KPU Nepalese students punch back at underrepresentation with newly formed club
Faced with stress, isolation, and underrepresentation, the Nepalese Student Association aims to support Nepalis at KPU
Stress is something international students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University are all too familiar with, something the recently formed Nepalese Student Association (NSA) wants to fix.
Satish Chandra Mishra is a Nepali student at KPU and president of the NSA. Coming from a middle class family in Nepal, Mishra says he worked as an optologist’s assistant before coming to KPU with big dreams to further his studies.
Mishra arrived in Canada in December, and says he suffered with stress and isolation due to the gap between his circumstances and dreams. While this past winter was warm for Canadians, it was dark and cold for Mishra, but on KPU’s orientation day, everything changed.
The isolation that trapped Mishra melted as he made friends who he was able to explore and travel with, he says. This gift of community motivated Mishra to create a club to support Nepalese students, which he hopes will stand strong after he leaves KPU.
“I thought if there was a club, it would help people coming from [Nepal] or who were already in Canada,” Mishra says. “It would help [them] to relax and refresh.”
While Mishra saw many clubs under the Kwantlen Student Association’s umbrella, he says there were none that could “help out Nepalese people.” He decided to smash this glass ceiling and created a WhatsApp group with the help of Uttkarsh Bhardwaj, manager of international recruitment & marketing at KPU. Together they recruited over 100 members to the club, in both Nepal and Canada, who are at KPU or planning to attend.
The NSA functions as a second family for Nepali students at KPU by providing them with a community upon arrival in Canada. With rising mental health issues among international students, the NSA aims to provide critical support.
Mishra also says the goal of the club is to help Nepalese students network and “share their knowledge and experience of Canada” with each other, along with celebrating Nepalese festivals and events as a community at KPU. The club also wants to share the joys of Nepalese culture with non-Nepali students and staff members at KPU, Mishra says.
He also stressed the importance of creating space for other cultures at KPU.
“Many people don’t know about Nepal … because it is a smaller country in between two larger countries, China and India. [People] don’t know about our country, region, culture, festival, or social norms,” Mishra says. “That’s why we are planning to make them know about our country, Nepal, too.”
He says the club is open to all Nepalese students at KPU looking to celebrate traditional Nepalese festivals and support each other.
While the club has no upcoming events, Mishra encourages students to stay up-to-date by joining the WhatsApp group at https://shorturl.at/fxDE2. While Mishra says club membership is not open to non-Nepalis, the festivals hosted by the club are open to all.
