Trace Your Roots

Phase 1: Analyze
CS 3724: Introduction to Human Computer Interaction
Spring 2022

Prepared by
Sydney Johnson
Shreya Mallamula
Aastha Mistry
Jasmine Walker

Group 9

02/16/2022
Table of Contents
Record of Changes 3

System Concept Statement 4

Introduction 5

Methods 6

Secondary Research 7

Observations and Interviews 10

Contextual Analysis 15

Design Informing Models 17

Interaction Design Requirements 20

References 23

Appendix A 24

Appendix B 30

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This pagce is intentionally blank

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Record of Changes
Version Date Comment Name

0.1 02/15/22 Doc created and Aastha

cover sheet modified

0.2 02/16/22 Persona and Sydney

scenario added

0.3 02/16/22 Interviews added Shreya & Aastha

0.4 02/17/22 Introduction added Sydney

0.5 02/17/22 WAAD added Aastha, Shreya,

Sydney

0.6 02/17/22 Explanation of Sydney

articles added

0.7 02/17/22 APA bibliography of Sydney

research added

0.8 02/17/22 Flow model added Sydney

0.9 02/17/22 Worksite and Aastha

Observations added

1.0 02/17/22 Final Draft Whole Group

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System Concept Statement
At one point in time, almost everyone has felt a sense of not belonging somewhere. This
feeling is particularly common for immigrants who leave their homes and move miles away to
pursue opportunities for themselves or their families. Being immersed in a new culture is
incredibly difficult at first because it takes time and effort to really understand a culture’s
nuances. Coming to a new country and not assimilating into that culture while also being far
away from your native roots can generate feelings of isolation. With our topic we wanted to
focus on cultural isolation in regards to various forms of the immigrant experience. Ultimately we
aim to use our understanding of this topic to create an application to help diminish these
feelings in the Virginia Tech community by promoting cultural education and deepened
knowledge.

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Introduction
The question we want to investigate within the theme of isolation is whether
immigrants feel isolated both in their home countries and in their host nation. More
specifically, how can we remedy the effects of cultural isolation that is part of many
immigrant experiences? As our group was exploring the given theme of isolation, we
went through the different experiences each of us had during the Covid-19 pandemic.
We found the theme to be very engaging. Throughout the pandemic, students of all
ages were in the spotlight since we were students learning during a pandemic. We
wavered between two potential topics: the transition from in-person to online affecting
academic/recreational student organizations or the immigrant experience at college and
universities after the Covid -19 pandemic. While students of all ages have different
experiences and perspectives, the idea of the immigrant experience fascinated us and
we wanted to develop that idea. The theme definitely influenced our choice on our work
site, as focusing on immigrant students gave us clear communities to interview such as
El Centro and the Asian Cultural Engagement Center. Our theme relates to HCI
because we want to influence the user’s experience based on our knowledge and
understanding of isolation for many people around the world.

Throughout our report, our reasoning behind the choosing of our interviewees,
research articles, and bibliographies can be seen. There will be deeper understanding
behind why the research articles specifically relate to our idea. Whilst further into our
paper, you’ll find our observation summaries and interview transcripts. This section is
very in-depth, going into each of our interviewees’ specific experiences and
perspectives as students with different cultural backgrounds. Our contextual analysis
should follow after displaying our Work Activity Affinity Diagram, also known as WAAD,
which breaks down our work activity notes into subcategories within categories.
Subsequently, our design-informed models can be seen. From the responses of our
interviewees, the persona and scenario of Rachel was crafted to fit the interviewees’
experiences. The flow model consists of three of our different interviewees under a
different name. We chose these three specific interviewees due to their stories
resonating with similar students. Their barriers are logged along with the problems they
discussed. Then, we linked them to solutions we thought fit for the respective problem.
Following after, you’ll find a walkthrough of our WAAD explaining our process. Below
that section, our five design requirements will be stated corresponding to our design
informing models. Our appendix follows suit after referencing pictures of our work sites.

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Methods
General Explanation of Methods
To conduct our data we used a variety of different methods to help collect and
contextualize it. We began by understanding what exactly the aim of our project was, ours was
to understand the feeling of cultural isolation felt by many of our peers and ultimately work
towards creating an application that can help diminish these feelings. To gain a broad
understanding of general sentiment on this issue we began by researching through a
combination of scholarly and thought based articles which helped provide us a basis for why
children, specifically immigrants can experience feelings of isolation. During this research we
aimed to focus our results by using keywords such as “college”, “isolation”, “immigrant
experience”, and “children” to help us find articles that were relevant to our topic.

After this basis was formed we began thinking of where we could aim to collect this kind
of data within Virginia Tech University. We settled on the Cultural Student Centers, located in
Squires Student Center, to be our main worksite and supplemented that with additional
observations found in the student lounges in Torgeson Hall. We conducted three of our
interviews in the cultural student centers; two from the Asian Student Center and one from El
Centro. We also conducted two interviews in the student lounges in Torgeson Hall to get a
diverse perspective. With our interviews, we aimed to interview people that would resonate with
a variety of different viewpoints on this topic. We interviewed people who were native to different
parts of the world, to see what effects regional changes may have on feelings of isolation. We
also aimed to interview people that were at varying levels of connectivity with their culture, to
see what drew them to be more or less connected to it. All of these interviews were conducted
on the same day, Tuesday, February 15. To find our interviewees in all cases we merely
entered our worksite, told a few people about our project and the topic of our interviews and
requested for volunteers. Also, on this day we explored both El Centro and the Asian Student
Center to conduct observations on what was in these spaces and how people were utilizing
them. To conduct our interviews we recorded the interviewees responses, with verbal consent
from them and transcribed them later on for us to draw conclusions on. When conducting our
observations we were diligent about taking photographs for us to refer back to at later times.

After collecting our observations, interviews, and research we created a WAAD diagram
to help us organize our thoughts and ultimately draw conclusions. This analysis was further
supplemented by the various forms of DIMs that we created and ultimately led us to develop
some directives for our design.

Secondary Research

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Explanations of Each Research Article
i. How the feeling of isolation can start at a young age ERIC - ED455009 - Social
Isolation, Loneliness and Immigrant Students' Search for Belongingness: From
Helplessness to Hopefulness., 2001-Apr
1. This research paper goes into detail about how migrant and immigrant
children can start to feel isolation, loneliness, and low self-esteem starting
at a young age. The study that is discussed in the paper analyzed 10
immigrant children regarding their personal experiences of loneliness
within the school system. Students responded that the lack of peer
relationship can lead to: (1) loneliness, low self esteem, unwillingness to
go to school, (2) expectations to fail to initiate social context, (3) and the
lack of confidence in their own abilities. The reason we chose this specific
article is because one of our goals is to define the root of the problem of
cultural isolation. This being a wicked problem, a social or cultural
problem that's difficult or impossible to solve, makes it even more of a
problem everyone should have on their mind. Wicked problems lack
clarity in the solving of the problem since there is so much to tackle at
hand. The findings of the research shows that if teachers undergo
pedagogical thoughtfulness and understanding, immigrant students will
feel more comfortable and provided for.
ii. International students face mental health challenges during the COVID 19
pandemic https://scienceline.org/2021/02/international-students-face-mental-
health-challenges-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
1. This article provides the story of two international college students
attending school during a global pandemic and the cultural isolation they
experienced. They both share very different experiences, but both relate
to being international students. The reason we chose to reference this
article is because of the lack of disparity and respect that the immigrant
community experienced due to the Coronavirus is a story we wanted to
touch on. The U.S Department of Public Health announcing social
distancing and lockdown requirements made the feeling of loneliness and
homesickness heavier for international students. Not only did they feel
that sense of isolation away from their peers, but the pressure
surrounding President Trump’s immigration policies put immigrant
students’ mental health at a disarray. President Trump introduced many
challenges for immigrant college students, including the right to take away
their legal status if they weren’t enrolled in at least one class. These
students grew to think they struggled alone. The article references a 2010
study published in the Journal of American College Health stating that,
“...more than 550 international graduate students found that only 61% of
international graduate students surveyed were aware of the available
mental health support services on their campus, compared with 78.6% of
domestic graduate students.” To effectively care for international
students, faculty, mentors, and students should be trained to be more
aware of international students’ unique circumstances and challenges.
iii. The “Invisible Other”: Social Representations of COVID-19 Pandemic in Media
and Institutional Discourse https://psr.iscte-iul.pt/index.php/PSR/article/view/548

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 1. This article goes into depth on the issues of “otherness” in the presence
of Covid-19 within the media and institutional discourses. It focuses on
how the Chinese community got much attention during the height of the
pandemic, facing racism and xenophobia. We referenced this specific
article because of the amount of Asian communities within the American
college & university communities. This article does a good job of
explaining the transparency behind the Asian stigma of the Coronavirus
outbreak. Communication lacked in between the media and the society
regarding China’s role in the pandemic. Coronavirus has been explained
due to the Chinese community lacking hygiene routines or the interest of
powerful groups pursuing their goals.
iv. Disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant communities in
the United States
https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0008484
1. This article talks about the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 against
immigrant communities. It further discusses how immigrant communities
face limited access to healthcare, complexities of poverty, and legal
consequences if they happen to be diagnosed with the coronavirus.
There have been certain areas Covid-19 cases have been rapidly
increasing leading to high mortality rates in minority communities,
particularly the ones that do not have access to healthcare and
experience and unequal access to socioeconomic factors. When first
diagnosing and monitoring patients with Covid-19, it’s quite vital to focus
on the patient’s outcome as well as work on preventing further
transmission to their community. Lack of access to internal, preventive
medicine leads to underlying heart conditions worsening — obesity, heart
disease, and diabetes have been linked to Covid-19 outcomes.
Immigrants also play a major role in the US economy system, paying
taxes on their dime like all Americans. However, unlike Americans,
regardless of paying taxes to better the US economy, many immigrants
won’t receive the Covid-19 relief fund.
v. Assimilation, Integration, or Isolation? (Re)Framing the Education of Immigrants
https://www.tc.columbia.edu/cice/pdf/25604_9_01_edintro.pdf
1. This journal goes into detail on reframing the mindset of the education of
immigrants. With many tragic events happening across the world, it
places a new sense of urgency on immigration. It introduces the topic of
schools being viewed as a “primary vehicle” for giving immigrant students
the opportunity to assimilate in America. This journal introduces a man
named Robert Park who has two values within the idea of assimilation:
the melting pot metaphor and the concept of marginal men. Park believed
that, “...every society was to some degree a successful melting pot,
where diverse populations merge, acculturate, and eventually assimilate,
albeit at different ranges and in different ways.” Park also stayed true to
his idea of immigrants being viewed as marginalized men and women in
two different cultures. One of the cultures seen as individuals was "inner
turmoil and self consciousness" as Park described and as a sign of social
innovation and cultural sophistication. Countries seem to all have their
own view of how they view their values, morals, and opinions on
immigration. The article further discusses how actions of assimilation may
not have addressed the impact of globalization on immigrants. It

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 concludes that integration may be where we can succeed with the
assimilation of immigrants within the American school system.
vi. Harnessing the Power of Storytelling to Support Migrant and Immigrant Children
https://www.edutopia.org/article/harnessing-power-storytelling-support-migrant-
and-immigrant-students
1. This article explores the topic of why identifying the layers of identity is
very beneficial for immigrant students assimilating to a new social and
cultural mindset and context. This article focuses on Psychologist Urie
Bronfenbrenner’s ideals. He created the model he called Ecological
Systems Theory of Child Development. This model can be visualized as,
“...the various dimensions of people’s identities, such as age, gender, and
cultural labels, with concentric circles that make the identity, values,
social climate, and political climate of the surrounding communities
explicit.” Ecology can be a surprising term to describe a way to support
migrant and immigrant children but Bronfenbrenner refers to the use of
the word ecology as the relationship between a living being and the
environment it lives in. He goes on to split up parts of an ecological
model and dissects different areas of identity. Identifying each layer to
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model can help immigrant children
understand where all these areas play out in their lives. It is a lengthy
problem broken down into segments that children can understand at a
young age.

Observations and Interviews

How did we choose our worksite?
We chose the various cultural centers in Squires, primarily the Asian Cultural
Engagement Center and El Centro, which is the cultural center for the Hispanic community,
because these areas serve as culture hubs at Virginia Tech. The students who often visited
these cultural spaces were in touch with their home culture because they had made the effort to
be in these cultural spaces while also being at an American university. These cultural centers
had lots of resources for students and were an aggregation of students from different cultures
making them easier to identify as being connected to a different culture. Also, taking the
personal initiative to be in these cultural spaces shows that they are affected by cultural isolation
and actively want to immerse themselves back into their culture.

Our secondary worksite was the student lounges in Torgeson Hall. We chose this as our
second worksite because the lounges here serve as a combination space for both lounging and
studying for the students that frequent it. We did not want to choose a location like Newman
Library, as these areas are dedicated for studying and we did not want to create disruptions.
The rationale behind choosing this as our secondary worksite, was that we wanted a place that

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would serve as a “neutral” location to draw some of our interviews from. Like mentioned earlier
the students that frequent the cultural centers obviously feel more connected to their culture or
are actively trying to become more connected to it. With our interviews from Torgeson Hall we
were able to get the perspective of some students that did not feel as connected to their culture
and an understanding of why they felt that way.

Fig 1. El Centro Cultural Center Fig 2. Asian Cultural Engagement Center

Observation 1: General Observation
Date: Tuesday, February 15th, 2022
The general observations we made were to what degree these different students felt
culturally isolated. This ranged from what caused the cultural isolation, what could help against
cultural isolation, how they were brought up and how that affected their relationship with their
country. Overall, we found that it is very difficult to strike the perfect balance between host
country and home country cultures. Language and communication was a common barrier to
feeling related to the home country as then the student was unable to talk to the only people
they knew from their home country, their relatives. We also found that people who were
connected to one culture over another had this emphasis from a very young age that was hard
to modify as they got older. If they wanted to form that same level of connection with another
culture they related to it was difficult to do so and required a great deal of time and effort as it
wasn’t something they were immersed in. We all know the best way to learn about anything is
practice, practice, and practice. The same applies to learning about a culture and not being
immersed in it makes it much harder.

Observation 2: Asian Student Center (Nina)

Date: Tuesday, February 15th, 2022
When we were in the Asian Student Center we observed Nina who is the director of the
center as we wanted to see the steps she took to make the center feel like a home, in action.
When we walked into the center we were greeted by her right away and she made note of our

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names and showed us around without us even prompting her. We realized later on that she had
known that we were new to the center as she remembers the names of everyone else that
frequents it as she greeted everyone else who walked in by name and even knew of a few small
things that might be happening in their lives. She showed us the world map she had put up with
and encouraged us to add pins from the places that we were from. Nina also took it upon herself
to equip the center with a tea kettle and an assortment of teas and we were told by some of the
kids in the center that she often brings cookies or muffins with her in the morning just to set out
in the center. Not only is the center already incredibly welcoming with its bright colors and
literature from a myriad of Asian countries but having the center director makes it all the more
comforting. She helps the center become a home away from home for the Asian community at
Virginia Tech.

Observation 3: El Centro
Date: Tuesday, February 15th, 2022
For our second observation we observed El Centro itself. El Centro is the cultural center
at Virginia Tech dedicated to celebrating and housing Hispanic culture. In our last observation
we observed how a center director helped make a place feel like a home, but in this observation
our aim was to see how a center itself was designed to feel like a home. When we walked into
El Centro we were amazed by how well lit and colorful it was. The ambiance created in the room
is very welcoming and relaxing. There are a lot of nods to Hispanic culture all throughout the
room. For example, there are sombreros hanging on the walls along with crafts made for Dia de
Los Muertos lining the ceiling. The center is also incredibly interactive, as all of these crafts
were actually made by people just going in and out of El Centro. The room is also equipped with
hundreds of books that detail literature from a variety of Latin American countries. Beyond that
the room has numerous colorful couches that must be quite comfortable because we even saw
someone napping while we were there!

Interviews
Joseph(Joey) Mechurikunnel:
- Date: Tuesday, February 15th, 2022
- Interview Rationale: We met Joey in Torgeson Hall, our secondary worksite and we
chose to interview him because we wanted to hear the perspective of a third generation
immigrant as the rest of our interview are either first or second generation.
- Interview Takeaways: Joseph had a very interesting perspective on cultural experience
that we hadn’t approached before. Joey grew up in an area that had a lot of Indian
representation, his culture of origin, but he still felt like he was so disconnected from the
people around him. This was because both of his parents were not first-generation
immigrants, like most of his peers, so they had already acclimated and were raising him
with more “westernized” ideals. In Joey’s experience, it seems like he was hiding in plain
sight. Everywhere he went, people assumed he was more Indian than he felt like he
was. In America, people tried to connect with him on shared traditions that he has never
experienced, and in India people spoke to him like a native, when he felt more like a
tourist. Ultimately, the narrative that Joey pushed was that his external shell led people
to make a multitude of assumptions of his personal experiences that were oftentimes

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 almost entirely false. It was also interesting to note that we interviewed Joey in Torgeson
Hall, our secondary worksite, and it would make sense that he would be there and not
the Asian Student Center as he does not feel very connected to Asian culture.

Avi Mehta:
- Date: Tuesday, February 15th, 2022
- Interview Rationale: We met Avi in the Asian Student Center and chose to interview
him as he is an international student and presents a very interesting perspective.
Specifically because he was already a second generation immigrant in Thailand and is
now a first generation immigrant in America.
- Interview Takeaways: Avi had an incredibly interesting perspective as he had the
experience of being both a first and second generation immigrant. As a second
generation immigrant in Thailand, Avi remarked on how it felt to be an Indian, Hindu boy
living in a country where most people fit a generic physical build and are primarily
Buddhist. He mentioned that although he is of Indian descent, he feels more Thai in his
way of thinking, as Thai thinking is generally more welcoming and open to all people and
thinking styles. He remarked on the cultural clashes this would cause with his parents,
as they still adopted more of a rigid traditionalist thinking style common in India,
specifically on topics such as dating and sexuality. Avi is currently a part of the
international student community but he spoke about feeling slightly isolated in that
community as well as he is from a more liberal country and feels as though he has more
“westernized” thoughts than the typical international student that is coming in from a
more traditionalist country in SouthEast Asia. He talked about feeling in between a
“national” and an “international”, not exactly sure how to label himself due to his
diversified thinking. One of the most interesting concepts Avi discussed was how his
own thought processes changed after moving to America. Notably, he talked about how
living in Thailand he was always open to the LGBTQ+ community but he always looked
at them as being outsiders in society. Moving to America, he was surprised to see how
acclimated the community is with general society and pushed him to alter his
perspective towards the group.

Marcelina Krowinska:
- Date: Tuesday, February 15th, 2022
- Interview Rationale: We met Marcelina in our secondary worksite of Torgeson Hall and
chose to interview her as she was a first generation immigrant to America when she was
four years old. We wanted to hear about her experience acclimating to the American
lifestyle and was also curious to hear about her differing cultures as she was already
from a more “westernized” country.
- Interview Takeaways: Marcelina’s interview helped us gain a better understanding of
how someone could in a sense seamlessly integrate with American culture while also
maintaining strong connections to their cultural roots. She recounted many
circumstances that helped provide her with a situational advantage for this. For example,
she grew up in a town in New Jersey that was predominantly Polish and was surrounded
by her Polish family so she was always able to take part in various traditions and

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 festivals. She even chose to attend Polish school for years to further immerse herself in
her culture. Because of this she never really felt isolated in either the American or Polish
experience, but currently she feels the most disconnected she’s ever felt from her
culture. She is no longer surrounded by dozens of Polish people, and discussed how
she wished there were greater resources at Virginia Tech to immerse herself with her
community as there are for other cultural groups.

Alicia Marin:
- Date: Tuesday, February 15th, 2022
- Interview Rationale: We met Alicia at El Centro and were interested in hearing about
her relationship with Latin American culture.
- Interview Takeaways: Alicia’s interview painted a great picture of her relationship with
her El Salvadorian roots. Although she was born and brought up in Virginia, she has a
strong connection to her culture because she was brought up by her maternal
grandparents as her mom was busy with work often. Her family taught her to speak
Spanish and her life aligned more with El Salvadorian ideals. She ate traditional food
from there and celebrated traditions and holidays as they would there. The community
she grew up in also had a concentrated population of central americans and most of her
friends were hispanic as she felt more drawn to them because of their cultural
commonalities. She felt great cultural isolation from traditional white communities as she
had always lived most of her life in communities with central americans and they also did
so many things differently ranging from food, vacation, holidays, and family organization.
She feels a disconnect from her Hispanic roots when it comes to speaking with relatives
as there are differences in common banter and there are limits of what can be talked
about because of cultural differences. Overall she thinks that cultural centers and
student organizations are great safe spaces and help promote cultural education.

Sophia Pentakalos:
- Date: Tuesday, February 15th, 2022
- Interview Rationale: We met Sophia in the Asian Cultural center and were interested in
hearing about her relationship with asian culture.
- Interview Takeaways: Sophia’s perspective was really interesting as she had parents
from two different cultures that were both immigrants at not too young of an age. With
her mom emigrating from China when she was 20 and her dad emigrating from Greece
when he was a teenager they were both at an age where they had significant knowledge
and substantial cultural experiences of their country of origin. Sophia’s parents decided
that they would pick one parent’s background to emphasize on their children and they
decided on her mom’s Chinese background. Although, at first sight Sophia looks
caucasian with dark hair, pale skin, big eyes, and freckles Sophia grew up going to
Chinese school every week learning the Chinese language, Chinese dance, and other
things about Chinese culture. She’s now fluent in Chinese but her knowledge of Greece
is very limited. She struggles to understand Greek and her only connection to Greek
culture is when she visits Greece with her family and spends time with relatives. She is

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 actively taking it upon herself to educate herself more about greek culture by taking
greek classes at Virginia tech currently.

Contextual Analysis
Contextual Analysis (WAAD Creation): We compiled all of the data we had collected from our
Interviews, Observations, and Research into a collection of WANs. After creating the WANs we
went on to organize our thoughts by splitting them into a variety of subcategories. Ultimately, we
ended up with a WAAD that is split into two overarching categories, followed by 8
subcategories, with five further subcategories nestled within.

Figure depicting the WAAD prior to organization:

Check Out Our WAAD!

Stage 1: WAN Creation

We began by creating a multitude of WANs that we pulled from each interview,
observation, and research article that we collected. We tried thinking about which elements of
our research would be most elemental in the creation of our final design, and aimed to highlight
those points.

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Stage 2: Initial Categorization
After writing out all of our WANs we turned back to the main goal of our project.
Ultimately, we want to create an application that helps reduce feelings of isolation in relation to
cultural identity, so we aimed to identify each WAN as either creating or diminishing feelings of
isolation. We felt like this was the best way to broadly split up our WANs as it gives a quick
snapshot of things we want to encourage and discourage in our final application.

Step 3: Subcategories and Rearrangement

Our decision to split all of our WAN’s into isolation creators and diminishers guided our
thought process when breaking up the WAN’s further. Through our subcategories we aimed to
understand what drove things to be isolation creators and within there we came up with
Communication Barriers, Disconnect from Home Country, and Barriers to Assimilation. From
there we used the same thought process to further split up the categories so we could
understand the true root of the problem. In a similar way we used the same but flipped thinking
to split up the isolation diminishers so we could get a better understanding of the attributes that
we wanted to include in our final application. We split that category into the following
subsections: Cultivating family relationships, Homophily, Personal Choices, Geographical
Advantages, and Encouraging Cultural Connection in the Household. Initially, we did not have
as many subcategories and just started by moving similar WAN’s together, but as we made one
subcategory we realized we could break them down further and further until we were ultimately
at the root causes of the creation or diminishment of isolation.

Figure depicting the finalized WAAD post creation of categories and subcategories:

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Design Informing Models
PERSONA

This is Rachel, she’s a 19-year-old college sophomore

studying nanoscience at Virginia Tech. She is an
international student from Indonesia and is so grateful to
be going to VT. While being at home in Indonesia with her
family, she absolutely loves it. She’s very involved within
her culture and has many Indonesian friends on campus at
Tech. While she has her Indonesian friends, she wishes
she could be treated with the same amount of respect
outside her friend group. Virginia Tech has a very diverse
campus but outside campus within the Blacksburg
community, racism has been a consistent problem.

The purpose of our system is to provide a tool for

immigrant students looking to connect with other students alike to develop strong bonds and
community. The information needed from the users are basic background information and
interests. Information consists of the user’s sex, race, ethnicity, culture, religion and language.
The system needs to analyze and view all users and match users with those who have
similarities. Other information needed by the system is basic personal information such as name
and age from users to gauge potential pool of students who are immigrants.

Table 1. Summary of Selected Barriers for a Persona Model

Trigger Goal Barrier(s)

Living in predominantly Build friendships outside of Cultural Differences,

western culture her social circle Language Barrier

Living in Blacksburg Become more involved with Racism and

Blacksburg community microaggressions in
Blacksburg community

Moved away from home Feel closer with her family Time, Distance, Money
country

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SCENARIO

Since her freshman year was all online, Rachel is now being introduced to the in-person
experience. The first couple of weeks pass by and Rachel is still trying to get adjusted to this
traditional college setting. She’s trying to find her place. On a Thursday night after finishing her
Quantum Physics homework, she decides to order Burger37 on campus in the Squires Student
Center. She walks through the Henderson lawn entrance since she’s coming from her on
campus apartment. As she’s walking through Squires, she notices a group of people playing
what looks like a very chaotic game of Heads Up! in the Asian Engagement Center. After she
grabs her burger and fries, she heads back to the AEC to see if the people she passed are still
in there. Fortunately, they are. Rachel introduces herself and asks if she can eat her dinner here
and join in the game. The group was more welcoming than ever. Rachel felt extremely
welcomed being in the presence of other Asian students having a good time.

Table 2. Summary of Selected Barriers for a Scenario Model

Trigger Goal Barrier(s)

Transitioning from Online to In-Person Experiences Lack of cultural events and

In-person social outings

COVID reduced opportunities Meet new people Lack of understanding of

to make friends cultural nuance

Doesn’t feel super Find a community away from Language, colloquialisms

comfortable in Blacksburg yet home

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FLOW MODEL

The flow model displays the interrelation of each role in our project. Each role has an indirect or
direct involvement and plays a critical role in ensuring the development of our solution for each
phase. The flow model is comparable to the Circular Flow Model while exhibiting outside
sources.

Table 3. Summary of Selected Barriers for a Flow Model

Trigger Goal Barrier(s)

Lack of knowledge about To learn more about culture No resources, cultural

culture centers, or student
organizations

Staying connected with family To speak with them and have Language, colloquialisms,
abroad a good conversation internet connection, time
zones

Living in a predominantly Relate and feel more Living in a community with

white country with different comfortable to american one predominant culture,

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 values for americans culture discrimination/exclusion

Interaction Design Requirements

Walkthrough of WAAD

Overview: Our WAAD aimed to find the driving forces behind creating and diminishing cultural
isolation in a variety of different avenues. Our WAN’s were derived from the research,
observations, and interviews that we conducted that helped us understand a multitude of
perspectives on this topic.

Isolation Creators: Our first category is isolation creators. Within this category we aimed to
identify any WANs that we felt contributed to the development of an isolated atmosphere that
we ultimately aim to dispel. Within this category we further created a series of categories and
subcategories to help us approach the root cause of the problems.
● Communication Barriers: Communication seemed to be a driving barrier that made
people feel isolated both in the country they immigrated to and their native country. All of
the WANs in this category revolved around difficulties in oratory communication however
some were a byproduct of a literal lack of the knowledge and others were connected to
an inability to pick up cultural dialects and vernacular. To demonstrate these differences
we split up the category further:
○ Lack of Knowledge Language: The feeling of isolation related to WAN’s in this
category are fairly straightforward. People simply didn’t know the language of the
country they were currently in, and thus had trouble communicating with those
around them.
○ Cultural Differences: The WAN’s in this category are a little more nuanced.
They described being fully fluent in the relevant language but still feeling a barrier
due to various accents or lack of common ground in conversation.
● Disconnect from Home Country and Culture: We saw an interesting relationship with
the WAN’s in this area. Many of
○ Lack of Knowledge: This subcategory of our WAAD collects all of our work
activity notes where we see a clear lack of knowledge between the user and their
culture. People never took the time to learn about it and others had difficulty
making friends with people within their culture.
○ Feeling Like You Don’t Fit In: The feeling of not belonging is straightforward
within this subcategory. They explained that they felt like a tourist in their own
country and only felt comfortable when visiting their home in their own country.
○ Circumstantial: This category is collected for WAN’s that are particular
experiences for those users, but could be viewed as similar to other users alike.
WAN’s in this subcategory stated that time zone changes can be draining and
residing in a "western" country with a family with "traditional" ideals can cause
clashes.

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 ● Barriers to Assimilation: This category is very elementary. We knew exactly where all
these WANs stand since they all have the same theme of assimilation. They described
how homesickness is hard to overcome and how racism and microaggressions play a
factor in their lives.

Isolation Diminishers: The second general category that we created is isolation diminishers.
Within this category we aimed to understand ways that people felt more connected and
comfortable within their own cultures, which are all qualities we want to encourage in our
ultimate design.
● Cultivating Family Relationships: All of the WANs in this category revolved around the
idea of being close to family in one’s native country. It seems as though they all relate to
being able to converse in one's native tongue which makes them feel more comfortable
when visiting their native country or conversing with family members.
● Encouraging Cultural Connection in the Household: This subcategory differed from
the preceding in that these were steps taken in people’s direct households to help
diminish isolation. WANs in this category included eating traditional food and
encouraging speaking in the mother tongue in the house.
● Homophily: Homophily is the idea that people are psychologically drawn to people who
look, act, and sound like them which is why many friend groups are often racially
homogeneous. The WANs in this category all resonate around an idea of finding comfort
in groups of people who share similar cultural experiences.
● Personal Choice to Connect to Culture: One of the primary, or more effective ways at
diminishing cultural isolation that we’ve identified is by taking personal steps to connect
with the culture, All the WANs in this category describe some of the steps that our
interviewees have taken to personally get more connected to their cultures.
● Geographical Advantages: This category describes the advantages that some people
were just luckily given, like growing up in an area that has a large population of your
native culture so you are always brought up around it. This was not necessarily the
choice of our interviewees but it was definitely an added benefit.

Five Design Requirements

Interaction Design Requirements
During the creation of our WAAD we were able to pretty clearly see what attributes helped our
target audience feel less isolated within their cultural experiences. After looking through and
analyzing our groupings we were able to identify five main features that would help our user get
an optimal user experience from our app and ultimately help diminish their feelings of isolation.

Application Premise
We want to create an app that houses information about upcoming events for various cultural
groups that will be routinely updated and can be filtered for various cultural groups. The app will
also have integrations with other platforms such as Duolingo and include channels for users to
meet other users with similar cultural backgrounds and experiences.

Routine Updates

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The app will be routinely updated to include upcoming events.
As seen in our WAAD diagram many people felt more connected to their culture when they
partook in traditions and attended cultural festivals. We wanted there to be a place in our app
that markets upcoming events that users may be interested in. In order for the app to stay
current it is essential that the app is routinely updated to include all the updated upcoming event
information. This is incredibly important in peak festival times as festivals are a great way for
people to get slowly immersed into their cultures in a low stakes environment.

Accessibility
We want this app to be used by a large variety of users so it needs to be generally easy to use.
The entire premise of the app is that it provides an easier way to get in touch with your culture
than routine counterparts like manually searching up events online or seeking out text channels
on platforms like Reddit. According to our research it seems like only two of the people we
interviewed took the responsibility for themselves to seek out cultural experiences, so if we set
up too many barriers we will lose a large market share for this app. The design will be incredibly
streamlined with only necessary features highlighted.

Dynamic
The app must adapt to the needs of the user.
We want our app to adapt to the needs of the user, by allowing for the creation of a dynamic
profile page. In this page the user can input their age, cultural background, and interests so that
the app is curated to present them with opportunities relevant to them.

Integration
This app must integrate seamlessly with at least one other application or organization.
We want our solution to be integrated with at least one other application, organization, or
feature. Examples are Rosetta Stone, Duoling, Asian Cultural Engagement Center, or El Centro.
This integration will provide several benefits such as increased credibility, greater outreach,
wider user base, greater feedback, additional features, and much more.

Geo-Location Sensing
The app must implement geo-location technology to provide the user with relevant information.
With a Geo-Location Sensing requirement users will be able to find cultural events near them.
Many communities hold dances, festivals, and other events for cultural holidays and events.
People who are not familiar with those groups and don’t know where to find these events or get
started will benefit from our geo-location sensing feature which will point them to the details of
these events in order to promote cultural engagement. Additionally, the geo-location sensing
feature will connect users with others who are interested in learning about that culture as well.
This will promote connections which will further the cultural development of our users.

References

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Kirova, A. (n.d.). ERIC - ED455009 - Social Isolation, Loneliness and Immigrant Students’
Search for Belongingness: From Helplessness to Hopefulness., 2001-Apr. ERIC - Education
Resources Information Center. Retrieved February 17, 2022, from https://eric.ed.gov/?
id=ED455009

International students face mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2021,
February 5). Scienceline. https://scienceline.org/2021/02/international-students-face-mental-
health-challenges-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/

The “invisible other”: Social representations of covid-19 pandemic in media and institutional
discourse | papers on social representations. (2020).
https://psr.iscte-iul.pt/index.php/PSR/article/view/548

Clark, E., Fredricks, K., Woc-Colburn, L., Bottazzi, M. E., & Weatherhead, J. (2020).
Disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant communities in the United
States. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 14(7), e0008484.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008484

Ghaffar-Kucher, A. (n.d.). Assimilation, Integration, or Isolation? (Re)Framing the Education of

Immigrants. Columbia University. https://www.tc.columbia.edu/cice/pdf/25604_9_01_edintro.pdf
Harnessing the power of storytelling to support migrant and immigrant students. (n.d.).
Edutopia. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/harnessing-
power-storytelling-support-migrant-and-immigrant-students

Harnessing the power of storytelling to support migrant and immigrant students. (n.d.-b).
Edutopia. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://www.edutopia.org/article/harnessing-
power-storytelling-support-migrant-and-immigrant-students

Appendix A [Interview Transcripts]

Interview 1: Joseph Mecherikunnel

1. Could you tell me a little bit about you and your family's cultural background and
history?
- I am of Indian origin and was born and raised in Northern Virginia. My dad was
born and raised in America while my mom was born in Nigeria and raised in
India.
2. In what ways do you feel connected to your culture?

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 - Other than my external appearance, I really do not feel that connected to my
culture. With my parents themselves being a level of separation from their own
culture they never really immersed me within the language or traditions. One
aspect of Indian culture that I have had experience with is the food, as my mom
continued to cook traditional dishes while I was growing up.
3. Did you ever feel isolated in the environment that you grew up in?
- Yes, I grew up in Northern Virginia, and went to high school that was 70% asian.
I often found that my peers would bond about shared experiences or traditions
that I did not, or merely did not know how to partake in. I felt like a lot of the
Indian girls at my school in specific were very similar in personality, probably as a
byproduct of growing up in similar households but I found it hard to relate to
them. This probably made it harder for me to make friends, but I also did not take
the responsibility upon myself to try hard to make friends.
4. Have you visited any of your countries of origin, and can you describe that
experience?
- I have visited India a few times, it was always interesting because I loved the
culture that surrounded India but I felt so distant from it. Like I enjoyed the street
food and activities, but it almost felt like I was a tourist in technically the country
that I am from. I really only felt comfortable in my house because my
grandparents can all speak English, so they were easy to communicate with.
Beyond that, I felt like people stared at me weird in public because they would
talk to me as though they expected me to understand the language, because I
blend right in, but I don’t understand the language at all, and they always seemed
confused by that idea.
5. Do you have a relationship with your extended family, if so can you describe it?
- I have a very good relationship with my cousins on my Dad’s side of the family,
because they were all born and raised in America and honestly feel like I have a
lot of shared experiences with them as they also weren’t brought up with much
connection to Indian culture. On the other hand, all of my cousins on my mom’s
side of the family live in India and I barely have a relationship with them, and the
relationship I do have is not very strong. Our main barrier is language, because I
don’t speak or understand the language they primarily communicate with so we
are left to communicate with broken English. Beyond that, I really never know
what to talk to them about, like I said I don’t know much about Indian traditions so
I just feel like we don’t have that much in common.

Interview 2: Avi Mehta

1. Could you tell me a little bit about you and your family's cultural background and
history?
- I am of Indian origin, but was born and raised in Thailand. I moved to America
when I was 18 for college, and that was the first time I had been to the country.
My dad has been in Thailand for the last 35 years, and she moved there when
she got married in ‘97. Both my parents and I are fluent in Thai. I would say my

23
 cultural identity is an infusion of both Indian and Thai values, but often think of
myself as more Thai than Indian. At home I have always spoken Hindi (Indian
language), but outside of the house I speak a combination of Thai and English.
2. In what ways do you feel more connected to your Indian culture, and in what ways
are you more connected to your Thai culture?
- I think the main way I differentiate my thinking between the two cultures is on
academics. I definitely am a part of the “grind” mentality that a lot of Indian kids
were raised on, probably as a byproduct of my very rigid upbringing that always
put school first. Thai and Indian culture intersect with their emphasis on family,
culture, and religion so I never felt at a crossroads on those topics. The main way
that I feel more Thai, is in the way I think. Inclusivity and respect for all is much
more ingrained in Thai culture than it is in Indian culture, and I think growing up in
Thailand made me a more liberal of a thinker. I love the food from both cultures,
but ultimately I think I feel more Thai than Indian.

3. Have you and your family ever had any clashes, as a byproduct of different
cultural values?
- My parents, specifically my mom, are very religious and subscribe to Jainism
which is a fairly rigid religion. They have very traditional values about marriage
and sexuality, for example they want me to marry an Indian vegetarian girl of the
same caste as me. Even though Thailand is a very Buddhist and family centric
country it is a fairly liberal place, so my thoughts on religion are more fluid after
living there for 17 years. I could care less about the religion or race of my future
partner but it is definitely something that my parents care a lot about. Once I
brought home one of my female friends, whom I did not have a romantic
relationship with who was of East Asian descent and my mom was very nice and
respectful with her the entire time she was at my house. But when she left my
mom said “I will let you get away with it this time, but not again”, because she
thought I was trying to pursue a relationship with a non-Indian girl. After coming
to America, I am also no longer vegetarian, a decision that I have chosen not to
tell my parents about because I don’t want to make them upset, but personally I
see no reason to be, because I am not connected to the religious reasoning that
drives my parents to be vegetarian.
4. Have you ever felt isolated because of your cultural background in Thailand?
- Yes and no, since I was born in Thailand and I am fully fluent in the language I
don’t think I felt isolated in the country but I definitely felt different. For example,
Thailand is a majority Buddhist country, and as someone who is Hindu I didn’t
always know about the major traditions. But I got lucky in that Buddhism is really
a derivation of Hinduism so we prayed to a lot of common gods so our religions
are very similar to each other so I always felt like I could follow along. I feel like at
this point I subscribe to an amalgamation of both religions and I also celebrated
other holidays like Christmas and Eid with my family. Sometimes I do feel like I
pop out though, because I don’t look classically Thai, so I take people by surprise
when I speak in fluent Thai. For example, once my family and I took a trip to

24
 Phuket, which is like the Florida of Thailand and one of the waiters switched to
English right when he got to our table because he thought we wouldn’t
understand. And when we started responding in Thai he thought we were just
cute little tourists trying to practice Thai until we kept talking and he realized we
were fully fluent. I honestly feel more isolated in America because I feel more
“westernized” than most of the other international students because I am from
more of a liberal country than most of them.
5. Can you describe your relationship with other international students and any
cultural shocks you felt when you moved to America?
- Majority of my friends are international students, so I definitely get along well with
them but there's some ways where I feel kinda different from them, specifically on
social topics. Most of my friends are from India or countries from the Middle East
so they, like my parents, have more traditional opinions on a lot of topics. I feel
like even though I had more western beliefs than most of my friends before
coming to America a lot of my opinions were still challenged. Specifically my
views on LGBTQ+ people. In Thailand everyone is accepted, so I always knew
and acknowledged that LGBTQ+ existed, however they were still looked at as
people that were on the outskirts. Coming to America and seeing how acclimated
people of this community are with general society initially took me as a shock but
I am completely accepting of it now. I think I was able to make this shift more
easily than most of my other international friends, because I wasn’t starting from
a mindset that vilanized people of this group, like the traditional mindset that a lot
of my friends and parents have.

Interview 3: Alicia Marin

1. Could you tell me a little bit about you and your family's cultural background and
history?
- I was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. My family is Guatemalan, but
technically my dad is from El Salvador. I don’t really relate to that side. He came
to the United States when he was in elementary school. My grandparents from
my mom’s side basically raised me because my mom worked a lot and that
caused me to feel really connected to that side.
2. What were things that caused you to feel connected to your home culture?
- Eating traditional food and speaking Spanish at home were big factors in that.
Additionally, most of my friends were first and second generation and the area I
lived in had a concentrated population of central americans. This made it really
feel like a community and helped me relate to, learn, and interact with my culture
more.
3. Did you feel disconnected from American culture because of the differences and
what were some differences that you felt?
- American culture can be very different from our culture. The white American
suburban nuclear family is much more different ranging from their vacations and
traditions and even the way they celebrate holidays. For example, we as central

25
 americans celebrate christmas eve vs white americans celebrating christmas
day. I also felt very different whenever I was in a suburban area and going to a
predominantly white institution (PWI).
4. What are things that help you feel more connected to your culture?
- Having cultural centers as safe spaces such as El Centro is great and just
generally having support and resources around. To stay connected with my
family I Facetime them often. Unfortunately, I’ve never gotten to visit them.
5. Is there a communication barrier between you and your family abroad?
- Slightly, we only talk about basic things but can’t get too deep. Since the
conversation is limited due to cultural differences we can never talk about career
or school topics. This is because education in the United States and El Salvador
are very different. We generally talk about everyday things to pass the time.
6. Have you had a harder time making friends of different cultures and do you stick
to friends of your own culture?
- I’ve always been more drawn to having other hispanic friends. It happens
because we have more in common and it’s just easier to connect with people
who have more in common with you.
7. What is some personal initiative you’ve taken to learn more about your culture or
get more involved?
- Going to this cultural center, joining student organizations, learning about other
countries that are similar to mine and also being surrounded by people of other
cultures.

Interview 4: Sophia Pentakalos

1. Tell us a little bit about your background
- I was born and brought up in Herndon, VA. Both of my parents are immigrants.
My mom is from China and she moved here when she was twenty. My dad is
from Greece and came to the US when he was a teenager. Even though I grew
up in a mixed household, the emphasis was on my mother’s Chinese culture
because my parents decided to pick on culture and focus on that as we grew up
and they chose my mom. I went to chinese school, learning chinese dance and
language and other things. My only greek cultural interactions were going to
Greece over the summer and spending time with my greek family. I had very
limited knowledge of Greek so communicating with them was hard and my dad
had to be my personal translator.
2. How did you try to get involved with Greek culture
- I tried to participate as much as I could by cooking.
3. As someone who was half chinese and looks more caucasion did you face any
discrimination or comments.
- Yes, but it was small, sort of like microaggressions. Even though I was fluent in
Chinese and in the same classes as their chinese kids, other chinese parents
would switch to speaking english when they talked to me. They didn’t
intentionally mean to be rude or mean but it was just something subconscious

26
 that I noticed. Growing up I got along with chinese people but never really fit in or
got involved with all or predominantly chinese friend groups.
4. Did your parents have cultural clashes as they were bringing you up?
- Yes, my mom was the stereotypical strict asian parent. She really valued
performance in school while my dad was more easy going and laid back about
school and other topics.
5. Did your dad ever get upset about you being more involved with Chinese culture
than Greek culture?
- My parents decided which culture to emphasize. He didn’t show it but I’m sure he
wished a little that I knew more about it. I focused on Chinese culture when I was
younger, but now I’m taking it upon myself to get more involved with my Greek
roots. I’m taking Greek language classes in college right now.

Interview 5: Marcelina Krowinska

1. Tell us about your cultural background:
- I was born in Poland and moved to America with my entire family when I was 4.5
years old. My sister was the first child in our family to be born in America.
2. In what ways, if any, do you feel connected to Polish culture:
- When we first moved to America, the town we lived in in Northern Jersey had a
very large Polish population. My maternal grandmother and uncle on my dad’s
side also lived very close to us at that time so it almost felt like we made a mini
Poland in Jersey. The town had a lot of Polish festivals and I went to Polish
school once a week until around high school so I learned a lot about Polish
language in history there. I guess I feel connected to Polish culture in a lot of
ways, I know a lot of Polish people, eat a lot of Polish food, and often speak
Polish.
3. When you moved to America did you have any difficulties connecting to American
culture?
- I got really lucky that when I moved to America, we first lived in an apartment and
the landlord of the apartment lived right below us and had two girls that were
around my age. I spent that entire summer playing with those two girls and they
kind of taught me all the English I know. I picked up their accents and games too
so by the time I went to kindergarten in the Fall nobody had any idea that I had
just immigrated.
4. Do you take any personal initiative to connect with your Polish culture?
- I have never really felt like I had to take that much initiative because I kind of
grew up with the culture all around me. I guess technically I wanted to stay in
Polish school and that was me taking initiative, because my sister dropped out
much earlier than I did.
5. Have you visited Poland and can you describe your relationship with your family
there?
- I have unfortunately never visited Poland but it was very high up on my list of
places to travel to. I also don’t have that much family in Poland, both of my
parents are only children so I didn’t grow up with any cousins. I do skype with my

27
 paternal grandparents that live there, and I’ve been talking to them ever since I
was little so I’ve never really had trouble talking to them. The only thing that’s
kinda weird is they often talk about my other more distant family that I’ve never
met so I just respectfully listen when they talk about them.
6. Can you describe any variations in the topics you may talk to you grandparents
and your parents about?
- My grandparents on both sides of my family honestly just feel like an extension of
my parents honestly. I don’t think there's really anything that I would bring up with
my parents that I wouldn’t bring up with my grandparents. Like my grandma, just
like my mom asks me if I’ve gotten a boyfriend yet everytime she calls me, and I
always respond with “I’m working on it”.
7. Do you feel connected to your culture at Virginia Tech and if not what resources
would you like to see?
- I guess there’s nothing about Virginia Tech that has really helped me feel
connected to my culture. If anything I feel like I’ve learned a lot more about other
cultures after coming here. I would love to see some resources like the Asian
Student Center for Polish students, or maybe even a Polish club. I honestly don’t
have any Polish friends at this school and it would be nice to have some to talk to
about our culture.

Appendix B [Observation Photographs]

Asian Cultural Center

El Centro

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