At the beginning of the summer, Team 2 was presented with the data collected from the focus group held in 2014. We were able to read students’ opinions and experience about what it was like to be an Asian/Asian American student at Hamilton College at that time. This survey laid the foundation for the construction of our survey in 2021, and gave us a lot to think about regarding topics and analysis.
I feel like being Asian at Hamilton, you’re in this kind of weird liminal, in-between, space…it’s really hard to bring up some of the micro aggressions that Asians face at Hamilton because it’s really hard to put that up against being called a slur or having someone not want you to go to their party…I find myself, at least, in like a weird in-between place because I want to like identify as a person of color…but like, I don’t feel like anybody has the language to make that happen yet but I also…don’t feel accepted…I don’t feel totally like myself…in the general white culture here at Hamilton so…I don’t know…it’s kind of a weird uncomfortable space.
Although this focus group survey provided insight to the Asian and Asian American experience, it was limited to a small group of students. Team 2 wanted to broaden that limitation and capture more information from more students. We wanted to take a step back and look at the collective Asian and Asian American experience as a big picture in order to identify patterns. With such a small sample, our mission wouldn’t be accomplished; instead, we broadened our participant circle in order to quantify these experiences.
Check out our 2021 Survey Data to learn more about how we applied what we learned from the focus group survey.
