December 01, 2008
Up close and personal: student diaries
Entries allow prospective students and Web visitors a glimpse at life as a Clark student
WORCESTER, MA—Darcey Kurashige-Elliott of Berkeley, Calif., is one of six undergraduates who has been documenting her experiences this semester on the Clark University Web site (www.clarku.edu). She and five others were chosen at the start of the semester by the Office of Admissions to serve as Clark Diarists for the 2008-2009 academic year. The Clark Diaries are personal blogs posted on the Clark Admissions’ Web site that provide a unique and personal look at the life of a college student.
Kurashige-Elliot is majoring in European history, with a concentration in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. She is a member of the Clark softball team, and has also volunteered for organizations including the Greater Worcester Land Trust and Food Not Bombs.
Kurashige-Elliott’s diary entries describe her coursework, her support for Clark’s women’s soccer and field hockey teams, and her attendance at a Clark student performance of “As Bees in Honey Drown.”
In her entry on November 23, she wrote, “I haven’t been to many plays based at Clark, and those that I’ve seen were performed by outside acts, so I was eager to see it performed by Clark students. I found it very entertaining, and I look forward to enjoying other Clark Theater acts down the road.”
Many of Kurashige-Elliot’s entries discuss the challenges she faces as a student living far from home.
On October 11, she wrote, “…a lot of Clark students who live near campus are able to go home for the long weekend. Being from California, I don’t exactly get that chance… That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy it here at Clark - my experience here has been absolutely fantastic. I often have people offering to take me back home with them too, which is great (thanks, friends!). Living this far away from home does take some getting used to. I do get to talk to my parents a lot, though, as well as my sister… So it’s not bad, and when I do get to return to Cali I savor it that much more.”
Kurashige-Elliot also writes about how she’s been able to keep in touch with relatives on the west coast and a friend who is studying abroad.
“I have recently rediscovered the joy that is Skype, which is a program that allows you to video chat with people all over the world. My sister and I talk a lot via Skype now—she is in Washington attending the University of Puget Sound as a junior. The best thing about this is that I get to meet all of her friend, and she gets to meet all of my friends, even though we’re thousands of miles away,” she wrote.
Despite being away from home, Kurashige-Elliot was able to cast an absentee ballot during the Presidential Election. On November 10 she wrote, “This was the first time that I was able to vote for a president … and it just seemed fulfilling…to do one’s duty. I was finally able to vote for my congresswoman, who I had seen many times during my time in high school in Berkeley—in district 9, Barbara Lee speaks for me!”
Kurashige-Elliot is a 2006 graduate of Berkeley High School. She is the daughter of Jerine Kurashige and Ed Elliott of Berkeley, California.