It’s another busy lunch period in the Taylor Place Dining Hall. Students slowly walk around, surveying their options.
There’s the always-reliable sandwich station, the grab-and-go pizza station, along with the fallback grill station.
But lunch also offers another special option.
A metal cart stands a couple feet away from the cereal and milk with an average-size African woman making customized chicken Caesar salads for a long line of students. The woman puts some lettuce in a large metal bowl along with grilled chicken, onions, cucumbers and a thick, creamy Caesar dressing. She mixes it together and gives it — and a smile — to a brunette standing in line with a friend. The girl sits down with other students and I take the chance to ask her a few questions.
I want to know what she thinks about the woman who makes her salad — Caroline.
“The salad lady?” journalism freshman Kaitlyn Carl asked.
Yes, the salad lady.
“She’s so sweet,” Carl said. “She always asks how my day is. She’s very personable and she brighten ups my day.”
Carl often goes to lunch during the week and visits Caroline’s station anytime she’s making a salad or egg rolls. But given that she sees Caroline more than once a week, how much does she really know about the “salad lady”?
“We talk when she makes my salad,” Carl said. “I know she’s from Kenya.”
Stefan Harris, Caroline’s boss in the cafeteria, also knew she was from Kenya, but not a lot outside of that fact.
“I haven’t had the chance to ask her a lot of questions about where she’s from,” Harris said. “But I look forward to it.”
Even though he doesn’t know a lot about Caroline, he does recognize that her station is very popular with students.
“She’s very friendly,” Harris said. “She gives of herself (and) she comes with a positive attitude.”
Caroline Naisarian — the salad lady — is an ASU graduate and believes she could someday be Kenya’s first woman president. She came to Arizona from Kenya in 2009 to pursue a master’s degree in nonprofit studies, and graduated from ASU last December.
While she made me cheesy nachos, I told her I wanted to write a story about her and she laughed.
“A story about me?” she asked, seemingly in shock.
I nodded.
A couple days later, when I interviewed her after her shift, I told her that several people had noticed how nice she was.
She humbly looked away and laughed with a big grin on her face.
“I wouldn’t say I’m nice,” she said. “Everyone has their faults. I just have this happiness and joy knowing I’m alive.”
Caroline grew up in an orphanage ran by her mother. She went to school and attended United States International University-Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, to pursue a degree in journalism. After graduating she got a job as a journalist, but knew it wasn’t the right career for her.
“My heart wasn’t in it,” Caroline said.
So her mother asked her to help with the orphanage. There, she served as an administrator and managed a trust fund. She felt like she could make a difference and realized that her heart was in nonprofit.
“This is what I was called to do.”
After finding her niche, Caroline decided to continue her education in the U.S.
“Coming here is like a dream,” she said. “I still have to remind myself I’m in America. Back in my country people worship America. They see it as a country with no problems.”
She did some research and found what the nonprofit program at ASU offers, and even received a full scholarship from FastWeb, a website that helps students find scholarships for their specific major, interests and studies.
When she arrived, she wanted to find a job to supplement her income. However, international students are restricted as to where they can work. She had to find a job on campus and applied with Aramark after attending a job fair held by ASU.
The next challenge she faced was the language barrier.
“I’m used to British English, which is much more refined,” Caroline said. “I (had) to relearn English the American way.”
“The American way” included more slang terms than Caroline was used to, but she slowly made the transition and is now looking for a job. She wants to stay in Arizona, but the job search is proving difficult.
“I’m trying to network,” Caroline said. “One thing causing huge barriers is I’m not an American. I go through more screening than most people. You have to work harder if you’re another nationality.”
But in the end, she hopes to return home and make a difference. She wants to go back to Kenya and get involved in politics, maybe even change the history books and become the country’s first woman president.
First on her agenda is to lead Kenya’s Department of Children’s Services, part of the government’s Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development. The department supervises child homes, helps with child welfare services and provides basic needs for children in institutions.
Currently, many children face the streets because of HIV and AIDs. Families don’t have enough money to care for the children and if the father dies from the disease, people blame the mother. The mother then struggles even more to take care of her children as the sole provider in the household, often causing children to become homeless. Caroline said there are people in the country who can help, but instead choose to ignore the issue.
“There are many rich people in my country and they can make a difference, but they don’t,” she said. “It makes me angry, it makes me cry.”
Caroline’s political goals extend further than heading a department.
“I believe I can become the first woman president,” she said confidently.
The road to the presidency will be a tough one. As a woman, she faces many cultural stigmas.
“Women are seen as homemakers, (they’re) not seen as people who can do good,” Caroline said. “Women have accepted it. We are our own enemies. It really frustrates me.”
Another cultural issue she faces due to her gender is the possibility that she may not marry, due to her involvement in politics and her higher education.
“(Men) want to keep women under them,” she said. “Most of the time men are intimidated by me. I’d like to get married, sometimes I worry I won’t.”
However, she believes the culture is changing.
“Some men want to marry an educated woman,” Caroline said. “They want an equal.”
And hopefully, the shift in culture will carry out a change in government when elections occur next year.
“I want them to elect young people so the old people will step down,” Caroline said. “You need new ideas. I hope and pray for a less corrupt system.”
Contact the reporter at dmillar@asu.edu
