Power in belonging

Meigan Karolak picked up the calligraphy pen and gently set its black tip to the white paper. On it, in smooth strokes, she drew out the Chinese characters to represent the name she was given at birth, Yue. 

Karolak, an operations and supply chain management major who just completed her junior year, was learning to draw her name as part of activities on campus to celebrate the Lunar New Year. 

It’s one of many opportunities she’s had through the Asian American Association, a student organization to support and empower students of all Asian cultures and to share those cultures with others. Karolak is president of AAA, one of the organizations supported by UD’s Multi-Ethnic Education and Engagement Center.

“MEC is very important in helping people to lean in and embrace their cultures,” said Karolak, who was adopted from China. “A lot of the people in AAA have similar stories to me — they went to PWIs (predominantly white institutions) and then they came to another PWI, and they have learned here that they belong.” 

“MEC is very important in helping people to lean in and embrace their cultures.”

As a child, she quickly mastered first Chinese and then English. She then turned her love of Spanish into a minor thanks to the warm and inviting courses led by UD languages professor Francisco Peñas-Bermejo. 

She’s looking to combine her academic interests in languages, business and sustainability after graduation by working for an international sustainable energy company. Worthington Industries fits those interests, and she’s been interning at its Columbus, Ohio, location thanks to the Heffner Internship Endowment, which helps pay her summer living expenses.

“I’ve loved working for Worthington, and I’ll probably end up working for them full time once I graduate,” she said. 

As one of three children adopted by a single mother, Karolak always knew she’d have to pay for her own education. A variety of scholarships, including one from UD in the name of Dayton philanthropist Virginia W. Kettering, covered all her tuition expenses. When asked whether the scholarships made a difference in her choice to attend UD, she answered, “a hundred percent.”

From, Kettering, Ohio, Karolak shares the story of the special spelling of the first name given to her by her adoptive mother. “Mèi mei” means “little sister” in Chinese.

“I hated when people asked me why my name was spelled differently because I just didn’t like the idea of being different from anyone. I always wanted to fit in, belong,” she said.

“But I think coming here, now, I love when people ask me why my name is spelled like that.”

In that explanation is the knowledge that she, indeed, belongs.