While abroad, the three women from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown all recognized cultural similarities in that minority groups within their countries were either mistreated or poorly represented within the media. While Hayley Welsh was in Sydney, Australia, she noticed that ethnic Aborigines were held to the same stereotypes as inner-city African-Americans within the United States. While Eden Cohen was in Prague, Czech Republic, she noted that the Czechs were highly xenophobic of the minority Roma population. Lastly, while Gabrielle Maylock was in Cape Town, South Africa, she grew uneasy in the fact that there are still many racial scars left from the apartheid era. Thus, the group settled on the idea of having their community engagement experience center on the focus of how minority groups are presented in different cultures. They also furthered that idea to “act locally” by having their campus fully understand the consequences of holding biased prejudices against people from a different non-majority background. The CEE consisted of holding a PowerPoint presentation and then afterwards hosting a panel discussion with three professors from UPJ. During their PowerPoint presentation, they began by briefly discussing their own personal experiences of minority issues from abroad. Then, they went into further detail by discussing American minorities, including African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and people from Middle Eastern/Islamic origin. The American minorities were discussed by how American media portrays them; for example, African-American stereotypes issued from biased news coverage, Hispanic portrayal in television sitcoms, Asian portrayal in American business media, and the issue of growing concern for “Islamophobia” in the United States. After their presentation, they opened up a panel discussion, and began conversation by asking the three professors on the panel how we, as consumers, can combat minority stereotypes. The three women were enthralled as the engaged audience consistently asked the panelists thought-provoking questions surrounding everything from personal reflection, current world events, and political impacts from minority issues.
