But while Thapa says she wants to utilize these new experiences to become a more global citizen, she says she will not forget that she is attending Harvard in order to be of benefit to Nepal. And as she learns ever more about the American way of life, she says she’s striving to maintain a strong sense of self and pride in her country’s traditions.

A Taste of Freedom

Thapa says she has quickly developed a close group of friends in the first-year class, who like her are adjusting to an entirely new way of life.

Like any first-year, Thapa has reveled in the new freedoms and responsibilities of college life: meeting an overwhelmingly diverse set of people, learning to make her own schedule, holding a job at Lamont, doing laundry—and somehow attempting to squeeze in a solid eight hours of sleep.

“Women are so protected in Nepal. Before I came here I was living in a shell...I was too protected, and it’s good to have a taste of independence,” she says.

These adjustments are doubled for Thapa, who is still getting used to what she calls “the liberal social life of the West.”

People’s dress was at first a bit shocking, she says.

“In Nepal, showing skin is not appreciated,” she says. “Here, people wear the bare minimum!”

Meeting the class of 2007 during freshman week events, along with dorm and entryway discussion sessions have also opened her eyes to the real diversity of opinion and lifestyle surrounding her.

For example, a first-year discussion on diversity in her entryway brought up an alternative view of child labor.

“In Nepal, child labor is food for the child,” she says. “The West has a totally different conception [of the issue].”

Thapa says one of the most important things about coming to Harvard has been the extent to which she “realize[s] people are living lives completely different from what I’ve taken for granted all my life.”

To best absorb this diversity of experiences, she says she plans to refrain from joining any religious or ethnic student groups at Harvard.

“I’m trying to get to know everybody, and I don’t want to distance myself by saying I’m in a particular group,” Thapa says. “It’s nice to hang out with other Nepalis, but I don’t want to belong to any...group.”

Attending an American university has also freed her from the constraints she felt under home country’s educational system, where students must choose the course of the rest of their studies in tenth grade.