Differing Cultures around Self Advocacy by Makenna

Differing Cultures around Self Advocacy by Makenna - March 2024 Scholarship Essay

While working as a Resident Assistant at Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY), I was around people from various countries. It was exciting to be in a diverse group of people, but that also meant that I had to be culturally sensitive and know that there was not a single person who had a similar background to me. In fact, I was the only person, staff and students included, from Michigan.

A conflict arose when one of the students in my group was unfairly assigned a lot more work than she had time to do. During CTY, the kids were in class 8 hours a day, with the time outside of class being structured as well. With little free time, most of the work was done in class or their evening study sessions. I picked up my group from class at 9 p.m. every weekday where we would spend the rest of the evening getting ready for mandatory lights out at 10:30 p.m. One night however, a student that we will use the pseudonym Ava, asked if she could stay up and review papers for class the next day. She told me how her class was doing model UN and that as the Chairperson she needed to look over everyone’s papers by tomorrow morning and it was going to take past lights out. Even without the early wake-up and mandatory lights-out, I did not understand why she had all this work and her classmates did not. After talking to her and other students in my group, I found out that the due date that the other students needed to complete their papers was pushed back twice whereas Ava’s due date stayed the same.

Ava and I started going back and forth because I wanted to talk to the administration staff about it so that her unfinished work would be excused, but she did not want to cause a problem. She was concerned that she would get in trouble for not getting the work done and I repeatedly told her that if anyone were to get in trouble, it would be me, not her. Every time I mentioned that I was going to walk over to administration she would tell me anxiously that everything was fine and that since she agreed to be the chairperson it was her responsibility. We went back and forth for a little while and I was finally able to go tell the admin. Ava asked to go with me to which I told her if she wanted to she could. As we walked over Ava jokingly said that I was more aggressive than the other resident assistant in our hall and I told her “Well, if advocating for you is me being aggressive, then I can live with that”. When we got to the office I started explaining the situation. The dean understood that and told Ava the same things I did about how if anyone were to get in trouble it would not be the student.

After getting back to the dorm, I let her work for a little bit before lights out. She asked me what time I fell asleep because she did not want to wake me up if she needed anything and I told her that if she needed anything she should knock on my door. A little while after lights out, she knocked on my door lightly and asked if we could talk. We sat and talked for a bit and she told me that she appreciated that I advocated for her. Something I did not think about during this situation was the fact that she was from India. She told me that in her culture, doing what I did was not something she was used to. She grew up being taught that if you agree to something, you get it done no matter what and do not complain. I should have taken more consideration into how her culture would impact her reaction to the situation, but all I was focused on at the moment was that she was being treated unfairly and was stressed about it.

Throughout my time at CTY, I became more confident with who I was and what was most important to me. Being able to handle a situation where my student needed my help built my confidence because, at the time I did not have the support of supervisors. It was a tense situation for her and I, but by having a conversation with each other we both were able to walk out of it better. Ava learned that she could advocate for herself. I learned what things in life I feel strongly about and how, despite push-back, I can continue to advocate for them. I did learn more about how my approach and perspective may differ from someone else’s and feel like I am better able to handle those types of situations now.