When I began my enrollment with the Honors Program, I used to think I was a master of the Global Citizenship competency. Since I had grown up between two cultures as a Mexican-American woman, I believed I had experienced enough diversity in my life that I didn’t have anything left to learn about this topic. I was the daughter of immigrant parents; a bilingual woman of color living in a predominantly-white country. What could anyone, possibly, teach me about global citizenship that I hadn’t already experienced? This perspective changed when I took the Intro to Honors (HONR 201) class during my freshman year of college. In it, I learned that becoming a global citizen requires more than just living between two cultures. It is the process of becoming aware of your cultural rules and values and the biases and limitations that this creates in you as a member of that culture. 

 

Once I became aware that I needed to develop this competency, I sought new cultural experiences as an English tutor for the Intensive English Language Institute (IELI) at Minnesota State University Mankato. Volunteering in this position was challenging, because I was still new to my university and I was an unexperienced English tutor. However, once I became comfortable in my role, I interacted freely with my tutees who were international students from Asia. Our weekly interactions allowed me to ask them questions about their customs and traditions, which expanded my knowledge and understanding of their cultures. It, also, allowed me to see my own culture through someone else’s perspective which increased my level of self-awareness. 

 

As I entered my sophomore year of college, I continued volunteering as an English tutor. However, this time, I volunteered at the YWCA Ready to Learn program as part of my Change Project for the class Exploring Personal Leadership Through Social Change (HONR 401). My involvement with this organization allowed me to obtain and analyze information about other cultures by working closely with refugee and immigrant families in the Mankato area. Through my hours of service and individual research, I learned about the social, political, and historical issues affecting these marginalized groups. I, also, learned to identify and adapt to different cultural practices while working inside the home of a Guatemalan immigrant family. 

 

Although my knowledge and understanding of other cultures increased through my local involvement in the community, I was eager to explore these concepts outside of the United States. Due to this, I participated in the Music Department’s Music Travel Tour to London and Berlin during the summer of my Junior year of college. This trip was very impactful to me, because it was my first time traveling abroad and being immersed in a new culture full-time. It was also eye opening, because it made me recognize new perspectives and biases that I had towards the British and German culture which I hadn’t identified before. Even though some of their cultural traditions were hard to understand because they differed a lot from mine, I learned to be sensitive and respectful of them.  

 

As I graduate from the Minnesota State University Mankato, I am aware that I’ll be encountering a world full of diversity, most of it unfamiliar to me despite the experiences I’ve had as an undergraduate student. However, these experiences will allow me to regulate my thoughts and emotions so that I can encounter these new perspectives with open-mindedness and respect