Elayna Dyke

The global citizenship competency is a favorite among honors students because of the personal nature of the competency. It holds a special place in my education because of all the personal experiences I have had, how I can relate them to my field of study, and how increased knowledge on different cultures can lead to decreased ignorance among people. Through experiences with cultural nights, Honors 201: Intro to Honors, IELI tutoring, Honors 401: Language and Culture, experiences in Colombia, and practice in American Sign Language, I have increased my skills in knowledge, communication, and self-awareness so that I may continually learn and act as a global citizen.

 

Campus cultural nights were a wonderful way for me to experience the exciting surface-level aspects of a culture such as food and clothing. I wrote an essay about global citizenship in my Honors 201 class, which allowed me to reflect on what I knew about global citizenship, and what I wanted to accomplish as a global citizen. Those experiences led me to start asking questions about culture, which led me to seek interactions through the IELI tutoring program. IELI tutoring required interactions between different cultures, so I felt comfortable asking questions and initiating deeper conversations about culture. However, I did not seek out experiences on my own until I traveled to Colombia, South America, where I learned how to continuously seek interactions and suspend judgement when listening to answers. Through those experiences, I developed a deeper awareness about how my culture and first language shaped how I think and how I understand other cultures.

 

In Honors 401: Language and Culture, I developed further awareness of myself and how my awareness of my culture and first language impacts all different cultures. Reading the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and conducting a case study on parentese (baby talk or caretaker speech) and culture helped me discover how to incorporate cultural competency in everything I do, including in my major and future career. Practice with American Sign Language also led me to learn first-hand just how language and culture are deeply intertwined, and how Deaf people and hearing people who know American Sign Language have entirely different ways of understanding the language.

 

Global citizenship has been an important part of my education, and I am very passionate about language, culture, and being a global citizen in whatever I do. By learning from others, I have been able to take leadership roles as well as conduct research in areas that relate to language and culture. My experiences with global citizenship and the realization that I know very little have only sparked a flame for travel and interactions with diverse individuals that I will continually kindle throughout my life.