Hixson Blog Post #4
Another eventful school week has gone by and again I find myself thinking where DOES the time go?
(Comment with your answer haha)
Our last class we talked about enhancing cultural proficiency. First off lets define the word cultural proficiency for those of you that don't know it. Cultural Proficiency refers to your ability to interact with people from different backgrounds. We all grew up differently and came from different backgrounds. For example I have lived in Dubuque, Iowa my whole life. Grew up on a dairy farm where we milked about 100 dairy Holstein cows twice a day. Went to church every Sunday, my parents never divorced, conservative background, and went to basically an all white high school. That was my culture, my background, and group of people that I was surrounded by. When coming to Iowa State, I was really surprised at all of the different diverse cultures here. It really opened my eyes. My biggest problem coming in was being stereotypical of others. I believe everyone makes judgments and stereotypes to a certain extent. Sometimes it can be uncomfortable talking about some issue, but through learning and being around a diverse group of people you can change. I understand that everyone has different values and backgrounds, it is important for me being a peer mentor to be a major contributor to the promotion and demonstration of cultural inclusion. My ability to relate to people with differing background can be a strength.
When reading our book for class I found that these principles are key to my success with cultural proficiency.
Principle 1. All of your assumptions are cultural, and may or may not align with the assumptions and understandings of others.
Principle 2. When exploring the cultures of others, it is necessary to suspend judgement temporarily.
Principle 3. Both context and content are important.
Principle 4. Becoming comfortable with discomfort is possible and necessary to the development of cultural proficiency.
Principle 5. Curiosity and deliberate inquisitiveness provide a richer, more accurate context for interaction.
As being a peer mentor for the Hixson Opportunity Award, I have learned to develop an awareness to cultural proficiency. I will continue to add, omit, and alter some values and beliefs through my life.
The clones have won 20 straight at Hilton. This ranks 6th in the NCAA Men's Basketball home court winning streak. Wow. An Iowa State commit Maurice Jones is no longer eligible to play basketball at Iowa State, due to bad grades at USC. (do your homework and study!) ALSO one of my favorite times of the year National Signing Day was last Wednesday. I am able to see all of my hard work in the football office pay off. 25 new Cyclones have been added to the roster! Can't wait til next football season.
Have a great weekend and week ahead!
Cole Schlitzer
Cole, the time is stolen by garden gnomes, and they will eventually use it to destroy us all. I agree that some issues are uncomfortable to talk about, but if we don't talk about them, we will never truly understand one another.
ReplyDeleteCole,
ReplyDeleteAs much I respect Sebastain's opinion on where time goes, I have to disagree. It is caused by gremlins. It is always gremlins. But I couldn't tell you what they plan to do with it.
On to the more important things. Coming to Iowa State was definitely a shock for me as well. I grew up in a small town and to be honest all the people were very similar in values. The amount of diversity here at ISU even among all the students just from Iowa is astounding and amazing. I wasn't as accepting of it as first when I got here as I was set in my ways, but I have grown and learn to love the diversity in people. But I am no where near done growing and will continue to adjust myself as I move forward just like you mentioned.
Joshua
I have no idea where time goes and I don't have a clever answer for you either. Maybe the flying pigs take it with them.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same about my hometown not being very diverse, but I think one thing Easten wanted to point out is that not only do those big culture differences matter the smaller, more personal, ones do too.