Mario Coppola spent his childhood exploring Naples, a lively metropolis on Italy’s west coast. While his family and heritage were deeply rooted in the city, Coppola couldn’t shake the dream of life as an American college student.
With his bags packed and an adventurous spirit, he boarded an eight-hour flight to the United States the moment he graduated high school, eager to embrace new possibilities.
“The [United States] back home is portrayed as a realm of opportunity,” said Coppola, a junior marketing major. “So that’s also why I came here. I thought the opportunities here, the job market, also the people were completely different from back home.”
Coppola’s vision of the American dream quickly shifted to less-than-glamorous as he grew homesick, longing for familiarity. He found community in Temple’s chapter of the American Marketing Association, where he honed his passion for marketing and built lasting friendships.
Many international students on Temple’s campus share a similar experience as Coppola’s. With their families thousands of miles away and the financial burden of traveling, visiting their home countries during holiday breaks can be difficult for students from abroad. While local students gather with their families nearby, international students turn to campus clubs and organizations as a way to connect with American culture and find a sense of community when campus turns empty.
Flavia Astete-Garcia visits her home of Lima, Peru, just once a year. Leaving Lima and primarily speaking English proved more difficult than she anticipated, so she sought the Latino representation and community she desired in the Association of Latino Professionals in America.
As ALPFA’s marketing director, Astete-Garcia and other executive board members held a “Friendsgiving” for the organization, gathering all its members to put a Latin twist on the American holiday.
“Everyone brought Latino food and it was really nice to learn their own culture,” said Astete-Garcia, a senior advertising major. “Latinos, it’s a culture, but Latinos are Dominicans, Peruvians like me, Colombian. So we are all different. So getting to share that, their own culture and ethnicity with everyone else is really nice.”
Many campus clubs and organizations host similar Friendsgiving events to foster connections among members before the holiday break. The informal gathering mimics the traditional holiday, giving peers an opportunity to come together, celebrate before the nine-day break and express gratitude for one another.
For Jessy Xu, her Chinese heritage became both a source of pride and a learning opportunity during her Friendsgiving celebration at AMA. Xu attended an international high school in Japan that included a Thanksgiving break, though she never fully understood the meaning of the holiday.
It wasn’t until she came to college in the U.S. that she gained a deeper understanding of Thanksgiving. Inspired by her cultural background, she decided to bring egg tarts, a traditional Hong Kong-style pastry dessert.
“It was really interesting,” said Xu, a sophomore media studies and production and marketing double major. “I found it amazing how some people actually don’t know about my culture or something that maybe I grew up with, but other people weren’t aware of so that was really interesting when I was explaining what the dish was and telling them what it was made of.”
Although Xu spends her summers in Japan with her family, she primarily resides in Philadelphia. Opportunities to share her cultural food and educate others about specific ingredients are rare, but campus holiday gatherings provide a welcome outlet for the exchange.
Coppola also finds that the casual gatherings offer a unique opportunity to connect with others beyond the usual confines of work or routine.
For Coppola, a culturally rich meal became a bonding experience, with Friendsgiving serving as a chance to connect with coworkers outside of the usual work setting.
“It was really nice to see [my bosses] outside the hours,” Coppola said. “Because I got to know them even better, and I got to even build a stronger relationship like that, because you have a dinner together, you share some food, you have a fun time.”
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