Growing up in Ponca, NE with a population of 1,000 people, I didn’t have a ton of experience with cultural diversity growing up. That changed rather quickly when I went to college. I had the opportunity to be part of the Wayne State College football team as a freshman and I met many people from many different parts of the country. I soon learned that not everyone had the same childhood experiences I did and there’s a great big world out there I don’t know much about. I became friends with some of these people, and others I met in the rec center on campus, and have worked to become more aware of the world around me. I often take for granted being a young white male in today’s world, today’s America. But I’ve done my best to educate myself on “white privilege” and the opportunities I’ve been given, as well as those I haven’t had to worry about.
I had a friend in college who lost his life in a drive by shooting when he was delivering packages for UPS, another grew up knowing which roads you could drive down and which ones would leave you with a beat-up car and possibly broken bones. These two instances alone really rocked my view of the world around me and forced me to take a hard look in the mirror at what I believed about the world. I had a chance to go on a couple mission trips in college to Colorado Springs where I saw kids who didn’t always know where their next meal was coming from or where they were sleeping that night.
I don’t say this to act like I know what it’s like to go through these experiences, because I don’t. But I do try to bring a different point of view to class discussions when I can and at least try to give my students a view that is different from what they know. I would love the opportunity to host a foreign exchange student in the future, and develop a better connection with a young person from a different part of the world. I’ve had a few of them in my classes, and built rapport with them, but it would be a different experience hosting one for up to a year instead of working with them for five hours per week for the same time period.
I had a friend in college who lost his life in a drive by shooting when he was delivering packages for UPS, another grew up knowing which roads you could drive down and which ones would leave you with a beat-up car and possibly broken bones. These two instances alone really rocked my view of the world around me and forced me to take a hard look in the mirror at what I believed about the world. I had a chance to go on a couple mission trips in college to Colorado Springs where I saw kids who didn’t always know where their next meal was coming from or where they were sleeping that night.
I don’t say this to act like I know what it’s like to go through these experiences, because I don’t. But I do try to bring a different point of view to class discussions when I can and at least try to give my students a view that is different from what they know. I would love the opportunity to host a foreign exchange student in the future, and develop a better connection with a young person from a different part of the world. I’ve had a few of them in my classes, and built rapport with them, but it would be a different experience hosting one for up to a year instead of working with them for five hours per week for the same time period.