DIVERSITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
TEAM MEMBERS
Ithaca College Class of 2020
This team is made up of Freshman, Ithaca College students who are enrolled in the Park School of Communication. This project is part of a Journalism Research course; a requirement for each team member's major. Below are statements from each team member about who they are and why they decided to research this topic.
DIANA CASTILLO
Journalism Major
My name is Diana Castillo and I'm from New York, Queens. I am a Journalism major with a double minor in Latino Studies and Politics. Growing up in one of the most diverse cities in the world, the term diverse was never define for me as I was always exposed to multiple cultures and nationalities. Coming to Ithaca College, I experienced a cultural shock to my change in environment. I wondered more about the term diversity and how it's applied to higher education- leading to my involvement in this project.
GIULIA VILLANUEVA LÓPEZ
Journalism Major and Double Minor in International Politics and French
I am from Paraguay and have lived in 3 other countries: Mexico, Italy, and the U.S. (Virginia and Florida). Having had many similar and different cultures around me, I thought researching diversity in colleges was a valuable asset to understanding how students with different backgrounds cope with their new surroundings. I wanted to learn more on how colleges like IC have helped diversity grow between international and non-international students.
MARLEE BROOKS
Documentary Studies Major
Hi, my name is Marlee Brooks and I am a Documentary Studies and Production major at Ithaca College. I am from Auburn, New York where the demographics are similar to that of IC (meaning Auburn is not a diverse community either). I chose to investigate the diversity requirement on campus because I was curious to know if it made a significant impact on how students view diversity in any sense of the word, specifically racial diversity, and if they used the skills they learned in the course in their daily lives.
SOBEIDA ROSA
Journalism Major
I am Sobeida Rosa and I am a double major in Journalism and Spanish. I am from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I grew up in a pretty diverse city surrounded by white subburbs. Although I interacted with white people on a pretty regualr basis I was always surrounded by people of color. I experienced a strong culture shock when I arrived at Ithaca College a PWI (predominately white institute). Because of these things I feel conversations surrounding racial diversity are important for everyone to take part in because not everyone knows everything; there is always room to grow.