools where I teach African culture through dance and drama. I find this to be an effective way of promoting cultural exchange.

I also volunteer as a translator for international researchers, educators, and social and health workers. I have traveled to different parts of Africa and being exposed to the misery and sufferings, I understand the plight of the underprivileged, poor people that cannot speak. I stand against any kind of oppression and suffering to mankind. I carry the spirit of “UBUNTU” which means that I’m what I am because of who we are, as a symbol of humanity.

Kavi Thakoor

My name is Kaveri Thakoor; I go by “Kavi” for short. My name actually has an interesting meaning behind it: “Kavi” is the Hindi (one of the two official languages of India [and also the language my family speaks at home other than English], the other being English) word for poet. “Kaveri” is the name of a sacred river in India. So, I’m named after a river, and my nickname means poet, so I suppose that makes me a “poetic river”…? Well, I don’t know about that, but I do enjoy poetry and language in general. I like to write stories and essays and sometimes even poetry; I love reading good books, but most of all, I enjoy posing questions – philosophical questions – and then having discussions with my friends to try to answer them.

I suppose that is why, even though my cultural heritage is Indian, and even though I am thoroughly proud of this – the beauty that the country of India possesses, its history, its colorful traditions, its kind, gentle people who stress being at harmony with the world instead of trying to conquer it – I still consider the culture which I am first and foremost a part of to be that of students. There are many cultures in which I belong: I am a woman, an Indian, a chemistry-major, a “techy” (I will explain the meaning of this term later, so don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense now), a Stanford student, a musician, a writer, and a thinker. However, none of these groupings singularly does justice to the culture I see myself fitting into; if I had to narrow it down to one, I would say that I fit within the student culture. I feel most comfortable in that world full of people passionate about obscure areas of study, who love to learn, who delight in the journey toward discovery and not just in the end result. I am an academic, and as long as I live, I don’t think I will be able to survive too long if I am far away from a school of some sort.

This may all sound very intense and vague, so let me just make it a bit more tangible. Here at Stanford, where I am currently a sophomore (a second year student), I am planning to major in chemistry and possibly minor in computer science. After that, I plan to continue graduate study in chemistry, earn a Ph.D., and then teach chemistry as a professor at a university. So, perhaps now it makes more sense: I can’t imagine myself anywhere but at school, because I plan to stay at school and teach as a career for the rest of my life. In addition to chemistry and computer science, I enjoy writing and reading (as I already discussed above) and philosophical discussions; I love music, classical mainly, but any kind of music is good. I play the clarinet and really enjoy the time I spend doing that.

I was really interested in taking this PWR (Program in Writing and Rhetoric) class at Stanford because of the way it blends the ideas of culture and language with technology. I have always been fascinated by the intersection between the humanities and sciences, since I personally really enjoy science and writing myself, so the opportunity to use my technical knowledge and writing skills to comment on cultures around the world that are defined and mediated by technology seemed like a really fascinating area of inquiry to me; that is what drew me to this PWR course on “Cultural Interfaces”.
Going along with my interest regarding the intersection of the humanities and sciences, I have chosen to focus my research in this class on the “Techy vs. Fuzzy” divide that exists on the Stanford University campus. This refers to the prominent belief on our campus that the “techies” (those who study science, engineering, or math subjects) and the “fuzzies” (those who study humanities, social science, and art subjects) are two distinct groups with very different cultures. I intend to understand what brought about this division on our campus and whether a similar academic “segregation” exists on other college campuses across the country and maybe even throughout the world, in order to better understand what affect such a strict demarcation so early in our student life has on our future decisions and cultural tendencies.
Thanks for reading! :)

Lillian To

Hello! My name is Lillian To and I am currently a junior at Stanford University, set to graduate in 2009 with a degree in Computer Science. I am originally from San Jose, CA which is about 1.5 hours away from San Francisco. I have a wide range of interests—from baseball (go Yankees!) to music (trying to learn the guitar) to learning about cool technologies on the internet. I chose to join this course because of the last interest I’ve listed—and am enjoying the technology that we’ve been investigating. I love finding cool new websites, and some of my recent favorites include Pandora, meebo, stumbleupon, and of course facebook!

My research for this class centers around Second Life—a virtual world where users can live through self-made avatars and communicate with each other through chat and voice talk. My topic focuses on the consumerist nature of the virtual world—and how seemingly millions of users logon each day to spend hours “shopping” for cars, land, homes, clothes, and even body parts! In fact, people trade in real money for fake Linden dollars—the currency of the virtual world. For more information on my topic, visit our CCR blog!

Harry Zeitlin

My name is Harry Zeitlin, and I was born in Phoenix, Arizona. I now attend Stanford University. As a second year student, I am member of the Men’s Club Lacrosse Team, as well as the Sigma Chi fraternity at Stanford. I enjoy spending time with my friends, going to the gym, reading, and going on weekend trips to beaches and parks around the Stanford area. I became interested in this course for a variety of reasons. I have always been interested in how the digital word infiltrates our life, and this course’s focus on digital cultural communities offers a great opportunity to learn more about the impact that technology, especially the Internet, has on everyday life. Additionally, Phoenix, the place where I was raised, is a place where cultures clash on a daily basis due to the fact that many immigrants of Hispanic origin live in the area. I have always been interested in the idea of cultural identities and the borders that they transcend, and I felt that this class would provide a very interesting and insightful analysis into the nature of culture.

This quarter, I am researching the world of online fantasy sports. The appeal of Fantasy sports is a recent trend in American history. A fantasy sport is an online competition where people choose players from a real-life sport. After every game, the people gain points based on how well each player they chose performed. It is hugely popular in the United States, and I have found examples of how it is very popular in other parts of the world as well. I am primarily interested in analyzing this online world through the lens of a cultural phenomenon, and I hope to discover its effects on society. You can read my blogpost on my topic here.