Diversity and Inclusion Board Member

During my junior year at MNSU, I applied to join the Diversity and Inclusion Board that was hosted by the University. The purpose of this program is to help the diverse community to become involved in different events and activities. This included preparing events, bringing forward issues that students might have and looking for ways to solve those issues. In addition to that we also conduct mentoring sessions for new students about how to help them engage in the diverse community of MNSU. Being part of this organization has helped me to know more about my culture. For example, there was a time where we decided to represent our own culture and identity and present to others. During that time, I decided to research more about my culture and identity. I came from the southern region of Ethiopia, but the fact that I lived in the capital city, I have little knowledge about my cultural place. Thus, having the opportunity of this presentation, I was able to know more about my identity and explain well to the other people of the norms and values as well as my cultural clothing and its meaning. It also allowed me to observe and understand other cultures. To get a deeper understanding on other cultures, the major questions I asked were how my culture reflects to people in your society. For example, in my culture we have the habit of helping others in their difficult times, how does that relate to other cultures of people in a society? In fact, I was able to identify similarities and differences between different cultural groups. This includes ways of life, food, values and norms. This understanding has given me a great opportunity to determine cultural differences between several groups and made me to feel proud to represent myself and identity and where I came from. Thus, all these activities have helped me to engage in a lot of decision-making, and responsibility of looking after others and helping them when they need. In fact, I further want to develop this type of diverse member to help everyone all around the world by creating a community where everyone understands and values the role of diversity.

 

Artifacts:

https://www.mnsu.edu/university-life/diversity-and-inclusion/