There is a different cadence this semester and the song that started more than four years ago is coming to an end. I have thought long and in-depth about this. Okay, truth be told, it was more like five seconds – but here it is: Homespun wisdom from my sojourn as an undergraduate.
A lot I have learned at Park has not been restricted to the four walls of the classroom. I will speak of race, culture, identity and diversity. They all seem to be interwoven into one as far as the fabric of Park is concerned.
I appreciate Park’s diversity. I always planned to travel the world even before I came here to the United States. I remember my brother and me planning adventurous trips to the Amazon, climbing Mount Everest and meeting exotic people. At Park, the world actually comes to you. The diversity you find within one floor of Copley Quad is astounding. Instead of Micronesia being an archipelago in the Pacific with no possible connection to Morocco, students from these countries might actually find themselves rooming together.
Many American colleges have a wealth of international students. In fact, America is a Mecca of tertiary education for students from all over the world. Even the tiniest of four year colleges in the U.S. can boast of an international presence.
My experience at Park has been awesome. Park beats other schools at a quality level and again it goes back to the diversity. I think of Park like a rainforest or an estuary, it’s very rich in biodiversity. The sort of ‘biodiversity’ at the Parkville campus is of over 100 countries. In the big universities they might have a similar number of foreign countries represented but because of the overwhelming majority of domestic students, these numbers mean nothing. It is as if the foreigners sink into anonymity that is the domestic students.
At Park, while all foreign students are linked by their desire to learn about American culture, they are not discouraged from speaking their minds and expressing their own culture. In the big universities, the culture is generally American. I think Park has just the right blend, enough of the American mix to ensure international students who go back to their countries having gleaned something from the U.S. and enough of the international experience to ensure that American students realize international does not just mean Canada and Mexico.
Something I have found interesting is the issue of race. I have found this country is still affected by it. It dominates the culture, there seems to be a subtext to most conversations. I can tell when people are talking about it or when they are not talking about it.
People might be talking about a post-racial society, I am writing this article on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I guess race must have been an issue in Kenya before the British left in 1963 and handed Kenya their independence. It still is an issue but nothing that really dominates the cultural conversation.
I think it is because of the paucity of other racial groups apart from native Africans. There is a very tiny proportion of Whites, I think about two percent. There is a little bigger portion of Indians five or six percent – in fact my first name is a misspelling of my namesake and my father’s friend, Janak. Kenya has its own problems in the form of tribalism but that is another column all its own.
Questions about my identity I had not thought about started to pop up. Whenever, I am applying for internships, they have these boxes to fill. I think so far I have always filled them. If they say black, I fill them. My skin is black. The flag of Kenya has a black color to signify its majority people. I think I can safely tick that box. If the box says, African-American I refuse to tick that box because while I am African, I have neither been nor ever plan to be American. Sometimes they make it worse when it is African-American/Black. I am in a quandary. Maybe it is not a big deal. But I am one of those people who are survey fillers. I like to fill surveys because I always feel I am contributing something to human knowledge. I, however, do not fill out surveys about LOL! Cats, so don’t bother inboxing me.
I think because of my experience at Park, I have grown in the ways I identify myself. And the biggest aspect I have grown to identify myself as is a citizen of my country, Keny,a and as a citizen of the world. I appreciate the importance of diversity.
