When I came to RMU, I did not think much about the cultural divide that may exist on campus. I spent three and a half years here trying to become more than I was in high school, and, without much thought, that included me getting more involved with the Center for Global Engagement. My time abroad this summer, in Hungary, made me realize how easy it can be to make connections with people of different cultures. When me and the other two members of the RMU VIH cohort met, we discussed how our environments were very welcoming. Why wasn’t RMU like these places we travelled to? RMU is a controlled environment where students go to class, participate in activities, and socialize. Our CEE stemmed from this question as we explored the thoughts of international students on campus which led to a video of interviews where they spoke upon their experiences coming to RMU. After we showed this video, we then spoke upon our individual experiences abroad, with Margo in Oman, Beth in Argentina, and me in Hungary, and how we all felt welcomed by the locals. To explain our title “Mind the Gap”, we took to telling a story about a trip by train and how one must step over a physical gap to board the train. We related this gap and the journey of this train ride to the journey a student takes at RMU to understanding cross-cultural relations. We were able to share insights in how to bridge this gap not only from the American students’ point of view, but also the international students’ point of view. After telling the audience what we had observed, we hoped that the roundtable discussions would branch out from the guided questions we provided, and they did. Going around to each table, I was able to witness authentic conversations happening in a safe place about how this divide between American and international students is a prominent issue that is not being noticed, needs to be noticed,
and thus needs to be fixed. We hope this event resonates with those who attended and stems a reaction that gets the entire campus community talking.