My Cultural Backgrounds

I was very excited when I saw this essay prompt because diversity is actually one of the main criteria that drew me into NC State. All throughout my schooling life, for as long as I can remember, I never attended any schools that were diverse. There was always one extremely predominant race or gender, and it’s something that truly disturbed me. I am excited to attend a college that is so diverse in many aspects, that I will be able to benefit from in multiple different ways. I will be able to learn and understand new perspectives which will help me gain an open mind and heart to be able to accept different kinds of people. I will be able to familiarize myself with different backgrounds and cultures, because I am so accustomed to my own, I

During my professional, personal, and academic experiences I have always placed an extraordinary value on surrounding myself with diverse ideas, cultures, and opportunities. One of the primary reasons I chose to attend Washington State University was for the size, I enjoyed the variety of opportunities presented to me and the connections I was able to make with people from all walks of life. Academically, choosing to major in Global Politics and minor in Global Studies granted me the ability to indulge myself in a multitude of cultures, religions, languages, and general ways of thinking. This translated into my personal life while serving as President of Sigma Tau Gamma Fraternity, where we were extremely proud to represent a diverse group of people, and work to ensure that everyone’s ideas were respected, opinions were heard, and no matter what all of our members had an opportunity to thrive while attending Washington State University. Professionally, while employed as Supervisor for the Games Department at Norpoint Entertainment I was responsible for managing employees that’s needs ranged in a variety of ways, from ideologies, ages, and their socioeconomic status. No matter where I was,

As a member of several clubs and organizations, I have always valued the wide range of people you can find within the walls of my high school. If you walk into my Physics lab, you will find me collaborating with a dancer strongly involved in his cultural heritage and a volleyball player in the engineering academy. If you come to my Calculus class, you will see me calculating derivatives with a football player, a snowboarder, a National Honor Society officer, and a painter. The word “diversity” is often used to describe a cross-cultural population, but it is so much more than that. At Bartlett High School, students originate from hundreds of different cultures, with an abundance interests, and participate together in an assortment of activities.

What is my cultural identity? Personally, I don’t think I am completely assured on what my cultural identity is, but I can do my best on explaining it. However, I won’t get started on that yet, first I’ll explain the occasion of me learning about my identity. At almost the beginning of the year, it was announced in our English class that we would be doing an essay on our cultural identities. When my teacher announced this I thought to myself, “What in the world is a cultural identity, or even my cultural identity?” In these months, we have gotten to learn the definition of culture, and what it means to us, individually., I believe that culture means a group of people that share the same customs, way of life, and beliefs. Also, over these last couple of months we have been reading texts all about people knowing and understanding their cultural identities, meanwhile I still didn’t understand my own. All I know is that I was born on February 11, 2002, I like movies and music, and my mom is from Chile and my Dad is from Virginia. Now that didn’t feel like enough for me to write on, but then I started thinking about all of the cultural differences that my parents have had raising me as a person, and how those have all combined to make me. In my short 15 years of life, the culture clashes have sometimes affected me on my thoughts and opinions, which I’ll talk about later on. As well as how movies and music have affected my perspectives and opinions.

My cultural background is English, I am an atheist I don’t believe in much but I do strongly believe that people should be treated equality. I am a very open minded person when it comes to diversity and others beliefs. I have never experienced my views impacting others negatively I have always educated myself on other beliefs so I don’t offend them but if my views did impact others

While I may not have had much exposure to diversity in my hometown, I have done my best to put myself out there and learn from those who have backgrounds different from my own. I even participated in the Walk a Mile in Her Hijab event last Spring. I think coming to Loyola has helped me to understand my personal privilege, and recognize that I have much to learn regarding all the beautiful things that each individual brings to the table.

My first recollection about my cultural background started in junior high school because this is when people start fitting into groups or cliques and people tend to be in groups with their friends. The different types of groups included the preps, jocks, band geeks, hoods, druggies, and bookworms to name a few examples. Of course, I was not into sports so much or band, however, I fit with many different groups because I had friends that belonged to different things, however, I was more of a bookworm because I was concerned about doing well in school. People that were considered outsiders were people that were loners, troublemakers, or anyone that did not fit with a specific group. In addition, sometimes it was difficult to be involved with other groups because sometimes I hung around with people that might be considered outsiders and that did not always work because people in my group were not so understanding.

Charles F. Glassman once said, “In a few seconds, we judge another person and think we know them. When, the person we’ve lived with the longest, we still don’t know very well- ourselves.” Writing about my values has gave me a better understanding of who I am. I now understand the several ways my culture has shaped me to become who I am. My cultural autobiography will allow me to reveal who I truly am by understanding my cultural identity. My cultural identity is the combination of my worldview and values as well as my position in the eight microcultures.

The fact that my school was diverse was a gift. I met all sorts of people from different races, religion and even sexualities. Everyone there respected each other 's ethnicities and each of us are creative with different ideas from our culture. With diversity we can feel comfortable working with different people and have connections with them. If the schools weren’t diverse, the minorities would have a hard time fitting in and getting involved with the school. If the classroom wasn’t diverse, how could we learn from other people’s cultures and point of view. My friends introduced me to their culture and I honestly had the best experience of my life. I got to learn different dishes such as Shchi, a Russian dish, and dimsum, from Chinese’s style buffet. I started to learn and notice different race and learned to appreciate their culture. Diversity can also causes problems. Katherine W. Philippis

I’ve consistently been engaged in the national fight against educational disparities in the collegiate student of color population. Not only in my formal education and career history, but also my personal life has been committed to exploring solutions to problems created within dynamics of multiculturalism, identity and social injustice. This is why I know the Multicultural Academic Advisor position is the perfect next professional step growing my career in student services and deepening my commitment of upholding my fraternal credo to uplift through enlightenment & education. My undergraduate education consisted of a combined media and cultural studies course history as an Afro-American Studies and Communication Arts major. This collective pair resulted in acquired cross-cultural relationship values and investments of personal identity sensitivity training including experiences with diverse people from different geographical, theological, and ideological backgrounds. Researching Afro-American Studies and Media Studies simultaneously required me to engage in scholastic discussion exploring the implications and effects race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age and appearance not only have on my personal worldview but also that of other people in my community. Courses and seminars such as the Student Intercultural Dialogues Course or Ethnic Fest Celebration, Multicultural Conference On Race & Ethnicity, Race & Gender In America or

In the Honors College, I will add much diversity. Growing up in a biracial family household, I have been immersed into two completely different cultures, languages and societal expectations. By ethnicity, my father is Hispanic; however, he grew up in France and stayed there until he received his PhD degree. While living in France, my father was poor and lived a simplistic lifestyle. One Christmas he was gifted a dictionary from his parents, and it was the best gift he has ever received. Unlike my mother’s parents, his parents did not care about

I’m think I very cultural competent because I know although you can be dark skinned does means you have the same cultural background. I have lived in Korea for one year. I been to Japan and Mexico. My son father is Haitian and when females from his country comes over they give hugs and a kiss on the cheeks. The males and females all consider each other family. It just a big different from being African American most of us would be offended. If I had to work with Korean youth, I know they are giving more independence at young age. Americans are more protective over their youths. As a counselor, I knowing the norm of my client/ patient cultural, will help me communicate with the client. I can only do this by stating up today on the latest research,

From growing up in Fayetteville and Sneads Ferry, North Carolina I have not experienced much diversity. The person from whom I had to learn about different cultures and people was my mother. She is an attorney who has worked in public service and experiences peoples from different cultures, races, and creeds daily. My mother taught me not to judge people based on outside appearances but rather than on inside values. From my mother, I learned how to appreciate the fact that every person has their own talents and specialties. Each person has their own preference and opinion and that should be respected as long as it does not cause harm to another. By learning these values from my mom, I believe that I would be a great candidate for Hollins University.

Growing up, I had a basic understanding of diversity and the importance of inclusivity. Before attending the University of Maryland, I only considered race and gender when thinking of diversity since those are two of my own identities. Living in residence halls and getting involved in extra curricular activities, my self-awareness and understanding of other identities increased.

The school atmosphere was different I was hanging with Caucasian girls and the African American children did not understand what I was doing being so close to children opposite of my own culture. At that point, I was unsure of what their problem was but realized they were sheltered from other cultures and raised differently. This caused several fights as a child because other children would call me a “little white girl” and I had no idea of what that meant and was offended. I was raised around majority boys in the neighborhood, until I started playing softball, some would consider me as a tomboy. So