Hilal Nakiboglu: Seeking the untraditional career

In elementary school I wanted to be Connie Chung.

I would sit too close to the TV set during NBC Nightly News and, sometimes, the Today Show, studying her delivery, her words. Later, in the security of my room, I'd close the door, invert a hairbrush, stand up tall in front of the mirror and become her.

Mostly, I'd interview people like Madonna or Michael J. Fox. Leaning toward them slightly when asking the "tough" questions. Nodding slowly when they provided sensitive, thoughtful answers in response. Sometimes, I'd take a copy of the newspaper and read aloud at my desk, pretending I had put together these important sets of words and was responsible for relaying them to the world. Just like Connie.

To the amusement of my family, I'd deliver the occasional "newscast" to them in the living room. Standing in front of the TV set, usually in my mother's heels and with some red lipstick smeared on my face for effect, I'd talk grimly about the "economy" and "famine in Ethiopia."

Years later, I would go on to attend Chung's alma mater to study... genetics.

This is strange, perhaps, as I had no burning interest to study or pursue a career in biology. But it is explainable.

Sometimes, the education/career choices we make are not fully our own. Whether or not we completely acknowledge, or even realize it, we can feel the need to be successful not on our own terms, but within those of our parents.

This feeling seems especially common among the children of first generation immigrants like me.

The pressure exists for immigrant families to assimilate. As such, we rarely stray off the beaten, sure path. Assertions of ethnic heritage and "home culture" are generally limited to small, private spheres of activity. Publicly, we put our nose to the grindstone, doing our best to attain "success" in a sense most American. We rarely take an open, political stance on anything of a sensitive nature, lest we attract negative attention to ourselves and our community.

Although our parents took some amount of risk in crossing the ocean to set up camp here, we, as their children, are largely discouraged from going outside of the lines of safety they draw for us. Our education and subsequent career paths are carefully determined and almost always point the way toward the lucrative and safe.

Clearly, I speak broadly here. It is not wise to suggest that this happens universally for all immigrant families. My feeling is, though, that this type of cautious, thoughtful planning around career and education is at least partly responsible for creating minority groups considered "successful" within the American system.

But it is important to consider the price tag such "success" brings with it.

As first (and even later) generations of immigrants continue to stick to the tried, true and parentally sanctioned professions, their voices run the risk of going unheard. They continue to be, largely, invisible to the public eye. By dutifully bubbling in "chemical engineering" and "biology" on their college application forms, certain first generation Americans might be selling out their dreams in favor of those of their parents. The end result is a continued under-representation of ethnic minorities in the arts, music, politics, media and entertainment.

Blaming one's parents is too easy to do here. Instead, we need to be rethinking why we gravitate toward the majors and careers we do. Are we resistant to exploring the nontraditional? Have we been ingrained with a deep-seeded fear of failure? Fear of risk-taking? Do we secretly disrespect the roads that don't lead to company cubicles or stethoscopes? Are some of us selling ourselves short, in majors we ought not to be pursuing?

The success of an M. Night Shyamalan, a Connie Chung or a Vera Wang seems extra sweet, given pioneering steps into competitive, insular territories they have had to take. They serve as exemplars for those with a daring and passion for the "different."

Tonight, beginning at 6 p.m., the Pan-Asian American Community House will host two such pioneers in the ARCH Building's fireside lounge. Nancy Yamada from Fox network and Murali Balaji of The Delaware News Journal will speak about, among other things, their experience of being Asian Americans in the fields of broadcast and print journalism, respectively.

I plan on attending and promise to leave my hairbrush-mike and heels at home -- just this once.

Hilal Nakiboglu is a second-year doctoral student in Higher Education Management from Ankara, Turkey.

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