Billy Sidhu '09
Building Bridges
When Billy (Bilawal) Sidhu came to OES as a sophomore, he was the only student from India in the dorm. Most of the international students had at least one fellow countryman, but Billy needed to reach across cultural boundaries to make friends. No one else spoke his native Hindi, so he communicated in his second language—English—which was also a second language for most of the other international students. In making that effort, he developed a talent for relating to people of various backgrounds so well that he has become the go-to guy when others have a problem.
In the dorm, Billy has been a prefect, which is an upperclassman who plans dorm events and works out problems among students or when a conflict arises between students and dorm faculty. He recognizes when cultural differences are creating friction and knows how to create bridges, especially between Asians and Americans.
“Being from the Asian subcontinent, we have a lot in common between Indian and Chinese culture, so I can understand their point of view,” he said. And although he is new to the United States, he is very familiar with American culture because it is so ubiquitous in India.
“People of my generation in both India and America grew up watching the same TV shows and using the same slang, eating the same food, going to the same restaurants, and wearing the same clothes,” he said.
Billy’s experience with people from other cultures in the dorms stimulated his interest in international relations, and when he heard teacher Hope Stevens talk about the Model United Nations, he knew he wanted to be part of it. He joined and served as a committee chair when he was a junior. At this year’s conference, there was a committee that wasn’t functioning well—people couldn’t seem to stay focused on the topic—and the conference leaders asked Billy to head that committee. Soon people were working together, and at the end of the session, Billy was given an award for best committee chair.
In addition to knowing everybody in the dorms, Billy also connected easily with day students, so much so that he was one of the top two vote-getters in the election for student body president and entered the runoff. In an Upper School of about 300 students, he fell only 11 votes short of winning the post, an unprecedented feat for an international student.
Billy has chosen to attend the University of Southern California, partly because of its excellent program for computer animation, which is a passion of his. He is planning a dual major in computer science and business administration, and he hopes to find a career that will allow him to spend time in both India and the United States.
“I see myself holding a leadership position in an advertising firm where I bridge the gap between computer guys, artistic guys, and administrative business people,” he said. If anyone can do that, it’s Billy.