Host Profile for National Immigrants Day: Meet Meenakshi
At FIUTS, we love our homestay hosts and are so proud that our community of hosts represents so much of the diversity of the Puget Sound region. In honor of National Immigrants Day - celebrated each year on October 28 - we’re proud to celebrate the fact that many of our hosts are not originally from the United States, but have come here from other parts of the world themselves.
Our Host Profiles recognize and feature the wonderful hosts in our community whose generosity means the world to our students. We’re thrilled to feature Meenakshi Sinha and her family, who started volunteering as hosts just last year! Read on to learn more about Meenakshi and her experience (and also, happy birthday, Meenakshi - we’re so glad to be able to recognize you on your special day!).
Meenakshi (second from left) with her husband Ranveer and their daughter, along with their two students Miloni and Amrita during the FIUTS Community Hosted Dinner in September 2021
What made you decide to become a FIUTS host?
It started with an online conversation I had in Spring with Ellen Frierson, the Director of Education and Outreach at FIUTS, as she reached out to me to contribute a painting for the FIUTS fundraiser. After hearing about FIUTS, its goals and programs, I immediately signed up to be a host. I came to America from India as a PhD student 22 years ago, and I feel that I can relate to the curiosity, excitement, and anxiety new international students face. I signed up as a host to share my experience of living in America as an immigrant and to help the students ease the transition. Our 9-year old daughter loves making new friends from around the world, so that is an added bonus.
What countries have you hosted students from?
Over the summer, I virtually hosted students from Tunisia, Brazil, Russia, and Indonesia. We hosted a dinner for two students from India recently and we have plans underway for our next meetup in person.
What’s your favorite thing about the U.S. to share with students?
I love sharing that being in the U.S. as a student is a very enriching experience. There are limitless opportunities to learn any subject or skill, and more importantly, to make life-long friends from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned from hosting?
I came to realize how much things have changed since the time I came to America as a student. The two Indian students we hosted are much more informed, confident, and well settled in their student lives on the UW campus. Technology and social media have made the world smaller and well connected, and that plays a big role in how easily international students get adapted to their new American lives.
What’s been your favorite hosting experience or memory?
We absolutely loved meeting Miloni and Amrita, two students from India. It felt like I was having dinner with my two nieces in India who are around their age. Our daughter connected with them easily as if they were cousins, and they immediately made plans to visit the "Harry Potter library" on the UW campus together. I felt as if our family expanded in just one night.
Thank you, Meenakshi, for everything that you have contributed to FIUTS in the past few months! We’re so happy to have you as part of our community.
Interested in becoming a volunteer host through FIUTS? Let us know!