Ainslie

The Laurier International Cultural Conversations has been one of the most impactful and eye-opening experiences with which I had the joy of being included. These conversations with classmates and international students have allowed me to hear from many different individuals and their experiences. My perspective on the world around me has started to shift positively with an eagerness to continue conversations within my circle of family and friends.

With the help of my group members, I had the chance to open the door to conversations about multiculturalism, micro and macro aggressions, cultural empathy, and intercultural communication. These concepts helped me to use my learning beyond classroom activities and explore the opinions of others. 

I chose to create a picture of a world with the different colour hearts to indicate that no matter how different we might be we are all the same in other ways as well and that we can all connect in different ways.

Our conversations became an excellent opportunity to discuss our lessons from previous classes and get to know each other beyond simply classmates and Laurier students. I believe our group was able to generate a safe space for people to ask questions, get honest answers based on the individual's experiences, and genuinely understand how similarities connect us no matter where we come from. I made connections and identified similarities and differences that will allow me to understand individuals and the world around us better.

I honestly loved being given a chance to talk with people from all different backgrounds and cultures. Some of the learning outcomes from these conversations are based on concepts that other students introduced to us. The culture that I had always been surrounded by was vastly different from the cultures of all my other group members. What I had an understanding of being 'normal' was just normal to me because of my upbringing; my other group members and international volunteers helped me to have a more broad and better understanding of being multicultural. I could look deeper into myself and my roots to understand how multicultural I am. I learned to listen to the experiences of others without judgement and being able to keep an open mind to cultural differences. The experiences of people around us are often different but also important lessons for us to have awareness when communicating with others. The tools of effective communication can help us to limit causing harm to others.

These experiences have created a whole new perspective for me to walk around with. Working on myself to change how I interact with individuals because everyone has a different story and a different background, making us who we are, individual, unique and diverse.

Ainslie Hollin, HR261 Human Rights & Human Diversity, Brantford Campus