The price

of

passion

Driven by their dreams, students pursue non-traditional career paths.

Doctor, engineer, consultant. Pressures from parents funnel many Asian American students into these few career paths. Influenced by cultural norms like filial piety — paying elders back for the sacrifices they made for their children — some students feel that their college journeys aren’t truly their own.

According to a 2012 study in the National Library of Medicine, Asian American college students are significantly more likely to exhibit pressure to live up to their parents’ expectations than their white counterparts. Many hold themselves to higher academic standards and choose “practical” careers over their passions.

However, at NU, where “AND is in our DNA,” many students are breaking the mold.

Communication second-year Ghino Lee dreamed of designing theme parks since he was in elementary school. Throughout his childhood, he mocked up dozens of blueprints for “Ghino World,” featuring different rides, terrains and themed experiences. When he got to NU, though, he had to put his dream on pause.

Lee joined NU as a Theatre major to focus on world-building and set design. He planned to pick up a second degree in McCormick for Manufacturing and Design Engineering. However, after discovering how the five-year program would require him to focus on STEM, he decided against it.

“At first, it was a stepping stone to get to theme parks,” Lee says. “But there’s so much fun and beauty and excitement within [theatre’s] form. That’s definitely something I’ve found out about myself — I’m passionate about highlighting these historical events and injustices that people don’t really know about.”

Now, Lee is exploring other modes of creating story-driven themed experiences. In the fall, Lee directed and produced an original immersive theatre production titled Mark of Han, which tells the story of a Korean girl who discovers the dark past of her American G.I. father and his involvement in the Korean War. Lee has found a new passion in combining history, social justice and theatre.

Still, despite his parents’ support in pursuing his passions, Lee isn’t certain about his career path. When his parents immigrated from South Korea to the United States, financial pressures forced them to switch to professions that they didn’t necessarily enjoy. He witnessed all the downsides of their successful yet grueling medical and legal careers, and even remembers his father explicitly telling him, “Do not go into medicine.”

Because of this, Lee’s parents support his dream of designing theme park experiences and his theatre degree. However, a part of them still hopes he studied something more practical. Now that he’s pursuing the humanities over STEM, career conversations with his parents are more often “bringing things into perspective and reality.”

Story by Medina Miranda & Yumi Tallud

Design by Jennifer Lee

“If you’re not doing something that’s making you happy, and getting interested, then why are you here?”

— Kylie Chen,

Medill second-year

“I pride myself in pursuing education in subjects that I find really exciting, but at the same time, I do have this little voice inside me, and sometimes I do have doubts,” Lee says. “A theatre major and a sociology major — is that gonna make me money?”

Despite difficult career decisions, Lee is only a second-year student, and tries not to put too much pressure on himself. He says he’ll follow this path as far as it takes him, and if that path ends, he’ll simply go down another one.

Following your passions isn’t easy, but students like Lee prove that finding your purpose at NU comes naturally if you go all in on the things you love.

Medill second-year Kylie Chen applied for biochemistry programs at almost every university that she was considering. Chen says that in high school, science and math came easily to her, so she assumed she would pursue something STEM-related.

However, when she was accepted into Medill — a “long shot” that was a sort of happy accident, she says — she and her parents agreed that she could attend NU only if she completed pre-med requirements alongside her journalism major.

But after taking her first chemistry midterm, Chen considered other possibilities. Pre-med didn’t feel quite right, and her requirements often conflicted with the humanities classes that she wanted to take.

A quarter later, Chen told her parents that she planned to drop her chemistry class and leave the pre-med track. They accepted her decision, but still expressed worry regarding her future job prospects.

Chen says she was fortunate to have her parents’ support throughout this process, but points out that there’s still a generational gap in her family. Her grandparents still insist that the pre-med path would be a better choice.

Since they immigrated from Taiwan in the 1970s, her grandparents brought different values and parenting styles.

Chen says that her grandparents are coming from a good place. But she says that in the end, “it is what it is.”

“Even if I were doing a STEM thing, it’s not a guarantee that I would get a job,” Chen says.

Chen has always seen her college experience as an investment. She is acutely aware of the price tag on an education at a rigorous school like NU. But beyond cost, college is a personal investment too — one that Chen has learned to prioritize.

Now a Journalism and American Studies double major, Chen appreciates the subjects that spark her interest. She says her college experience has become more fulfilling once she pursued the topics she’s passionate about.

“If you’re not doing something that’s making you happy, and getting you interested, then why are you here?” Chen says.

While students like Lee and Chen choose to go all-in on pursuing their passions despite lingering doubts, others balance both passion and practicality at the same time.

Weinberg third-year Haarika Palacharla, who’s double-majoring in Political Science and Comparative Literary Studies, has found support in her academic journey from halfway across the globe. She studied abroad in Lima, Peru this fall, where she got more perspectives on her personal path.

“It was really cool to learn about different political contexts, and to see other students from a completely different country have the same interests as me and the same career goals,” Palacharla says. “Talking to them made me realize a lot of my passions I have for policymaking and law are shared with people around the world.”

Palacharla plans to go to law school, but before making that decision, she had to prove that her majors bring an important perspective even to the most everyday interactions.

Palacharla’s father reads the news every day and often asks her for her analysis on current events. And with the knowledge she’s picked up in class, she’s happy to offer her takes.

Even in the face of filial piety, external pressures and personal expectations, students like Lee, Chen and Palacharla continue to pursue what they love most.

“I have a very strong passion, and I feel like I have a purpose in what I’m doing,” Lee says. “That passion outweighs whatever doubt that I have.”

“I have a very strong passion, and I feel like I have a purpose in what I’m doing. That passion outweighs whatever doubt I have.”

— Ghino Lee,

Communication second-year