Ethnic Identity

Allen Cofer
Mrs. Redding
This I Believe
26 September 2012
Compare and Contrast
A person’s identity is simply who they are. Different aspects of life can shape the way you define your own identity. In their article, Kim Tsai and Andrew Fuligni explain that a person’s identity is shaped when they go off to college. Their beliefs gather that a four year college prepares students to seek their identity more so than a 2 year college. Another article, written by Silvia Santos, Anna Ortiz, Alejandro Morales, and Monica Rosales addresses identity.
It correlates campus diversity with students’ ethnic identity. They ultimately argue that campus diversity allows a more powerful insight to one’s identity. While both articles look at the way
For a large number of students, campus diversity was a positive and enriching experience that fostered a greater sense of belonging and feelings of inclusion and acceptance (Santos, Morales, Ortiz and Rosales 107).
Tsai and Fuligni write, “Interactions with students from various backgrounds at diverse colleges may also promote search of and belonging to one’s own ethnic group” (58). Both authors agree that a sense of belonging is always needed in establishing your own identity.

The major difference between the group of authors is their belief on the effects of going to a diverse campus and being involved in extracurricular activities. Tsai an Fuligni believe that extracurricular activities drives the student to start looking into their identity, while Santos,
Morales, Ortiz, and Rosales believe that going to a diverse campus causes the students to seek their identity. Kim Tsai and Andrew Fuligni focus their research on the fact that being involved with extracurricular activities helps strengthen emotional wellness through engaging in ethnic identity (57). The authors explain by engaging in extracurricular activities students
A 4 year school offers more extracurricular activities than a 2 year school will. Because of this, students at 4-year colleges were engaged in greater levels of ethnic search and exhibited marginally higher levels of ethnic belonging than did students at 2-year colleges (Tsai and Fuligni 62). On the other hand Santos,
Morales, Ortiz, and Rosales focus their research on campus diversity. They write, “A diverse campus environment encouraged a more mature and evolving sense of ethnic identity in some students” (108). A student feels more comfortable having similar ethnic identities surrounding them to further explore them with their peers (Santos, Morales, Ortiz, and Rosales 108). Santos,
Morales, Ortiz, and Rosales tend to develop their study more around the race aspect of the college students. They write, “The interview sample was composed of 29% White, 26% Latino,
22% African American, and 23% Asian” (106). On the other hand Tsai and Fuligni focused their ideas on what type of college the students chose and where they would be living. Both group of

authors made assumptions around these different factors that significantly affect the