About CCA
Our mission
To foster community and belonging for students shaped by cross-cultural experiences.
CCA creates connection around the experiences that come with culture, identity, transition, and belonging. People arrive from very different backgrounds and still recognize shared patterns in one another’s stories.
That recognition is the point. It is what turns a room of strangers into people who understand something about each other quickly.
Shared language
What is a Cross-Cultural Kid?
A Cross-Cultural Kid, or CCK, is someone who grew up meaningfully interacting with at least two cultures during their developmental years. The term comes from Ruth Van Reken, who noticed that people arriving by very different routes kept describing the same things: adaptability, comfort with ambiguity, a sense of home tied to people more than places.
The routes vary enormously. Growing up between languages at home and at school. Moving countries, or moving between communities within one country. Being raised by parents from different cultures. The paths do not look alike; what they produce often does.
This is language for understanding shared experiences, not a test you pass or a label you have to claim. Plenty of people at CCA have never used the word about themselves.
Who we welcome
Centered on some, open to all
CCA’s mission is centered on supporting students shaped by cross-cultural experiences. That focus is deliberate, and it is what makes the community feel specific rather than generic.
It is also genuinely open. If none of the CCK description sounds like your life, but you want to widen your perspective and learn from people whose paths differ from yours, you are welcome here.
Our question
What we mean by “What’s your story?”
It is easy to meet someone and stop at the surface: where they were born, what their nationality is, what box they check on a form. Those answers rarely explain much about a person.
The question we keep asking is about the experiences that actually shaped someone. Where they felt at home and where they didn’t. What changed for them and what they carried through it. It takes longer than a label, and it is the only thing that has ever made a room feel like a community.
Core values
What guides us
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Belonging
Everyone should have somewhere they are known, not just included.
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Empathy
We assume there is more to someone’s story than we can see.
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Curiosity
We ask real questions and stay for the answers.
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Respect
Difference is treated as something to understand, never to rank.
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Service
We show up for each other and for the wider campus community.