Goal 4

Introduction

The fourth goal of the Honors Program is to engage with diverse perspectives to cultivate cultural competence and an appreciation of differences. Involving and engaging with different individuals with different cultural backgrounds is crucial to develop a broad perspective and enabling us to respect, accept, and appreciate the differences that exist in our society. This world that we all live in is multicultural and rich in diversity, so we all must learn how to acknowledge our differences, but at the same time, we all should be open to understanding others’ differences about multiple topics that we might not experience, but others did. Hence, I will show different artifacts as evidence that I have accomplished the outcomes of this fourth goal in the Honors Program.

Outcome 1: Analyze current and historical international issues and aspects of global culture

I accomplished this first outcome through the journals we needed to write before every class in the HON 252H- Visionaries of the Past course. In these journals, we needed to write about what caught our attention when reading the assigned chapters from mainly African-American authors like W.E.B Du Bois, Toni Morrison, etc., also authors from other minorities like Layli Long Soldier. As a Hispanic and also indigenous, reading the raw extracts or passages about the slavery, inequality, and genocide that happened in the U.S. was eye-opening because, before this course, I was not aware of the atrocities committed against minorities and how the intolerance of others cultures was through physical and emotional abuse. Through the journals, I was able to express my thoughts and concerns about this ongoing issue that is the discrimination and intolerance towards other cultures that come from several centuries ago, and how little by little every one of us is treated as what we are, as human beings that deserve respect and acceptance. 

Outcome 3: Collaborate actively with diverse local and global partners

The second outcome only applies to the students with a minor, so as a student with a concentration in the Honors Program, I will continue with the third outcome. 

The third outcome, I have accomplished through my community service project in the course HON 395H- Citizenship and Service, where I collaborated through volunteering with the Organization Outreach360 as an online English teacher for Hispanic middle school students in Latin America. This service project enabled me to communicate my ideas and thoughts not only with my former students, but also with the director and the organizers of this organization helped me through all the months since my training which consisted of technological tools use, development of teaching styles, etc. until my last class since every Monday there was a leadership meeting before classes, where there helped me to answer my questions and guided me on how I could improve my teaching skills, but also there were active all the time through the application Whatsapp whenever anyone had an emergency or was going through a technological issue. I believe that constant and fluid communication provided by this organization made it easier to collaborate with them and provide my former students with a good learning experience.

Outcome 4: Appraise issues from multiple viewpoints 

I achieved the fourth outcome through my ethical dilemma project and presentation in the course HON 250H- Foundations of Leadership, where I had to evaluate both positions about if unimmunized kids should attend in-person school through research. Before doing my research, I firmly believed that the kids that are not immunized should not be able or allowed to go to in-person schools because it might be dangerous for the other kids, so I didn’t understand the position of the families that decided that they should be free to attend to in-person schools whether they are vaccinated or not. 

However, after researching why they were reluctant to vaccinate them, I was able to understand their viewpoints since before attending an educational institution, the kids need to go through several vaccines, and even if there is scientific evidence that the risk factors are low, it’s still a possibility, so I understood why some parents were hesitant to vaccinate their kids with that amount of vaccines only for their kids to access to education. Even though my position didn’t change, I was able to understand their viewpoints and provide a few solutions where their kids didn’t have to go through that amount of vaccines in a short time but also be able to receive a good quality education. 

Conclusion

Being able to engage, respect, and appreciate our differences is a crucial skill that we all should acquire and improve since we will be able to view topics with a broader picture, so we all can have more empathy towards others and be able to embrace our culture and others cultures' differences. It is imperative to be aware that we all do not experience the same things, so being able to listen to others will make us aware of different situations that are important and involve all of us.