When you hear this word what do you think of?
A lot of us immediately think of ethnic diversity - usually in the color or shade of skin. With a little more reflection we can come to diversity of gender, diversity of socio-economic background, diversity of political or religious views, and diversity of thinking processes.
Whenever we encounter a new type of person who is different from us, our reactions can be anywhere on a spectrum from rejection of the people for their absurd ways, to acceptance, respect, and appreciation for their differences. If you think about it, most wars have been fought due to one group not accepting the differences of another.
As professionals working in a professional setting, we need to become (or at worst, have the appearance of having become) the type of people who accept those that are different and gain a respect and appreciation for the differences.
People my age watched our grandparents and our parents have outward disdain for people of different races and even different genders. Today this is not, in any way, acceptable.
So here is the question, if we live in northern Minnesota, go to high school in northern Minnesota, go to ICC for two years, and then to a regional university, how can we learn first hand that a huge part of the world looks, thinks, and acts differently than we do? How can we gain respect for different people, when for the most part, those of us who live here are quite similar?
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A Place for Current/Former Students of Ron Ulseth to find Job Search Information
Re-Tooling TBL
For several years TBL was a blog where I wrote about a wide variety of topics. Those postings are still in the Blog Archive and many are about professional development for engineers. I am now transitioning TBL to be a place where my current and former students can find information related to job searches.
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Every person viewing this blog should immediately join MN Works job search site.
https://www.minnesotaworks.net
The BOTTOM Line
This Blog is intended for the former and current engineering students of Ron Ulseth.
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2 comments:
One thing I've begun doing as I meet people who are different from me is ask questions. Everyone has an interesting story and is willing to tell it if you are willing to listen. Just yesterday I was talking with a guy from the same Nigerian tribe that Hakeem Olajuwan came from. This sort of communication is priceless.
Go places where you are the one who is dissimilar. I've been moving around the country for my entire adult life, including my educational and professional careers. I work in a very large company that actively promotes diversity. I've found that it still can be challenging to be accepted - especially if everyone where you go is similar. Once others see that your experiences and background contribute and add value to the overall project you're working on it gets easier to be different. One final thing - don't be afraid to challenge the way things are done if you believe you have a better way. Finding better ways to do things is how diversity helps us all improve.
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