STATEMENT ON CONTRIBUTION TO EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION
STATEMENT ON CONTRIBUTION TO EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION
As a kid, I lived in different countries starting from Germany, to Taiwan, then the United States. So for a large part of my life, I felt like the odd person out. In Germany, because I looked different from most of my classmates, in Taiwan because I was not accustomed to the culture at first, in the US because I did not speak English to begin with. However, having gone through experiences like being bullied because I looked different or made fun of because of my accent as a kid has made me a lot more sensitive to people who look different, speak differently, dress different, and act differently than the social norms because I knew what it felt like to be an outsider and not being involved often in the beginning because of it.
In terms of my contribution to equity, while in High school I would often participate in summer church trips to Native American Reservations in Arizona to provide free summer camps for underprivileged Native American kids just to teach them how to draw and how to play basketball. Also, I would talk one on one with some of the kids to learn what their lives are like, just to listen to them, and befriend them. Although it did not seem like I or the team did much, it meant a lot to the kids because a lot of them receive little attention coming from dysfunctional families.
During college even though I was open to going to any country for church missions, internally Cambodia was the last place that I wanted to go to because of a lot of predetermined biases and inaccurate ideas of how crude and dangerous the place was like. I preferred going to a more developed area like Japan or China. Nonetheless, sometimes the place you want to go to the least is where you end up going. Lo and behold that summer, Cambodia was the only available mission site at the time and I ended up going. Despite all my biases and reluctance to go, It turned out to be the best decision in my life because it made me see how beautiful an under developed place could be, the authenticity and respectfulness of the people, the unscathed ancient landmarks and how nature enveloped these thousand-year sites, the interesting and artfully crafted architectural designs of temples and buildings, the delicious local fruits and inexpensive markets, there was so much raw energy and excitement about the place that it was overwhelming. This experience really got me to abandon any of my biases and predetermined judgement of any place or anyone and expanded my ability to accept and appreciate the diversity in other less popular cultures.
A couple of years ago at the game company I worked for, my supervisor told me right in front of a Korean co worker that all Koreans are bad at singing because he saw one video of a Korean YouTube prankster singing Mariah Carey out of tune. The Korean coworker though disturbed, just went along with it agreeing because she was afraid to offend our supervisor. At the time, I told him how untrue that was and how Koreans produced one of the most talented and skilled singers per capita in Asia. Although it may have been pure ignorance and lack of sensitivity from my supervisor, I felt strongly about needing to stand up for my coworker's background.
As a mobile game art teacher as well as having been teaching other subjects in the past from anime drawing to tutoring natural media art. I have been accustomed to teaching students globally from all sorts of backgrounds and ethnicities. I never viewed any of my students differently but provided the same respect and opportunity to each student, in rare cases where there were underrepresented minorities I would be patient and lend an extra hand when they needed it. When the war broke out between Ukraine and Russia I never showed any animosity toward my Russian students or showed favoritism towards my Ukrainian students. Likewise during the Israeli and Palestinian war, I did not allow any political biases to keep me from treating everyone equally.
In the future, if I get this job I will continue to stand up for diversity, equity, and inclusion in every way possible whether it be recommendations, helping students enter competitions, grading, or not allowing any discriminatory verbiage or actions in my classes. I will also attend diversity seminars to keep my understanding of diversity, equity, inclusivity up to date.