By Siddhi Patel
Good Morning
My name is Siddhi Patel; I am pursuing MBA here at Penn State Harrisburg and I am also a Global Ambassador and represent the campus.
Once Andres Tapia said “Diversity is a mix. Inclusion is making the mix work” and that is what we exactly do at our Global Ambassadors program, we bring together different cultures. Such a diverse group comes together and celebrates various cultural diversities.
I will give you an example; I grew up hearing stories about the fairy and the shoemaker but was never aware of the fact that they come from Irish culture. I learned about beautiful islands in the Caribbean and I also enjoyed various African foods and learned about their culture in the African coffee hour, which we have at our campus. I learned about the Easter festival, Passover celebration and Chinese lunar New Year and various other festivals, which different cultural people celebrate across the globe.
The goal of our Global Ambassadors program is to enrich people with the knowledge of various cultures and flavors. It is said that travelling, meeting new people and having new experiences preaches you with the lifetime experiences. So, why not grab an opportunity of learning, growing and interacting at our own campus. I never imagined that I would know about Turkish culture or would meet a person from Thailand or would have Middle Eastern dessert and would dance on African music. Isn’t this fun, meeting new people or learning about new culture?
Diversity combines the power of knowledge, cross-cultural communication and most importantly it is fun.
I would like to leave you all with a quote by Stephen Covey “Strength Lies in Difference not in Similarity.”
With that said, on behalf of Global Ambassador Program, I would like to present you the “Cultural Enrichment Video” of 2015-2016, created by Calida Gao, a Global Ambassador from China.
(Picture of Global Ambassadors at the 2016 Global Ambassador Award Ceremony. Picture courtesy of Sherry Xu)