Students describe pros, cons of attending college with siblings

Right before the first week of Fall Quarter, Sneha Shastri could feel the anxiety welling inside her. She had experienced a particularly rough morning thinking about what her new life as a UC Davis student would be like. Later that afternoon, she received a text message that told her to look outside. When Sneha peered out the window there was Shruti Shastri, her older sister, with Dutch Bros in hand and a smile on her face.

In fact, Sneha, a third-year transfer neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, is no stranger to the UC Davis campus. Shruti, who is almost four years older, also attended UC Davis for her undergraduate career and is now a second-year student at the UC Davis Veterinary School.

“This was like the only campus [I’d visited],” Sneha said. “I’ve visited so many times when she was an undergrad, and like we went to Picnic Day together, the Whole Earth Festival. We had done so many things.”

Despite her familiarity with the UC Davis campus, Sneha made the decision to come, and admits she is happy with her decision. Davis practically a second home to the sisters. Having gone to school together for their whole lives, attending college with each other was not a strange experience.

“I think we’ve always been pretty close,” Shruti said. “We’ve gone to school together so many times like elementary school. [When] I used to be in fifth grade and she was in first, I used to go to her classroom and help out and we used to teach them how to read. And we went kind of to the same high school as well when we were living in India together.”

The two sisters spent their childhood living in Southern California before moving to India with their parents in 2005. They moved back to the Sacramento area seven years ago when Shruti began her freshman year at UC Davis as a biology major.

“We lived in Mumbai, so it’s a very metropolitan, big, loud city,” Shruti said. “[Davis] was a super quiet cow town, and so it took awhile to get used to that and the pace of Davis. But I absolutely love Davis now. It took a couple years, but we’ve been here for so long.”

Even though the sisters don’t live together currently, they get a lot of face-to-face time. Shruti lives at home in Sacramento and commutes to school. Sneha lives in Davis but visits home in Sacramento practically every weekend.

“I’ll see her during the week sometimes too,” Shruti said. “Since she has a place here, if I have a big test the next day or something then I can always crash at her house and sleep over and study all night, that kind of stuff .”

Having a sister in town means there are perks for Sneha, too, including rides to school and study breaks at In-N-Out.

“The good part is that if I forgot something at home, then I can ask my sister to just bring it for me,” Sneha said. “Or my mom will make me food and she’ll send it through my sister.”

Going to school with a sibling means more than just crashing on couches and free rides to school, though. It’s the perfect opportunity for Shruti to pass down her wisdom and experiences as a UC Davis undergraduate, like what classes to take and which teachers to avoid.

Another example Shruti notes is that Sneha will soon be studying abroad, something Shruti never got to experience herself. Yet despite the bit of sibling jealousy she felt, Shruti pushed her younger sister to go for it when she was feeling unsure.

“I was able to push her to do that because I felt like I had missed out on that experience as an undergrad,” Shruti said. “So I felt that, [and] by just being here, whatever experiences that I had, I could help her to make the best out of her experience.”

Another set of UC Davis siblings that find support in one another are twin brothers Jordan and Preston Leung. Preston graduated last spring and majored in biomedical engineering while Jordan is currently taking a fifth year to finish up his degree in mechanical engineering.

“We were pretty close [growing up],” Preston said. “I mean you hear stories about twins being really close or not close, but I think we were the pretty close-type. We did everything together, we had very similar interests, similar activities, sports, everything.”

Although practically joined at the hip through a lot of their lives, one of the first actions that one brother took to distinguish his identity from the other was by doing choir in high school. As freshmen, the brothers decided to take another step in the direction of independence and chose to dorm separately. Incidentally, they both ended up only a building across from each other in Tercero.

“I think that was when it was starting to deviate a little bit, just because we were around different people,” Jordan said. “I would hang with my floormates a little more and he would hang with his floormates, but then we still knew each other and would still intermingle. I would come home and go to my dorm and I wouldn’t see Preston, and that was very weird for me.”

Once enrolled at UC Davis, both brothers quickly switched out of their original majors of food science and environmental science. They both decided on biomedical engineering in order to pursue a pre-med track. About halfway through undergraduate, though, Jordan realized that a pre-med track wasn’t for him.

“[We were] taking similar classes and [I was] seeing certain subjects that would light me up and certain subjects that wouldn’t light me up, and those that would light Preston up and those that wouldn’t,” Jordan said. “I remember he would talk a lot about [physiology] and for me I was like ‘I mean it’s cool’ but I never really got too into it. That struck me because I was like ‘I’m pre-med’ but I wasn’t so into it. And we both did an HRI internship, which is a health related internship, at the UC Davis Medical Center, and I remember I just really didn’t like it at all.”

Growing up, Preston was a little more sure in himself than his younger brother of 13 minutes. Despite having a little more independence and passion, he felt more comfortable with Jordan at his side. And when they were both finding their groove in college, both brothers began to notice their individuality more than ever.

“I was like ‘I think I know what I want’ and just kind of [went] for it, and then I think I saw Jordan as someone who would affirm that, being that person that would be with me, but I wouldn’t feel necessarily dependent,” Preston said. “I would feel more like ‘oh it’s good to have Jordan next to me.’ So seeing him kind of go in his direction, it kind of was like ‘oh Jordan has his own thing, oh that makes sense.’ I didn’t realize that, and I don’t know why it didn’t really come to mind in that way until college.”

While Jordan and Preston may have found different interests in their college journeys, they still found that one of the most valuable aspects of going to school with a sibling is automatic access to a wider network of friends.

“[Your network] gets larger, so the people that know Preston, will eventually know me because I’m his twin brother, so that’s kind of nice,” Jordan said. “A lot of people [are] like ‘oh that’s Preston’s friend’ and someone’s like ‘oh are you Preston?’ like they’ll mistake me for another twin, it happens all the time.”

In fact, Preston claims that when he was attending UC Davis, not a day would go by without someone confusing the two. Preston compared the experience of going to school with a twin brother like going to school with a clone.

“We share a lot of similar friendships, and I think that really helps us and when he knows someone, I know that person more deeply because of that,” Preston said. “It’s a very intimate connection that we both get to share with people.”

With such proximity, though, comes the tendency to compare. Jordan claims it becomes easy to compare himself to his brother because their lives are so overlapped.

“I think the comparison thing is really key because sometimes you feel like when you go to college you want to explore and find your own thing, but we’ve always been together,” Preston said. “I think the best way is to encourage each other, but sometimes if you’re afraid, you kind of look at each other and don’t take that step of exploring or discovering your own thing. [It’s] more comfortable to do it together.”

While there are some difficult aspects about going to school with your sibling, there are plenty of advantages as well. One thing that the Shastri sisters and Leung brothers both have in common, though, is a desire to forever stay close and supportive of their sibling even after college.

“I think that’s the hope,” Jordan said. “I would love to be a part of what Preston’s doing […] I want to be able to be a huge support for him and what he’s doing [in his future].”

Written by: Marlys Jeane — features@theaggie.org

Students explain importance — or not — of voting in ASUCD elections

With the winter 2018 ASUCD election cycle now over, the UC Davis student body has elected its new ASUCD president, vice president and senators for the next year. However, it is slightly misleading to say that members of ASUCD were elected by the entire student body when voter turnout was less than 10 percent.

Interviews with students in the CoHo revealed a great deal about the attitudes toward ASUCD and how a disconnect in communicating the importance of ASUCD’s work to the student body can create indifference toward the organization.

“I got emails and have no excuse for not knowing about it, but with everything going on with school I don’t really put much thought into it,” said Alex Majewski, a third-year chemistry major. “Since I don’t really have an immediate answer for what student government does for me, I feel like if they made students more aware of how it might affect them it might give them more incentive to go out and vote or at least take more interest in it.”

An interview with Teak Hahn, a first-year environmental science and management major, demonstrated the impact of spreading information about candidates by word of mouth, showing how engagement with certain interest groups can get more people to vote, even if they weren’t particularly engaged with the process in the first place.

“I’m on the women’s water polo club team and my captain Sophia told us all to vote for particular candidates because they said they would help us with the current issue with the Rec Pool,” Hahn said. “Currently they’re trying to renovate it so they make a pool that’s a lot smaller than the pool we currently practice in so we’re trying to fight against that. My captain spoke to some of the people running and the people she told us to vote for said that they would do something about that.”

Even though Hahn did vote, she said that she would not have if she had not been informed about the pool issue by her water polo captain.

“I do believe it’s important to vote but I’m a little bit skeptical about the power that these people have,” Hahn said. “I honestly don’t know enough to say whether or not they have the power to make real change.”

Hahn shared why she thinks there is some disconnect in motivating people to vote.

“I think something that’s really important is that the issue is relatable for people,” Hahn said. “I noticed when I was reading the bios that all of the issues that they wanted to address were things that were relevant to them, but if it doesn’t resonate with the people voting, then it’s going to be more difficult to get them to vote for that cause if they don’t really believe in it.”

However, her case proved that when issues are important to smaller groups, it can be a key motivating factor.

“I think people are lazy and if they don’t have enough faith in the system that it will create real change, they have to see the change, then it’s not going to matter to them and they aren’t going to vote,” Hahn said.

Parker Nevin, a fifth-year cognitive science major, revealed that he did not vote in the election and is bothered by how candidates seem to do such a large amount of promotion without actually informing people of their positions and qualifications.

“I don’t know much about ASUCD or their function or what their powers are,” Nevin said. “I see all of the advertisements everywhere but they’re not very substantive. It just doesn’t seem like they have much content. It’s just like, ‘BASED’ or some hashtag and I just don’t care.”

Nevin thinks that it would not be difficult for the candidates to be more effective in spreading more relevant information.

“I think what they would have to do to get me more interested is show me what they’re capable of, what they’ve done in the past and what they plan to do in the future other than trying to spread hashtags around,” Nevin said.

While Nevin was outspoken regarding what he refers to as a lack of readily available information on the candidates, he admitted that he had never actively sought out information. When asked if he had ever sought out information regarding ASUCD candidate credibility, Nevin’s response was telling.

“No — I suppose that’s on me, but I think it would be easier if there was some sort of information about them that was as readily available as the, I don’t want to say propaganda, posters with names and hashtags and phrases, then I would probably know enough,” Nevin said. “However, if I was really interested in voting in the first place, then I could seek out more information.”

Nevin later spoke on the topic of what he thinks makes certain people more likely to be involved with the process and to care about voting.

“My guess, from a sociological perspective, is that they probably know someone who is involved with ASUCD, or they are in a group that is directly affected by ASUCD,” Nevin said. “It’s possible that there are personality types that are more predisposed to go and search that out. I consider myself a very politically involved individual, but when it comes to ASUCD, I guess my assumption, to be completely honest, is that they don’t really have much real power, that it’s sort of a way to get talented kids into the grad school of their choice. I hate to be that cynical.”

The degree of cynicism and skepticism present in the CoHo interviews is given a thick layer of irony by the fact that ASUCD is responsible for running the CoHo.

“ASUCD runs the student coffee house, a common hangout for students,” said Shellan Saling, a fourth-year international relations major and the campaign manager for the Unite! slate. “Without ASUCD, the Coffee House may not exist. Students should care.”

Saling continued by describing more of the important positions that candidates take and why their advocacy is important.

“ASUCD has also been at the forefront of fighting for more affordable student housing in Davis recently by showing up to Davis City Council meetings to represent the entire UC Davis student body,” Saling said. “Students need to understand ASUCD has a direct impact on us.”

Despite low turnout, Saling believes that the executive victory and three out of six senate seat victories prove that Unite!’s campaigning and promotion was successful in reaching students.

“Unite! won bottom line, therefore we are effective,” Saling said. “Our slate as a whole looks for issues that may not be as publicize[d], for example, the platforms increasing free entertainment ran on by Brandon Clemons, clubs and disability activism ran on by the executive ticket. These were issues affecting many of our students but had not been given representation yet. We also made a[n] effort to reach out to lesser known groups or groups not often represented in elections.”

ASUCD Elections Chair and fourth-year sociology and social services major Naeema Kaleem spoke on why she thinks it is so important to be involved and to make an informed vote.

“The folks that are elected decide what to do with a $13 million budget, some of which is comprised of student fees,” Kaleem said. “Our campus climate today scrutinizes how administration uses student fees, so why not hold other entities that utilize student fees accountable? Accountability is a buzzword thrown around in the Association, but it actually carries a lot of weight, as folks who are elected make decisions that directly impact communities across campus.”

Kaleem also explained how elected officials in the senate and executive office work with ASUCD units to try to improve the services that students engage with on a daily basis.

“The executive office and senators work with almost 30 ASUCD units that the average student uses almost everyday,” Kaleem said. “The elections committee worked extensively with our amazing creative media team to engage the student body with ASUCD units through events and social media efforts.”

Kaleem thinks that generating more interest in the elections process requires increased efforts from all parties involved.

“From an elections committee perspective, the responsibility of creating more interest in ASUCD elections [and] ASUCD as a whole lies with three groups: current sitting senators, candidates running in the election and the student body,” Kaleem said. “That was the point of this quarter’s tagline of ‘It Takes 2 Minutes’ — that if senators truly did their job and educated students on who to vote for, how to vote and how the Association impacts students’ daily lives, voting really would take two minutes.”

While Kaleem is optimistic about the efforts that can be taken to increase the level of student engagement with ASUCD, her insider experience has left her with some of the same cynicism that is reflected in the student body.

“Having been in ASUCD for two years and running two elections so far, I can say that the senate table does an abysmal job of educating voters and promoting elections and then complains that unqualified/undeserving folks are elected to office,” Kaleem said. “Candidates, however, have the responsibility of finding communities on campus to represent in their capacity as an elected official, and finding issues that affect those communities. This is when the student body comes in — if they are unhappy with election results, instead of complaining, they must hold their elected representatives accountable by going to senate, committee and commission meetings and making their concerns heard.”

Kaleem believes that the key to making ASUCD’s work a greater concern in the minds of students is for the elected representatives to do as much as possible to ensure that the student body knows how to and feels welcome to be proactive in catalyzing change.

“Contrary to popular belief, ASUCD can be accessible — but only if those elected to represent students ensure that the space is inclusive and welcoming,” Kaleem said.

Written by: Benjamin Porter — features@theaggie.org