I see diversity as being exposed to people and groups from a range of different backgrounds of financial, ethnic, and social standings, and so on and so forth. There have been several assignments throughout my college experience that have really challenged me to have as diverse of a mindset as possible, pretending to be in other’s shoes for the sake of furthering this goal. A principal concept that directly ties into diversity is Intersectionality, which, in simple terms, states that everyone has their own unique, personal experiences of discrimination, and we must therefore consider even the smallest of things that could marginalize somebody. It is so important to be hyper aware of bias in all different types of situations, and therefore making sure everyone feels safe, welcome, and comforted in all types of environments.

When I took COMM 258: Podcasting, our big project was to interview and create a podcast on a Latinx professor/professional in the area. This was a community-based learning course (CBL), so we got to pick from a list of Latinx community members who we wanted to interview and create a podcast story on. My partner and I’s community member we chose was Adrienne Viramontes, a professor and chair of the Communication department at UW-Parkside. So much of her interview surrounded the themes of discrimination, stereotyping, neglect, and overall discussions of negative experiences she had growing up surrounding her ethnicity. Adrienne is Mexican, but most of her childhood consisted of being raised by her grandmother who believed she “wasn’t a real Mexican”, for various reasons such as not being able to speak Spanish, not being good at cooking and cleaning, dressing a certain way, the list goes on. This entire process of learning about Adrienne’s life and listening to such an absence of diversity within that household really opened my mind about the importance of diversity in any given situation.

As a result of what I’ve learned regarding this learning goal, more than anything I’ve held onto the concept that diversity is one of the best ways to learn about each other and the unknown parts of this immense planet we live on. Especially looking at the professional world, having a diverse environment in a workplace can lead to things like more successful decision-making, bigger creativity, and more effective problem-solving due to having such a broad range of unique perspectives and everyone’s different experiences. Being an actress, I constantly play many different fictional roles with their own distinctive lives, so being exposed to diverse situations as much as possible has helped me successfully embody personas different from my own. This learning goal’s relevance for my future is crucial because it will continue to turn me into a more sympathetic, flexible artist who can put herself in someone else’s shoes and triumphantly tell these stories while remaining as accurate and respectful as possible.