Our Own True "Fighting Scot"

By Ricky Marte

The dream of any parent is to provide the best living situation for their child. For Adam Campbell’s parents, that was the whole idea of making the move from Scotland. “My parents wanted to leave Scotland since I was born,” said Campbell. “They wanted to seek a better life as the area I grew up in was not the nicest. There was a high rate of alcohol use and drug use and gang culture, believe it or not. My parents wanted out. My dad was offered a job in Burlington MA as well as in Dublin, Ireland and Singapore. He chose the US, as he had already worked here on business before I was born.”

Adam Campbell, a junior linguistics major currently residing in Brookline, New Hampshire, is from Scotland. His family immigrated to the United States in March of 2001. Campbell was eleven when his family came to the United States, by way of France. This made his transition a bit easier.

Although the transition was easy, it was still a transition, and there were many different things about our culture. Once arriving in the United States, he experienced culture shock. There were a few things that came to mind immediately when I asked about what it’s like to live here. “The US is so much bigger than Scotland,” said Campbell. He also added that in his home country it takes much less time to get around than it does here.

As with any foreign student, Campbell faced some stereotypes here. He often gets asked if he grew up in the highlands. He didn’t. He often gets asked if he likes haggis. (a dish composed of a sheep stomach stuffed with offal and spices.) Truth is, he first tried it when he got here. He does own a kilt, but he has only worn it twice. One of the things that Adam noticed early on was that Americans appreciate foreign accents. “When I first arrived, I realized that Americans tend to appreciate foreign accents, and though it has never “gotten the girls” as I was told in 6^th grade when I first came here, it has turned out to be a fairly good conversation starter.”

There are more serious stereotypes that Campbell has faced. “The worst is people expecting me to fit stereotypes that I don’t. Because I spent my mental maturing age here (high school) I think like an American. Only recently did I realize this and have tried to regain an International ideology and not solely an American one.” Basically, Campbell is a Scottish immigrant who lives in the United States, and thinks like someone who was raised here in the United States

Campbell, being from Scotland, has some very strong opinions in regards to the issues in his home country. “As said before Scotland relies on the United Kingdom. The UK is made up of four equal constituent states (Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland). It therefore has no voice on the international stage and requires the British government to do its bidding,” says Campbell. “The UK and therefore Scotland run on Parliamentary systems. This means that at every election each of the 600 or so constituencies in the UK send one person as their representative to parliament. The political party with the majority of seats will put in place a government with the party head as the Prime Minister. Scotland, as well as sending representatives to London, also has its own parliament.” These facts about Scotland’s relationship with the larger countries that surround it are cause for some conflict. Campbell expressed a great amount of concern with the amount of power that the other countries have, and the lack of power that Scotland has. Basically, they don’t have a say. This causes various issues that led Campbell’s parents to believe that there was really no future for their family in Scotland, which caused them to immigrate abroad.

There are also differences in education when comparing Scotland to the United States. It seems that in the US it is the cultural norm to go to college,” says Campbell. “Not so in Scotland. More kids are likely to join technical training schools at age 16 and be out in the working world by age 17 or 18. It’s not looked sown upon if one doesn’t have a college education as I feel it is here. Education is essentially free through undergrad (possibly graduate) in Scotland.” Basically, students in Scotland start school a year earlier than students here as well.

Adam Campbell’s family was always Christian, although Campbell had never attended a Christian school while in Scotland. “I grew up in a Christian family, but had always attended public school, says Campbell. “I thought that freedom to express my Christianity while also meshing it with my academic pursuits would be healthy in the short run and a fun change. I’ve loved it here.”

One would think that the connection between Gordon having Scottish roots and Campbell being Scottish would have an interesting twist. However, it really doesn’t. “I tend to be a little more cynical with this, so please excuse the cynicism,” says Adam. “The only connection I see is the name of the mascot and the occasional bagpipes heard on campus. This is by and large an American school.”