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  • Megan Hemstreet '23 RGLP Reflection: From Geocentrism to Heliocentrism, Broadening my Cultural Perspective

    November 16, 2020

    Culture is a broad term that can be used to describe someone’s geographical and ethnic backgrounds, as well as lived and shared experiences. Most people view their culture as the center of their world experience, similarly to the way geocentrism was prominent in early scientific knowledge, before heliocentrism became widely accepted. Before people have many intercultural experiences, they view their own culture as the standard and assume everyone else will adapt to them.

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  • Marisa Natarajan '23 RGLP Reflection: Unlearning "American-isms"

    November 16, 2020

    My favorite session of RGLP was when we role-played a virtual conference between the people of two different cultures. I was assigned to be a “Sharahaden”, a made-up culture with specifics about how people from my culture react to certain actions and interact with people. My classmates were assigned to be American, so they didn’t need to change their behaviors at all. When we interacted, I was mortified at the way I was supposed to treat my classmates.

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  • RGLP Participant Reflection:

    November 16, 2020

    In the summer of 2020, while quarantined at home wallowing in self-pity and self-importance (I was lamenting the loss of my future and dreams), I started maniacally cooking for my family. It began with pasta. My mother bought me a pasta maker on which I spent hours making linguini, spaghetti, bowtie, and even ravioli. It was delicious. My thighs got thicker and my glutes widened. I started working out in the morning. I made myself an elaborate morning schedules that I followed for two weeks at a time, before falling off.

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  • Kaj Johnson '22 RGLP Reflection: How can cross-cultural experiences teach us to better tolerate ambiguity, and why is this relevant in the workplace?

    November 16, 2020

    Cross-cultural experiences can teach us as students, activists, and thinkers to better tolerate ambiguity in a multitude of ways. Firstly, we become more accustomed to cultural ambiguity the more we are exposed to a wide swath of cultures, particularly ones that do not complement our own lived experiences. Through this repeated process of encountering new cultures and working through ambiguity, we can begin to understand that cultural knowledge entails a long process of patient learning and adaptation. No culture can be summed up in a sentence, much less in an entire novel.

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