Caught Between Two Cultures: In many ways, Asian students at Cornell University seem like a successful group. At the competitive Ivy League school, they make up about 17 percent of the student body — by far the school’s largest minority.
But the stereotype of Asians as brainy, quiet “model minorities” helps hide serious problems. Of the 14 suicides between 1997 and 2007, eight were students of Asian descent. In anonymous health surveys, Asians were more likely than White students to say they had difficulties with stress, sleep and feelings of hopelessness — and yet they were less likely to seek counseling.
White students may wrestle with the same problems, but tend to get help or be helped sooner, says Dr. Wai-Kwong Wong, a counselor at Cornell’s Gannett Health Services.
“To a large extent, it’s not just a mental health issue; it’s a community issue,” Wong says. “A lot of the issues that students were presented with have to do with their environment and their sense of community or lack thereof.”
