Fall 2020
Knowledge and Understanding Levels 3 and 4
Knowledge and Understanding Levels 3 and 4
Traveling abroad has always been, and still will be, a dream of mine. Coming into college, it was my goal to study abroad during college. I had met with multiple advisors, strategically taken classes for several semesters in order to fit in a study abroad experience, saved up money for years, and began to make preparations to spend my last semester of college completing an internship in Florence, Italy. However, spring of 2020 brought a lot of changes to my plans and the rest of world due to COVID-19. Despite not being able to experience traveling to another culture, I was able to reflect upon this experience and grow as a global citizen.
Through this experience and a cumulation of my previous experiences, I was able to understand the importance of interacting with people from other cultures and how that can impact my own worldview. As I obtained more information about other cultures, I began to understand how my experiences inform my culture in relation to other cultures (Knowledge and Understanding Level 3). Although I ultimately wasn’t able to travel to Italy, I began to understand how privileged I was that I had the opportunity to study abroad. While people were in hospitals or out of jobs, I was able to still make alternate plans so that I could graduate on time. Taking the time to better understand my privilege was challenging, but it also helped me to understand how my experience affects how I view the world. In my HONR 401 class, I had learned more about how minorities are treated in the United States and how vastly different that experience is from my own. I was able to interact with international students in that class that helped give me a deeper understanding of other cultures and other people’s experiences. While working at an apartment complex as a leasing agent during the start of the pandemic and listening to stories from international students, it became even more apparent that while not traveling abroad was disappointing, I could still continue to grow as a global citizen from home. I began to pay more attention to the news in order to learn more about how the same pandemic was affecting parts of the United States and other countries differently. Listening and learning from social media, the news, and friends throughout the summer of 2020 helped me to understand more about the Black Lives Matter movement and how I can reeducate myself in order to use my privilege to help others. I started the year excited to end my final semester of college traveling around Europe drinking wine and experiencing another culture. After waking up and listening to lessons from my own experiences and from other people around me, I am ending the year with a greater understanding of my privilege and culture in relation to other cultures. I will apply this knowledge throughout my life as I seek to better understand other cultures. I have realized the importance of listening to others in order to increase my own understanding.
I was able to formulate a philosophy of global citizenship, evaluate intersectional issues across cultures, and demonstrate an awareness of differences in culture as well as adjust my own behavior in an attempt to bridge cultures (Knowledge and Understanding Level 4). After learning more about the intersectionality of race, education, healthcare, and more in my HONR 401 class, it became apparent that issues are connected. Watching COVID-19 affect the world also helped me to understand how connected the world is. Borders are man-made concepts that things like viruses and natural disasters know no boundaries. What happened across the world began to affect our lives in the United States as people began rushing to the grocery stores, getting sick, or even losing their job. COVID-19 also highlighted disparities and shed light to systemic racism in America as the virus affected minorities at a higher rate. A common phrase that was used to help us stay hopeful at the beginning of this was, “we are all in the same boat” or, “we are all in this together.” After learning more about racism in my HONR 401 class, I realized this was not the case. A phrase that I heard that made more sense to me was, “we are all in the same storm, but we are in different boats.” Understanding that people in the United States and in my own community face the same situation differently due to their skin color or privilege helped to put things in perspective. While I was disappointed about not traveling abroad and having to scramble to find an alternate internship, I wasn’t having to deal with half of the hardships others were dealing with. Working at Highland Hills also helped to point this out as well. When their places of work shut down or they were let go, people had to choose between paying for rent or buying food. This also forced people to take jobs that would expose them more to the virus, putting them at risk because they might not be able to afford the care that they would need if they got sick. I learned about intersectionality and the cycle of racism in HONR 401, but I was able to more clearly see it carry out this year. I learned that it is important for me to continuously seek to learn and understand more about people’s backgrounds and struggles. Another important lesson I learned this year was to not stay silent and instead speak out about the injustices in our world. I am in a position of power due to my privilege as a white person, and I can’t just idly sit by and watch it harm the people around me.
I was able to formulate a philosophy of global citizenship, evaluate intersectional issues across cultures, and demonstrate an awareness of differences in culture as well as adjust my own behavior in an attempt to bridge cultures (Knowledge and Understanding Level 4). After learning more about the intersectionality of race, education, healthcare, and more in my HONR 401 class, it became apparent that issues are connected. Watching COVID-19 affect the world also helped me to understand how connected the world is. Borders are man-made concepts that things like viruses and natural disasters know no boundaries. What happened across the world began to affect our lives in the United States as people began rushing to the grocery stores, getting sick, or even losing their job. COVID-19 also highlighted disparities and shed light to systemic racism in America as the virus affected minorities at a higher rate. A common phrase that was used to help us stay hopeful at the beginning of this was, “we are all in the same boat” or, “we are all in this together.” After learning more about racism in my HONR 401 class, I realized this was not the case. A phrase that I heard that made more sense to me was, “we are all in the same storm, but we are in different boats.” Understanding that people in the United States and in my own community face the same situation differently due to their skin color or privilege helped to put things in perspective. While I was disappointed about not traveling abroad and having to scramble to find an alternate internship, I wasn’t having to deal with half of the hardships others were dealing with. Working at Highland Hills also helped to point this out as well. When their places of work shut down or they were let go, people had to choose between paying for rent or buying food. This also forced people to take jobs that would expose them more to the virus, putting them at risk because they might not be able to afford the care that they would need if they got sick. I learned about intersectionality and the cycle of racism in HONR 401, but I was able to more clearly see it carry out this year. I learned that it is important for me to continuously seek to learn and understand more about people’s backgrounds and struggles. Another important lesson I learned this year was to not stay silent and instead speak out about the injustices in our world. I am in a position of power due to my privilege as a white person, and I can’t just idly sit by and watch it harm the people around me.
Global Citizenship Artifact #1
Below is my acceptance email from CIS Abroad before I made the final decision to not further pursue studying abroad (because it would ultimately get canceled).