As an international student, I would like to use the Festival Of Excellence as a platform to share my experience on the concept of diversity and the benefits of students being exposed to different ethnicities, race, and cultural background on campus before entering the workforce. Research validates the importance of such an exposure. For example, see the article, “Top 5 Ways Students Benefit From Diversity on Campus” by Brown (2016). They are many definitions of the term “Diversity” but for the purpose of this presentation, diversity is defined as -” group of people refers not just to their racial or ethnic background, but also their age, their education, their gender, and their life experiences.” Brown 2016, comments that “Not only does diversity enable students to work with people from other races, ethnicities and culture backgrounds, but it also challenges the views they are accustomed to leading to more awareness and understanding of difference beliefs and customs.” Southern Utah University (SUU) is an experiential learning environment where one of its mission is to foster intellectual and creative engagement within the SUU campus community. An interesting fact about SUU is that it has international students representing from over fifty countries. Clearly the concept of diversity within this university is enriching the educational experience of the students. Consequently, it is fair to say that this will also impact all the students and other campus member’s perspectives about globalization in general. My experience as an International student at SUU has increased my awareness about the importance and the need for a diverse campus. To conclude, this presentation aims talk about the different research on how students can benefit from diversity on campus and also my personal experience as international student at SUU.
