On evening of August 5, 2022, Global Youth Philanthropy organized an online students seminar in title of “Races, Education and more”. Theresa Fu, GYP Intercultural Symposium Committee Co-President , hosted the event and four high school students, Darvensky Daniel，Chandu Christopher，Melika Mostafavi and Caroline Song , participated the symposium as the panelists. These four students are also in GYP-YEE (Boston city government sponsored Youth Engagement and Employment) program. That event was the number 11 GYP international students forum event.
Although all four students’ panelists are all from the high schools in the large Boston area, but they have the diversified backgrounds. Their family heritage backgrounds include Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago,Iran and China.
This seminar discussed the many struggles people go through due to their ethnicity, religious beliefs, race, and more within the United States. This could be an eye opener for many people who do not experience discrimination to learn about the struggle that others are subjected to. The panelists went on to speak about topics such as the effects of growing up with a different background, how different schools can have an impact on this, some harmful stereotypes that are attached to minorities, and more, going into personal details about experiences they have gone through.
The panelists all had different experiences, and all came from different backgrounds. This allows for a more diverse conversation regarding the panelists’ experiences and thoughts. For example, while nearly all of the panelists experienced stereotyping and discrimination, they all had different thoughts about it. Caroline speaks about the stereotype that all Asians are naturally smart and finds it concerning that these stereotypes can bleed through to families for generations. Melika speaks about the stereotype that Islamic/Arab people are terrorists and finds it odd that people say that in person and not just online. Darvensky speaks about the stereotype that black people have higher physical capabilities than others and responds to this with a shock that people can bring themselves to say it to someone’s face.
All of these panelists have their own unique experiences in regard to their culture, both positive and negative. For example, Caroline and Melika both had positive experiences in regards to other people attempting to speak their(Caroline and Melika’s) native languages, and Darvensky and Chandu both had negative or at least odd experiences in regards to how they were being treated in school. Listening to these panelists speak about the different aspects of being different in a country where being different is not always appreciated can be an eye opener for those who are not discriminated against and allows those people to see into the positive and negative aspects of their lives of others in order to improve themselves and how they may treat others.
Please visit GYP Youtube channel to watch the video of this seminar and please send your comments and feedback to us by email at <info@globalyouthphilanthropy.org>
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