This paper considers the rapid demographic shifts in contemporary American society as they manifest themselves in today's classrooms in the United States. An effort to articulate these twenty-first-century student identities is highlighted in data from an ethnographic case study examining the literacy practices of one student of Filipino and American heritage. "Créolization" theory is used to further discuss and provide context to local meaning-making occurring against global and colonial designs. This paper contributes a much needed paradigm shift in education aimed at articulating student reality, providing theoretical frameworks for further discussion, and outlining the capacity for an active engagement with cosmopolitanism.