At what point in our lives, if any, are we pushed to explore multiculturalism? Obviously it depends on where a person grows up; whether they have Latino or Italian parents, but live in America, or live in a family all born and raised in America. In general, though, when does our society push for students to expand their knowledge of their world outside of their school, hometown, and even country? In this day and age, I believe kids are always being exposed to the many cultures of the world.
In elementary school, we begin to learn about cultures in social studies and special event days. I know Girl Scouts teaches girls about other cultures through badge workshops and thinking days. Nowadays, a lot of elementary schools in America are teaching Spanish! As students get older, in middle and high school, they are required to take classes that go further in depth about cultures and the world growing around us. My school offered classes like Global Cultures and Human Geography. Furthermore, it’s becoming a requirement for students now to take several years of a language in order to advance on into colleges and universities.
I believe America, and many other countries as well, are focused on building a student’s global perspective. We as a society have realized that the most successful people are those who have experience with different cultures. They have first-hand knowledge of interacting with people that hold different values, have various ways of thinking, and unique political and societal situations.
http://2communicate.dk/facts-global-minds-launch
Since coming to Penn State, I have heard many times phrases like “global minds”, “global perspectives”, “cultural differences”. Striving to learn about cultures by no means ends when a student leaves their high school language and history courses. If anything, colleges and universities, especially Penn State, are where students truly get experience with other cultures.
I came to Penn State from a rural area of Pennsylvania that didn’t have much variety when it came to how people lived. We were pretty much all the same, typical, American, rural/suburban people. The few exchange students we received every year was the only real chance we got to see and learn about other cultures from someone firsthand. Coming to Penn State and recognizing the global reach it had and the many foreign students here was a bit of a culture shock to me. Not that it surprised me. I’ve learned so much being here just from my interactions with foreign friends.
Penn State supplies so many opportunities for students to gain a global conscience, and I know other colleges are similar. Penn State’s College of Engineering greatly supports students who are training to become “World Class Engineers”, as they put it. In my first semester course of honors engineering design, our class was teamed up with students in Morocco to collaborate on a project. We learned so much from each other and our different lives, and I’m still in touch with my teammates overseas.
The College of Engineering also provides a course called “Introduction to Cross-Cultural Communication for Engineers”, which I am currently enrolled in. The goal of the course is to further open engineering students’ minds to cultural differences and how they effect communications and prepare them for interacting with overseas partners during business and/or to prepare them for a study abroad.
http://jespersonne.blogspot.com/2013/05/l-cube-connecting-global-minds.html
Studying abroad may have the most impact on a student’s true experience and knowledge of other cultures. College and universities everywhere push their students to experience at least one study abroad during their studies, more so now than ever. It used to be that the only students that went on a study abroad were liberal arts students. Now, however, students in the sciences are encouraged more than ever to go abroad, too. The College of Engineering even has its own global programs office!
As I take full advantage of Penn State’s amazing resources and research into study abroad programs, I find it easily notable that it’s not just America pushing towards a global perspective. After all, other countries have students who need to learn to interact with the different cultures of the world, too. It takes two people to have a conversation, and the world has realized that the students of today need to be trained for the business of tomorrow. And that is one with a global perspective.