INTERCULTURAL ENGAGEMENT

Growing up in Omaha and then moving to a small town, I did not have huge exposure to global citizenship and global diversity. My schools in Omaha and my small town were mostly full of people who were just like me and were not from diverse backgrounds. Coming to Minnesota State University, Mankato and joining the honors program allowed for me to have more exposure to new cultures and perspectives and allowed me to grow in ways that I could not have at home. I had the opportunity to take classes and go on school trips that allowed me to grow in this area and increase my knowledge of both my own culture and cultures other than my own.

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I began developing my global citizenship and intercultural engagement through taking WLC 280W: Parallel Worlds: Exploring Cultures & Symbols. This class exposed me not only to one different culture, but four cultures different than my own. Through this class, I studied different literary and media works that depicted the role of water in four different societies. I had the opportunity to learn how different cultures value water and then was able to compare them to one another and then related this all to my culture, specifically my relationship and access to water. WLC 280W helped me understand how one object that is in every culture can mean so many different things to a culture depending on how they use the resource and how much they value the resource. I was truly able to understand how to compare cultures to one another and grow my understanding of these four different cultures through this class.

In addition to learning about different cultures in the classroom, I also had the opportunity to travel. Through the Maverick ‘Machine’ Athletic Band, I traveled to Puerto Rico and helped celebrate their holiday Three Kings Day. While on this trip, I learned how to play traditional parade marching band music with multiple different groups, learned about the Three Kings Day holiday, and learned about the history of the area through different experiences. On this trip, I got to interact with so many different people and learned a lot about their culture and holidays. I got to learn how important the community culture is to the people of Puerto Rico and how they like to spend their holidays together as a community rather than spending them with just their close family members. Through this trip, I was truly able to immerse myself in a culture that was different from my own and got to understand and live in their culture in a way that a book or a class cannot teach. From this experience, I was able to make connections between my culture and the culture in Puerto Rico and was able to grow as a global citizen.

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My personal intercultural engagement framework can be described as learning to relate my experiences to new knowledges and experiences that I gain. I found that it is one thing to experience and learn about the culture, and it is another step to relate it back to your own. We live in such a diverse society and understanding other cultures is important to help you understand the importance of a diverse society. I have had the opportunity to experience a few different cultures, but there are so many cultures that I have not had exposure to. I have a lot to learn about these cultures, but I now have a framework in which I can continue to ask questions and understand the importance of the different cultures in our society.

These experiences have allowed me to increase the awareness that I have in my own culture, as well as my awareness and knowledge of other cultures. I have learned important lessons on how to be a global citizen and how to increase my understanding of cultures that are different than my own. From these experiences, I plan to continue to grow in my intercultural engagement and continue to learn more about other cultures and relate them to my own. These skills will be especially important as I further my education and enter a job in the research sector of biology where many marginalized groups are underrepresented.