When I Came To Diversity Essay

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the diverse experiences that I have had in my personal and professional life. Fortunately, I have had a large mix of diverse friends and experiences in my life. This paper will discuss those diversities as well as the plan to expand on my current knowledge.

Moving from Los Angeles to Chicago for my dad’s work left me marred with a longing for year-round sunshine, palm trees, and mountainous horizons – things that most Midwesterners can’t even imagine. As a Korean and Caucasian, I leave people confused with which racial slurs to throw at me (“white rice” is the most clever one yet). In first grade, my parents pulled me from school to teach me how to think for myself through homeschooling. Ironically, it was with this same sentiment that I applied eight years later to Chicago Hope Academy, another place where I’d be different. As a sophomore transfer, I was unfamiliar with rappers like Drake, Eminem, or Tupac everyone around me praised. I wasn’t used to words like “finna,” let alone the Spanish spoken by my soccer teammates as I was the only Asian-Caucasian in the student body. But at this time in my life, I realized that you learn the most about yourself when you're surrounded by those who are different from you. Several years later, my closest friends include an avid atheist (and former Buddhist), the sixth best soccer player in Illinois, and a survivor of fatal heart surgery who shouldn’t be alive – I couldn’t find a more diverse community of

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

Throughout my life I have been exposed to little diversity. I grew up in what is considered to be “the whitest city in America”, in schools that were even less diverse. In fact, I went to the third richest public high school per capita in the country with a student body that was 98% white. It may seem like I am flaunting myself, however, it is the opposite. Growing up in a city neighborhood where I was rarely exposed to outside affliction, I never truly grasped the true meaning of “freedom”. Of course, like in most schools, my professors would discuss it in class, but it is impossible to comprehend a concept without experiencing, witnessing or reading about it in depth. Throughout high school, freedom to me was refusing a curfew and staying up late with friends, aware, but rarely caring about went on outside my bubble. Despite not accepting it at the time, I was what most upper-middle class white kids are. Ignorant.

Example 3: My colleague is a wife of her husband, parent of her children, teacher for her children.

“We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we are all human race” - Kofi Annan. This quote said by Kofi Annan explains perfectly how not all people have to be of the same background or even the same culture but everyone is still a human being so you can not treat them as any less. America is a melting pot because of all the different cultures in the US today. Also, the US is working on rights for all by making it more convenient for people who do not speak English to have the same rights. While some people believe diversity separates a country, it can be argued that diversity creates unity because today the US is a melting pot, and they are working on rights for all.

As I reflect over my life, I appreciate the many diverse experiences I’ve came to encounter. My experience with diversity dates back to birth. I am from a small rural town, Moss Point, MS. and notably the last state to abolish slavery. The town currently has a population of 13,704 people and consists of 73% Blacks or African Americans, 23% Caucasian, 1% Hispanic or Latino and 1% bi-racial.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.” For an organization to work well it has to have a diversity of people, good communication with all the employees, and to be organized in a way that is effective and efficient to function properly.

Coming from a diverse background has allowed me to understand the importance of diversity in a school, whether it be diversity in culture, experiences, activities, or talents. Discovering that Boston University’s undergraduates come from over 100 different countries drew me in right away. Diversity is important in a school because it allows students to learn from one another and share their unique experiences, and being a student at Boston University will allow me to be a part of that amazing diversity. Another prospect that excites me about Boston University is the more than 100 study abroad and internship programs throughout the world. Going to Bolivia through my high school has allowed me to recognize the importance of studying abroad in

I am a middle-class, African-American woman studying at a predominantly White institution, which provides me with a unique perspective both in the classroom and in society. My diverse background will impact my time abroad in a positive way, because my interest in other perspectives presents a welcoming attitude that is genuine about experiencing new cultures during my time abroad. Although there will be challenges, my cultural identity can offer a renewed view of the average American.

What does diversity, culture, gender, and race all have in common with one another? These are all names of labels. In the TED podcast, “Beyond Tolerance” Arthur Brooks, Verna Myers, and Aziz Abu Sarah introduce the main problem between all of these labels. The common problem between these labels is diversity. Society has this mindset of what everyone should be like and if stepped out of that perspective, that person will be looked down upon. This in turn creates diversity. In The Gender Knot, Allan Johnson introduces the fact “ As men go about their everyday lives, they don’t have to bother to think about how sexism affects women, just as whites don’t have to concern themselves with the consequences of racism and the upper class lives largely oblivious to poverty and middle-class anxiety.” Johnson is applying almost all problems between society and diversity. On this diversity expedition these common labels will be picked deeply apart one by one through the eyes of a uncommon feminist man.

Attending a completely immersive school where I didn’t know the language, every class was a barrage of gorgeous words that I had no capacity to interpret. And as the situation was only temporary, I felt like an intruder in the other students’ lives. Cordiality was adopted with me, but I was mostly seen as a compelling figure that represented the America they had heard so much about. The immense change in my life overwhelmed me and had me begging to go back home everyday. I walked the streets, with their markets and indigenous people and festivals, while ignoring each morsel of custom that made up the region. I feel ashamed that I could be so ignorant as to squander the opportunity that had been given to me at such a young age. But as of now I can only search through my memories and hope to derive meaning from the experiences I did

Structural diversity is defined as the holistic diverse demographics of a community, in this case, as it pertains to collegiate institutions. From this, we can examine the racial disparities amongst the academic community. It has been proposed that for many different ethnic communities the implementation of structural diversity has influenced each community in a different way. The influence of structural diversity serves different purposes for European Americans as it does to African Americans, Asian Americans or Latin Americans. In Bowman’s (2012) study of structural diversity in college, results concluded that structural diversity, in an equally diverse institution, positively influenced the European American group of students at that particular college. This means that European Americans from this diverse school seem to form interracial friendships or relationships as a result of structural diversity.

Respecting cultural diversity, the school understands the unique place people from all backgrounds hold in the area’s heritage and future. Those rich backgrounds are often realised in learning experiences and information about many cultures is available to support learning programs.

The vast majority of my classmates did not give me much of a thought, and those who did were usually put off by how “different” I was. Frequently labeled a “yankee,” my vastly different upbringing did not put me off to a good social start. It was not until someone asked what the lettuce in my sandwich was that I realized how I was from a very well-off family who could afford luxuries that I didn’t even realize were luxuries, and that my new classmates simply could not. Their responsibilities and stressors, I would soon learn, were far greater than mine, and their privilege far less. Their relationship with school was fundamentally different than my own, as well.