Personal Narrative: Culturally Enriching And Diversity

I left everything behind and refused to go back. I left the one thing I wanted the most, but found the one thing I needed, freedom. My dark cloud of regret was behind me as I entered my salvation, Amsterdam. I entered the gates of Amsterdam and saw a multitude of smiling faces and entered the light. I had no recollection of how I got there, but I knew he wasn’t here I could feel it. I was finally free and I walked through the golden gates knowing I could start over.

Diversity can create many challenges when studying with people different from myself, indeed. Everyone is unique, and a certain degree of diversity will exist in every interaction that I have; however, the degree of the diversity and impact it has on creating challenges is dependent on the biases, along with other factors that exist. Moreover, biases and how I weigh my differences will determine the magnitude of the challenges. Some of the differences might be race, religion, physical ability, experience, age, ethnicity, and gender, along with much more. Additionally, diversity can have positive and negative effects while studying in a diverse environment. At any rate, I can overcome the challenges of diversity, but must understand

What is culture? Culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. There are many different cultures around the world. A lot of them are similar in specific ways and others are just completely different, this difference explains why we think that people from different backgrounds are "weird".

I was born and raised in the small but growing city of Perris, CA. This isn’t the best city out there but it tends to grow on you, and you begin to truly love it for what it is. The people, however, not so much. The community can vary from which part of the city you’re in. That’s because there’s diversity here in Perris. I’m a product of this diversity, being half Mexican and half African American. My parents fell in love after high school and later on began a family. I am the youngest of five. I have two older brothers, an older sister, and an older cousin who lives with us. The order is boy, girl, boy, boy, girl with my cousin being included in there too. We all live in the same house with my parents and are quite close with each other. They all seem to have raised me growing up due to the fact that my parents were busy trying to provide for us. This was a challenge by itself, resulting in lots of house moving and my father being unemployed for six years after losing his job. I never complained about moving because I knew that my parents were doing their absolute best and were working with all that they had and then some. This unquestionably made me adaptable to new environments and gave me a

My diversity project desribes me in many ways, some ways you already know about me some you don't. The outside of the folder repersents things that you may already know about me, the first image is of my name everyone knows my name becuase that is how you have conversation with me and get my attention. The second image is of a musician becuase I love music, it's a vey important part of my life , it makes me feel better when im upset and helps me clear my head. The third image shows a person running, this image repesents me because i'm a very active person, and i do my best to stay healthy and keep in shape. The fourth image is of the number 21, which represents my age. And the final photo is of the color black is represents my favortie color.

The world is over 196 million square miles that is home to over 7 billion people all with unique qualities and backgrounds. Me being a caucasian living in Lakewood Colorado I lived though the generic lifestyle of a christian. Church every Sunday and quiet family meals were normal for us but what I didn’t realise was that there was a whole world of ethnically and culturally different people just an ocean away.

My definition of diversity is acceptances of people with different culture, ethnicity, gender, economic status and background. Diversity means that my ideas will be represented to achieve a common goal. At 9 years old, I left my malaria- infested country to come to the United States. My first day of school was overwhelming I have never seen so many different shades of skin color. All I have been accustomed to was shades of brown in my country. I was now the odd ball in a room of strangers. I immediately played the role of mute. There were other kids that had my skin color in the classroom, but I was the only African. My identity was obvious, tallest in my class with long skinny limbs and an unhealthy looking weight that led one to believe

I was six, I knew that we couldn’t stay one place forever. That concept was foreign. Every few years my family and I were stationed to a new place, this time 45 minutes away. Of course, being the stubborn and impatient six year old I was, that seemed a light year away. I have never had friends that lasted over 3 years. Either they left, or I moved. This time, I left first. My friends were my world. I was happy. They were devastated to get the news of my departure. Tears were mixed with the “goodbyes”, and the occasional “I’ll never forget you”.

Throughout my high school year, majority of my time was spent competing on the track team. I was immersed in diversity when I went to practices and meets. Just the sport itself is a metaphor of diversity. Ranging from the high jump, javelin, and one mile run, there is an event for everyone. I was able to distinguish myself in the sport, choosing my own events and becoming the best I can be.

During my last semester I took my first cultural diversity class. This class taught me a lot which is why I found the first couple of chapters very interesting. When I began reading “Gang Leader for a Day” by Sudhir Venkatesh I thought he was doing this for a good cause. In his first semester of graduate school, Venkatesh decided to study African-American poverty. He went into the Chicago projects and experienced the gang life. I felt he genuinely wanted to be diverse and see how other people, who were extremely different from him, lived. Being diverse is wanting to see a great deal of variety but what Venkatesh did was far from this in my opinion. While reading I began to feel as if he was doing this to prove that African-American’s lives’

My diverse background allows me to see both sides of the spectrum. One day I live in the suburbs of the city that I live in. I see old white males in drive around in their corvettes and think about what it would be like to have one of my own. Another day I see poverty. I see urban areas. I see what it’s like to not have anything. I see the quality of life that the people in the suburbs would not have the experience of living in.

Growing up in a diverse society the concept of race really does not exist. Obviously different races exist but people were not seen by the way they looked. People honestly looked past one’s race and looked at the person's character instead. This was the way I try to be. I say try because once I moved to Midlothian Texas my mind set started to shift from looking at someone's character rather than their race to looking at someone's race and then their character.

The environment i was raised in was a diverse environment.The people who had shaped me

One way in which I have built relationships with people from other etnic backgrounds was growing up in the projects in grade school. The famalies living there were primarily of african american, haitian, dominican, and puerto rican decent. While living there I saw first hand how my peers were percieved by others but more importantly who they truly were my caring, loving, and misinterpretated brothers and sisters. I also have had the pleasure of building relationships with people from across the world by living in a housing building with international students and through my position as an orientation leader in college. Through family style dinners, culutural events, church services, and study groups I was able to both learn and share with people

The myriad of cultural experiences passed on from my family also extends throughout my life academically. In my high school over 52% of the students were from an ethnic background other than my own. Attending an incredibly heterogeneous high school led me to pursue meaningful relationships with students, teachers, and staff without regard to their race, religion, background, economic circumstances or sexual orientation. Learning, side-by-side, with such varied individuals shaped me as a person, expanded my horizons as a student and thinker, and shaped my globally focused and inclusive approach to the world. The experience also afforded me fresh and comprehensive points of view both inside and outside of school. From several of my friends who are