I still remember my first day of school; my ambassador did not help me, and I had to wait till period four to meet kids that were actually willing to be friends with me. The constant Spanish that I could not understand and teachers failing to pronounce my name is little to say about my first day. Although I did not cry, I remember being suspicious about attending ASFM. Today, I am pretty much accustomed to the shock I had on the first day of school. I am used to the Spanish rantings in class, the Mexican version birthday song, and so more. Yet, there still is an aspect of the school that I deeply dislike: the use of international student as a CHED project.

Every year in Character Education, students are asked toidentify a problem within the community and resolve the issue. Exclusion is a popular topic in this matter, and groups easily focus on “International Students” as their project.

For these projects, surveys are sent to international students with questions that tend to be hurtful. For example, I have received questions like “Rate how shocked you were when you first came to ASFM,” “Do you feel excluded in the ASFM community?” “Are you in the generation chat?” and “How many people talk to you every day?” Whenever I receive these surveys, I instantly feel disappointed as these seem to reflect how the community perceives us.

From my understanding, the community identifies International students as unhappy, lacking friends, failing to ask for support, isolated, being friends among themselves, and so much more a truly flawed perception. The problem does not stop here. So far, none of these CHED projects solve anything. Students always come up with a list of solutions and then end up with a simple poster or video thinking that it will suffice. For myself, it has come to this moment that I feel like people objectifying international students for a grade.

Locals constantly flag the international community as"excluded" and ask us insulting questions after using us as test subjects. Without a clear solution, these Ched projects would only exacerbate the exclusion. Making posters and videos that label us as“excluded” is not a solution - it only creates more stereotypes.

The aim of this article is not to suggest that exclusion does not exist, but rather to ask that those who wish to tackle the issue do so in a manner that is respectful. Thus, it is essential for teachers to make a guideline for students when dealing with these topics. In addition, the ASFM community needs to change their attitude to truly accept international students.