Wrapping Things Up

I wanted to take this final entry to just express my feelings on the entire journey of researching, coming to understand the challenges of my voice, and developing an appreciation for the life of someone different from me. I chose to take on the voice of a Jewish male student because I thought it would be a challenge to learn about a culture and student population that is so different from my own. This process has taught me that although there may be differences on the surface, we as students are not as different as we like to think we are, especially at an institution like BGSU.

I did not have a good experience doing the voice project in 602 and it made me very apprehensive about doing another one. I still did not think I understood what I was supposed to be accomplishing with this project. Because I still had no clue how to approach the project, I started to document my thoughts in the same fashion as my previous journal. Essentially, it was more narrative than anything. I was taking what I read and putting into narrative form. Fortunately, the more we talked about the project the better I understood how I needed to form my thoughts. While I still do not feel I have completely gotten the idea of the project, I have a much better grasp than I previously did.

This project showed me how to perceive the college environment through the eyes of a different student. It helped me to understand how the college environment affects the development of someone else. I think I initially got caught up in the belief that White students, regardless of their cultural background, had a much easier experience navigating the college environment. This thought, while unfounded, was my naive thinking. Developing Caleb and interpreting what his experience would be like with various parts of the college environment has definitely changed my view. Even though I was not able to successfully put a face to what I was writing, I believe that all of the reading has helped enhance my view on a Jewish student's college interaction. It would be absolutely wrong of me to assume that all of their experiences are the same.

Thinking about the cultural challenges Caleb faced when it came to food (finding kosher foods or going without), the lack of place for worship on campus (and having to go away from campus to find it), meeting other Jewish students (are they the same type of Jew? will they understand him? will he understand them? what kind of differences will there be?), meeting other students in general, helped me to give Caleb a life and be able to talk about it without feeling awkward. The more time I spent finding about Caleb the more real I could see him being. I could see my self having met him or meeting him at some point in my career. I can never say that I know what it is like to live as another student or experience their struggles, but this project has made me feel better about being able to empathize with students and help them navigate the campus to find the resources they need. I am more confident now in my ability to ask critical questions and look at a college environment and see how it could be manipulated to help students.