During my freshman year, I was invited through the student life organization, Leadership U, to be a part of a new seminar called 'Learning to See.' This unique program was led by the documentary photographer and educator James A. Bowey, who is the creator of the compelling serious 'When Home Won't Let You Stay' (the official site is linked below). The main focus of this program was to educate students about the global refugee crisis by engaging in online and in-person activities and discussions to provide the opportunity to expand one’s critical and empathetic consideration of the plight of refugees, human rights, empathy, diversity, digital literacy, leadership, and global citizenship. Desiring to learn more about the refugees while keeping an open mind, I decided this would be a great opportunity for me to grow and learn more about my own and other cultures. In our first in-person meeting, we discussed Mr. Bowey's work and the truth behind refugees. Through a three hour discussion, I realized that my initial mindset about the refugee crisis was very wrong. I had been swayed by society's popular belief that refugees are hurting America, which is far from the truth, for statistics have proved these individuals have actually been helping our workforce and foreign affairs. After this first meeting, we had weekly online discussions in a Facebook group where we further explored controversial subjects with regard to the refugees and global crisis occurring around us. Our final meeting consisted of traveling to St. Paul to have a community conversation with members of the city and a college student refugee from Somalia who had come to America to escape the cruelty of her own country.
This experienced helped me to achieve Level 2 of Self-Awareness, “shows emerging awareness of the varied contexts and boundaries of one's own culture and its cultural rules and biases.” By being a part of this exceptional program, I learned about the many biases of my own culture through the eyes of the refugees. My mindset for others, especially the refugees and other diverse individuals living in the United States, has positively grown as a result. Before this experience, I never realized the severity of the refugee crisis. I was aware of its occurrence, but did not know how truly tough these individuals had life. Even though some of them are in America now and appear to have a better life, they are still struggling with discrimination, making money, and leaving their past behind them. I realized that the American culture tends to portray itself as nicely put together and attracting from the outside, but there are many faults and imperfections that exist within it. In my opinion, one of the biggest flaws lies in sheltering our homes from those in need and rejecting others who are different than ourselves. If we claim to be a free, happy country, we should be allowing everyone to fully experience this. Similarly, I have also realized that I often take my numerous blessings, such as plentiful food, a loving family, and continuous safety, for granted. I often complain about how hard some things in my life may be, like school or relationships, without seeing that others have it way worse. It appears to be that my culture tends to complain about such superficial things and be overly obsessed with ourselves that we fail to love and care for those who need it most. Overall, this experience provided significant growth in my closed mindset and helped me initiate going beyond my comfort zone to learn more about my own culture and the diverse individuals that are a part of it.