The Brooks Family Lecture took place on February 21st with former HHS Secretary Alex Azar '88 returning to campus to discuss his work on Operation Warp Speed.
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Our home city of Delhi is like a weed––bred without tenderness, blooming with no vitality, yet somehow surviving. The "rape capital of India" the news calls it. Its air is thick with dust, coating the city with a sense of hopeless foulness. My parents did not want me to breathe it in. Instead, I grew up in a sleepy rural town in the United States––the egalitarian meritocratic melting pot of the world, or so I was told. Until I was about ten, my grandmother Dadi slept in my room with me, its rosy pink wallpaper and sparkly threadbare curtains making it feel a little less small.
[more]Being adaptable is one of the most useful qualities a person can have. In a cross-cultural context, adaptability is not only useful, but also capable of leading to deeper understandings between and within groups of people. To really be adaptable doesn't just require skill, but also willingness; therefore, to show adaptability is a sign of respect. When you're in a new setting, or meeting somebody with a different cultural background, it is a gesture of good faith to try and learn from your surroundings — more often than not, they have something to teach you.
[more]My most formative intercultural experience occurred when I was 14 years old. I grew up in a town that was about 25 percent Jewish. Therefore, when I occasionally missed baseball practices or games for Jewish holidays or was limited in my selections in fast-food lines, there was little to explain because my teammates and coaches were mostly familiar with the general practices involved in Jewish observance.
[more]Linguistic and cultural differences as well as stereotypes associated with political tensions are some challenges to global collaboration. As we found the roleplay activity between the two fake countries, it can be very difficult to try to understand others who have very different manners of talking, emotional expression, and levels of comfort with sharing personal information.
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