Excerpt from her book Heartland. I think people should think about the following quote: “ There was no language for whatever I represented on campus. Scholarsh

Excerpt from her book Heartland. I think people should think about the following quote: “ There was no language for whatever I represented on campus. Scholarships and student organizations existed to boost kids from disadvantaged groups such as racial minorities, international students and the LGBTQ community. I was none of those things, and professors and other students often assumed from looking at me or hearing me speak that I was a middle-class kid with parents sending me money.” To add to that: I was an international grad student at Purdue in mid 90s, and didn’t see any boosting. In fact the grad assistant pay was so little that in the first year I either skipped breakfast and lunch or just ate a Snickers bar from a vending machine, for a quarter, because that was the cheapest thing to eat. Once a week I splurged on the Big Mac menu, I still remember the price: $3.14, I think they had a special discount on those days. We were forbidden to work since the assistantship covered the whole 50% work allowance given to H1-B holders. Good old times.