Helga Sierra Castillo's Archive

Today the OME had the opportunity to go to one of the Business Management classes to talk about diversity within business, most importantly diversity within life.

We mentioned that the ability to read other people’s emotions (emotional intelligence) is important to find diversity in a place, as well as appreciative inquiry (where you appreciate others opinions/values/etc).

We want to know what students think and want in order to do a better job at promoting diversity within the university, and not only diversity, but unity in that diversity. Like George Pendergrass mentioned today, once you see and learn from the differences of other people it will only give you limitless possibilities to the things you do in life.

Another idea to keep in mind: We are all made in the image of God, therefore God is in all of us. So why do we just stay in our natural comfort zones and “appreciate” those who are similar instead of embracing God’s creativity by learning from other people? I think if we truly did this we would grow so much and become better people and in turn it would affect our school, workplace, etc.

What are your thoughts?

A couple of weeks ago, ACU sponsored a trip so that international students could experience the “real American Culture”.  We went to a goat cook-off. Yes, we ate goat and it was good, or at least I thought so.   About 30 of us, mostly Asian students, took a two and a half our bus ride to Brady, Texas.  We had no expectations except eating Goat, in the end it was an over all beautiful day.

Every year, there’s an annual cook-off where people and families compete for the best cooked goat.  There’s also many shops and other food you can eat, as well as games that you can be a part of.  It resembled a big carnival, and it was definitely lots of fun.

I think that we all learned just something new, and embraced the culture. Personally, I don’t think I will ever fully understand the American culture, but I can learn many things just by being immersed in it.  Most importantly we were able to meet new people and establish new friendships.  Personally, I was able to learn more about the Chinese culture, which to me is still very unknown, especially because I come from a Latin culture.  Most importantly, I just once again remembered the importance of traveling.  When you travel you go on an adventure, your eyes are opened to the unknown.  In turn, you are able to learn new things and it just makes life much more exciting.