Culture Shock
By: Brittany Nelson, Contributing Writer
Towson’s Center for Student Diversity kicked off the first of their three Cultural Competency Series last week. The first event, “Cultural Competency 101,” on Sept. 16, was presented by the Associate Director for Student Diversity and Development Anee Korme, and consisted of a discussion on cultural diversity and how it affects the Towson University community.
“This is an opportunity for folks to learn about cultural competency, and probably more importantly, learn all the things they don’t know about culture competency,” Kome said. “This is also an opportunity to connect folks with additional resources, and a good way to get started in the journey of understanding your own identity and understanding other people’s identity.”
The event began with an icebreaker activity called “Personal Profile,” that had students record their names, languages, places of birth, traditions, favorite holidays and adjectives that describe themselves. The activity asked students to get know someone they have never met before and share similarities and differences. The event continued with a PowerPoint presentation that highlighted the important levels of culture and cultural impact and their roles in society. Throughout the presentation, Kome asked the participants questions to highlight the similarities that students have despite the differences in their background.
Freshman elementary education major Joy Park attended the event not only for a class assignment, but also to gain the ability to connect to other people and topics such as levels of culture and cultural impact.
“I have always been interested in learning about new cultures and meeting new people,” Park said.
The Center for Student Diversity will be hosting the next two events in the Cultural Competency Series over the next two months. The second event will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at noon in the Chesapeake Rooms in the University Union, and the final event will be on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at noon in the University Union Room 314. The CSD will also be hosting a Retreat for Social Justice from Nov. 6 through Nov. 8.
