International Student Spotlight: Piper Nixon

Piper Nixon ’23, a sophomore transfer student, is finishing up her first semester at Elon with a twist: this is the first time she’s lived in the United States since she was ten years old. Piper spent the first decade of her life in California and Vermont until her dad’s job brought Piper and her family all over the world─and she has the international student lifestyle nailed down. 

Piper Nixon, certified world traveler. Photo submitted by Piper Nixon.

Piper’s first move after Vermont was Shanghai, China, where she lived and attended middle school. From China, she moved to Zurich, Switzerland, for high school, and then finally moved to Paris to attend the American University of Paris for a year before transferring to Elon. 

The Edge was so excited to talk to Piper and get the scoop on her experiences abroad and what it’s like being an American returning to the United States for the first time in years. Many Elon students have been lucky enough to experience a few months or a few weeks abroad, but ten years comes with a whole new level of insight, and we want to share some of that with you! 

So what is it actually like being an American growing up internationally? Piper gave us a lot to think about. She shared with us that it's easy to feel on the outskirts of both living environments, being an American who has spent so much time away from America and being an American living in a foreign country.  

“I am American and identify with being American, but being away from the country for so long, sometimes it’s harder for me to understand things and get used to certain things. So it can be a little difficult sometimes,” Piper said. “The harder thing is, because I’m American and sound American and talk American, I feel as if my outsider-ness isn’t seen that way or isn’t as obvious,” Piper said. 

We totally get where Piper is coming from─a lot has changed in the United States in the past decade and all of us would struggle to play catch-up, and it’s definitely a different experience when you are thought of as just an American, not an American international student. 

Piper also told us there were many times when she found herself being a minority during her time abroad, sometimes being the only American in her friend group or in her classes. Piper attended international schools growing up, so her friends were from all over the world, but being a minority as an American is likely an unfamiliar experience to many Elon students. 

“I represent myself a lot differently now because I was always not just representing myself, but I was representing America in a sense, so I’m very patriotic,” Piper shared. “I just wanted people to try to see Americans positively because sometimes abroad they don’t.” America has played its part in a lot of controversy over the past few years, and we admire Piper for committing to bring the positives of American culture to light. 

Piper also gave us some insight into how growing up in international schools and spending her first year of college attending a Parisian university shaped her life. Piper said one of her favorite parts about the international school system is that international students move around a lot, so you find so many cool connections and meet a lot of mutual friends. She told us about a classmate she met in Switzerland who had recently gone to an international school in Malaysia, but they discovered they had eight mutual friends from attending international schools─even on different continents. Think about that next time you call Elon a “small school.” 

Piper wrapped up by saying that she misses her time living abroad and the “international kid” lifestyle. She said she especially misses seeing her friends who are spread out across several continents, but is ready to “take a little break from traveling and see what it’s like to live in the U.S. again.” We know this first semester at Elon has been a little abnormal, but we wish Piper the best during the rest of her time at Elon and her reintegration into the United States!

Featured image submitted by Piper Nixon.

We do not own any of the images pictured in this article.