A Stagnant Culture by Isabel

A Stagnant Culture by Isabel - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

Perhaps the most purposeful lesson I have ever taken personally into my life would be during my time at San Francisco State University. For a degree requirement I enrolled in a communications class titled “Women and Words”. As a woman myself, I was half expecting to toss the textbook pages through history and delve into bland lessons on women I have already met. My expectations were shattered after the first day I met my teacher Anastasia and the rest of the class, with women outnumbering males. What is unique about San Francisco State in general is the diversity of students that occupy the campus. Diverse in culture, orientation, countries and ethnicities, my class was full of characters. Today I can see the impact the class has taught me throughout the semester on my professional career path. Looking back, Anastasia Prentiss has left me wondering about the roles we play as citizens each day.
The idea that men and women are entitled to equal opportunities in life is the basis that inspires me each day. I have become more aware of the voice inside my head that leads my decisions and gut feelings, a voice that is said to have disappeared as girls become women. I am aware of the injustices that women face all around the world, rooted in traditional culture. I have become a voice for change, because I know that as a culture, America is persistently adaptable. I have learned that women have qualities of friendship that men are taught not to acquire. I have learned that women have had enough and not enough human rights entitlement.
After transferring to SFSU, I became a mentor for Americorps. As a Jumpstart member, I trained to teach low-income preschool children the fundamentals of educational learning. During my one year service, I became inspired to empower girls through education around the world. To do this I am planning a two year service in the Peace Corps upon graduation. Receiving a teaching credential is currently my long term professional goal, and in response to Women and Words I have become ever more inclined to specifically reach out to educate young women.
At our end of the year banquet for Jumpstart, I was randomly selected to receive a prize. As my curiosity got the best of me, I picked up a short story titled, “We Should All Be Feminists”, by Chimamanda Ngozi. What striked me more than her words, were the responses I received from people while I read her work in public. Besides this, she is intelligent about her viewpoints. Ngozi explains how a man and a woman are equally qualified apart from nature’s physical attributes when she states, “It is the more intelligent, the more knowledgeable, the more creative, more innovative. And there are no hormones for those attributes” (18). Talking about issues of gender is an uncomfortable topic, no wonder it is still a growing topic of concern in all sectors of society. Fortunately, culture is ever changing, and that we as society have the capability to do so. “Culture doesn’t make people. People make culture”, so as a functional community it is our job to incorporate gender equality in our culture (Ngozi 46).
Nonetheless, I am here today writing a response to a meaningful topic that has taken hold of many aspects of my life as I continue to prepare to travel abroad for the upcoming school year. As a proud child of two immigrants, as an honor student from a low-income family, and a first generation immigrant and first to graduate high school and college, I am deterred from reaching my full potential, hoping the lessons I have learned in school will take me far enough. I hope if I am eligible for this scholarship, the support I receive will help me to become an effective teacher in training and a teacher for life. It is each individual’s job to make the world a better place, whichever way they suit best. Thank you.