Personal Narrative: Embracing Cultural Diversity

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".

Every paper, no matter how well written needs to be revised and edited as time goes on. In some ways, life is similar. We all go through changes that influence us and shape the direction we are headed. Some of these changes come from our own prerogative while others are inspired by friends and family members. I know that my worldview has gone through this revision process. Even looking back to freshman year I had many of the same ideals, same focuses on values and hard work, but over time they have come to manifest themselves in different ways. For instance, I am much more willing to share my beliefs and opinions on controversial issues. This developed as I came to realize my ideas are worth arguing for and I gained a knowledge of

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

I have had many life experiences which have helped me foster an understanding of diversity. When I was in the military I was stationed in South Korea and I experienced diversity on a major scale. For once in my life I was considered the minority. However, the strongest experience I have with diversity was growing up with a mother with a developmental disability, this life experience taught me to be accepting of others. It is a social worker’s primary responsibility to respect the inherent dignity and worth of a person. I believe that I had this social work value instilled in me when I was a child. From a young age, I have been very accepting of people with disabilities in the local community. The exposure to this world has also influenced

Three, Two, One, and the race is off. 30,000 runners pass me in the blink of an eye. I hear the laughter all around. I feel the joy spreading through the area. As the time flys by I see runners starting to cross the finish line and the whole atmosphere turned. Boom! A loud noise followed by a large chunks of gravel flying in the air. Screaming and terror rose as another bomb exploded 12 seconds after. I see the fear of faces scatter throughout the street. Myself and many others, can’t put together what just happened. My instincts kicked in and I run into the action. We’ve just been apart of another U.S terrorist attack.

The question of identity is always a difficult one for those living in a culture or group, yet belonging to another. This difficulty frequently remains in the mind of most immigrants, especially the second generations who were born in a country other than their parents. Younger generations feel as if they are forced to change to fit the social standards despite previous culture or group. Furthermore those who wish to adopt a new identity of a group or culture haven't yet been fully accepted by original members due to their former identity.

My life is an example of extreme diversity - female, Asian, born in South Korea, baptized, adopted, American citizen, and Jewish. My family moved to America when I was about two years old; however, I still maintain ties to my Korean heritage. Even after moving to the United States, my mother and I found opportunities to maintain a Korean lifestyle by attending a Korean Christian Presbyterian Church, where my mom volunteered and enrolled me in classes pertaining to Korean culture and religion. However, not all my surroundings were Korean-based. Since we lived in America, it was necessary to expand our knowledge of the American culture and its traditions.

When defining Harmony, we want to look at the word flow. The authors define flow as “what people feel when they enjoy what they are doing, when they would not want to do anything else”. “In flow, the human organism is functioning at its fullest capacity” (Page 2). When students are having fun, their brain is working its hardest, allowing

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

When asked about their culture these days, it seems as if Americans only respond in two ways; either they detail their rich background and diverse way of life, or they simply reply, ‘I don’t know, I’m just white.’ Unfortunately, due to a massive culture disconnection, numerous Caucasians in the U.S. respond the second way.

We live in a diverse society. People have unique qualities that distinguish them from others. Similarly, I differentiate in my way. Since I was a little girl, I loved constructing things and have a kind of ingenuity mind. Whenever I walked into the toy store I see a miscellaneous collection of toys from stuffed toys to electronics. The store had variety of toys to choose from, but none of the toys enthralled me except for the innovative toys and those that required some sort of building. It seemed like these toys had a magnetic wave that was pulling me towards them. When I arrived, I saw a bunch of puzzles, metal construction toys and I always picked up the unique and complicated one that would require working diligently to turn the toy into a magnificent masterpiece. These little things greatly affected my life. My interest defines me. In a way, my interest helped me figure out

I left home at age 16. within a year, I lived with host families and taught English, a new language for me. The following year I started standing at the OCC. The biggest problem living in a different society is not much as the language barrier as the difference of cultures and mentalities. As a result of this, I spent most of my time with the Russian, who live here, as they are the closest to me in way to think. However, gradual I used to a new culture. And though I cannot call America my home, but for me, it is not a foreign country anymore. For last year, when I went to Russia, I felt more foreign there than here. Anyways, i love everything in my home town. I miss for people,

I will be a unique and quintessential participant for Praxis considering my multicultural experiences as an international student, home schooled, public, and private, and my skills learned through jobs and internships. Living in Benin, Cameroon, Mexico, El Salvador, and the United States made me readily adaptable to challenging living conditions, languages, and learning curves. Being in a different country gave me a different perspective on the way people go about their business in the United States. Living in those places made me realize how well off Americans are. For that reason, I am a bellwether American; I am different than other people, being, I don’t have the proclivity that everyday Americans have. Similarly, my extensive background

Without diversity, our world would be a very singular place. To me, diversity is the depth of knowledge that you get when people with different backgrounds and experiences (such as socio-economic, religious, ethnic, cultural, and sexual orientation differences) come together to find a solution to a problem. Since individuals usually draw on their specific life experiences when trying to solve a problem, a diverse group of problem-solvers with diverse approaches inevitably results in more creative and practical ideas. I look forward to spending my college years learning from people whose perspectives are different and unique from my own and enriching the dialogue with my own experiences. My life has always been different from most of the