Each month Row New York’s academic team designs interactive workshops to get students thinking about health, relationships, careers, and life skills. For the second half of February and early March, we focused on cultural awareness. From exploring identities, to working through difficult team and workplace relationships, students found a safe place to open up about a topic that so often stays closed. In this week’s guest blog, Row New York’s Academic Program Manager, Regina De Los Santos, shares her experience working with our student-athletes and what cultural awareness personally means to her.
by Regina De Los Santos, Academic Program Manager
Cultural awareness has many definitions. I like to think of it as my own understanding of the differences between my culture and other cultures. A good example of this is something as simple as breakfast. As a Dominican-American, mashed plantains, or “Mangu,” is a normality for me at breakfast. Other people may start their day with oatmeal, white rice, Idli and chutney, or eggs. Not only is it okay that my breakfast is different from others, but I know that difference doesn’t mean better or worse. It just means different. When planning for Cultural Awareness Month at Row New York, it was important for me to build an understanding both about my culture and others, so I could provide intentional, responsible, and culturally competent knowledge.
Our goals for Cultural Awareness Month were to:
– celebrate differences
– foster a greater appreciation for cultural diversity
– and learn about student’s identities and how those inform and influence their roles as student-athletes
To achieve these goals we received input from our coaches about what they wanted their students to discuss. We also asked students what topics they would like to learn about. We tapped into our prior knowledge and built conversations around activities that got students up and moving, thinking critically, and engaging with each other. To kick off each discussion, we addressed a Row New York tradition – revisiting our community agreements. Here we echoed the one mic rule (one voice at a time), and shared how we could collectively make our conversations feel safe and respectful.
Since the first step to cultural awareness is awareness of one’s own cultural identity, we began our month with an activity called Circles of My Multicultural Self. In this activity, we highlighted the multiple dimensions of our identities. We wrote down the identities that were the most important to each of us. For me, it was always interesting to hear what the group was made up of. We had circles encompassing athlete, male, black, and agnostic to name just a few. My circles included woman, feminist, and daughter of immigrant parents. We then prompted students to share a story about a time they were especially proud of their identity, or a time when it was painful to associate with one of their identities. We also invited students to share a stereotype that was untrue about a group with which they identified.
Another way we met our goals was by sharing resources among staff through our cultural awareness emails. Here, we shared highlights and activities we’d be completing at programs with our students. We learned about a book by Tsitsi Dangarembga called Nervous Conditions, which speaks to the fluidity of immigration when coming to terms with assimilation. We also shared The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, which highlighted unspoken expectations and shared how norms are different from other people’s based on where they grew up. Lastly, a favorite with our staff, Jamil Smith’s podcast Intersections, was also circulated.
Throughout Cultural Awareness Month, I was able to hear about the different identities that make up Row New York. I heard laughter and conversations that didn’t want to end. There were interesting guiding questions from tutors, and comic relief from coaches and students when conversations became painful. I am constantly reminded that these conversations and concepts are what makes Row New York, Row New York.
