Sharing Personal Experiences

The class I am taking is about stereotypes and cross-cultural communication. We discuss stereotypes that exist towards groups of people. It is really interesting because the class is very diverse, and every student has a different opinion on most subjects. One thing that we all agree on is that stereotypes are bad. Coach Edwards, one of our teachers, encourages us to leave the politically correctness out of the equation so that we aren’t only scratching the surface of the issues we discuss. We share personal experiences that give us each as listeners a chance to use empathy, which is our theme for today, and put ourselves in our classmates’ shoes. The class has really opened my eyes to the stereotypes that exist in today’s society, and although it is early in the camp, I can already feel a difference in my personal empathy.

-Chris (Landon High School, Washington DC)