Jen Katz ’19
When Annie Sumpunkulapak ’19 first came to Macalester, she felt isolated and confused. As an international student from Thailand, Sumpunkulapak felt a distinct distance between herself and domestic students. Her friend Xavier Xin ’20 had a similar experience.
“We met during our first year when everything was confusing and we found it really hard to adjust to Macalester as international students,” Sumpunkulapak said. “Most of our other international friends also had trouble adjusting here or making friends with domestic students.”
She continued, “That kind of feeling of coming here for your first year, not knowing anyone, not knowing the country, not knowing how to socialize, not getting American jokes, not knowing how to make small talk or finding house parties really weird, not [being] accustomed to the culture here is really hard, and it’s even harder when you think you’re experiencing that alone. But you’re actually not.”
That’s where Home Magazine comes in. Sumpunkulapak and Xin founded the magazine in the spring of 2018 as “a voice for international students.” They serve as editor-in-chief and literary editor, respectively.
In Sumpunkulapak’s words, Home is “halfway between The Mac Weekly and Chanter.” The online magazine publishes both op-eds, interviews, and other non-fiction writing, but also features poetry, photography, and other forms of visual art. Recently, Home has started “The Y-Project,” a hybrid between a video project and an advice column that welcomes questions about the experience of being an international student.
Across these varied media, Home consistently explores themes relating to internationalism. Sumpunkulapak is interested in posing questions, not giving definitive answers.
“When you have people coming from different backgrounds, different countries, different cultures, we try to present those ideas and then have the audience decide which one they like to consider,” Sumpunkulapak said. “I think that’s what Macalester has to foster more, is presenting different perspectives and different ideas, rather than making someone have to say this particular thing in a particular way.”
She cited an op-ed by Chuan Ping ’22 titled “Should International Students Make American Friends?” as an example of Home’s commitment to opening up conversations on difficult topics.
“We realize that [the Macalester community] is really afraid to talk about race or [other] sensitive issues because they’re scared that they’re wrong. We also try to dive into that direction as well,” she said.
The topic of Home’s upcoming fifth issue is “Home at Mac”: as Sumpunkulapak puts it, “How do you make Macalester or Minnesota your home?” Unlike previous issues, this one will feature only visual art.
Home Magazine welcomes submissions for their upcoming issue from domestic and international students alike on their website, where you can also sign up for their newsletter. Make sure to follow them on @bringinghome.org on Facebook, Home Magazine on YouTube, and @bringing.home on Instagram for updates about new issues, projects, and submission opportunities.