- In the first chapter of They Say/I Say, using the templates that are given, I would like to try this exercise: At the same time that I believe that people are more comfortable around their own peers, neighborhood, or ethnicity, I also believe that diversity is a truly healthy thing. Not just for the social aspect of expanding your horizons and ideas and sharing experiences with different people, but there is also evidence that it really does contribute to higher production in the workforce.
This template did help me to construct an argument sentence a lot easier than if I was just using stream of conscious writing, and it also made it easy for me to express that things can be nuanced. It’s not always all this way or all that way and if given the opportunity to argue that more than one thing can be true at the same time, I tend to take that challenge at every opportunity. - The two readings this week obviously have some differences since they are about two different kinds of diversity: The Gündemir study relying heavily on gender and ethnic diversity and the Austin&Pisano piece about neurodiversity. Both writings gave me much more information than I previously had about the subject- for instance, the studies done by Gündemir were very detailed and the correlation between more people of diverse backgrounds leading to diverse candidates being willing to take positions of leadership in a company was honestly a little bit higher than I would have assumed, which is a really good thing! The article about neurodiversity was really eye opening to me to see that some very reputable technology companies were doing quite a bit to implement employing people who were neurologically different, and seeing some complaints about concessions being made to these employees (such as having their own office while other employees had to share an office with multiple other employees). That sort of led me to remember some of my experiences when I worked at UPS (I worked inside their hub loading trucks for a large number of years). One peak season (holiday season), there was an influx of workers that were hired on a temporary basis- some were Sudanese refugees, some were Arabic refugees and some were from South and Central America. This naturally peaked my interest because I must be weird but I naturally enjoy being around other cultures, I find it interesting. Well, as soon as they were done being trained and left to load on their own, they had nobody to help them- nobody could speak their language, and (this really bothered me) nobody wanted to work with them, for some blatantly racist, nationalistic reasons. I requested my boss that I move from my area to work with them and help them out, and although I couldn’t speak in depth sentences with them, we got along fine when it came to work, and we even would chat about non work things like which soccer club we supported. Some of my other coworkers who I have known for many years sort of gave me condescending looks and that gave me a bad taste in my mouth, but it instantly made me think of these articles because if you treat someone unfairly and like they don’t matter, than of course the chances are high that you aren’t going to have a super excited employee who strives to go above and beyond for a company while the people there look down on them.
Unit 1 question responses, Aaron
- The article “Why diversity matters” does a good job at using graphics to grab our attention immediately and show some of the differences in company performance when they are more diverse. The first research question that I find myself looking at is the actual title of this article. I know that is a broad question to ask in terms of research, but the statistics that are cited in this article help a lot as far as pointing out why it is beneficial to have a mixed group of people in a workplace. It seems that if you are an employee of a company and you’re trying to be more productive at work, it would help to have a positive mindset and also be challenged- I feel diversity fits both of those parameters.
In the article “What is organizational culture and why should we care?” It’s instantly noticed that while there are some similarities in the contributors view on culture, there are also some differences, and that was worth looking into further for me, to ask “Is diversity of thought in the same sphere as race, gender, orientation, etc.?” I know it wasn’t anything super profound, but to see, or read other peoples views while asked the same question was something I valued. - In my professional life I have been lucky enough to have a diverse group of people that surrounded me. The bulk of my jobs have been warehouse employment, where admittedly going into them I had a preconceived idea of what kind of person would be working there (a white male), and while that may have been the majority in most cases, there certainly were other genders, races and mixes of openly gay, straight, trans people working with me. This was a godsend to me because even throughout my personal life I strive to live by that saying “diversity is the spice of life”. By this I mean that it’s boring just being around the same kind of person that you are (in my opinion), and not only that, it helps your performance, your expansion of ideas, and your attitude. With all of the political division that has been going on lately I have always tried my hardest to seek out conversation with people who may look at things differently than I do, because shutting people out who don’t look like I do or think like I do seems very destructive.
Aaron Stukey Introduction
Hello,
My name is Aaron Stukey and I am a History major here at Syracuse. I was born and raised in the city of Syracuse and plan to go to graduate school after I complete my BA (to try and become a high school Social Studies teacher). I really enjoy reading, watching television and just about every sport.
My favorite subject of study is European history with an emphasis on sectarian violence, mostly the period known as “The Troubles” between England and Northern Ireland. I am very glad to take this course as there are many areas in my writing that I need to work on and am also very interested in the areas of inclusion. I have taken a couple of online classes before but this is the first that uses Expressions so this will be good to get used to doing blogging assignments. I took WRT 105 last summer and would like to build on my writing quite a bit- i’m always caught somewhere between writing too academically and way too conversationally. I look forward to experiencing this course!
-Aaron