Institute for Ethical and Civic Engagement

Redefining Understanding Other Cultures

“What does the American dream mean to you?” That's the question a student asks of three immigrants who cook and clean in CU-Boulder's Sewall Residential Academic Program, where the student lives and studies.

Through a translator, they tell their personal stories about coming to the United States from El Salvador and Mexico.

One of the 20 students in this classroom dialogue shares her own experience. She and her family came from South Africa to the United States to escape a wave of violence sweeping through the country.

Pilar Prostko, who facilitated the discussion and interpreted between speakers of Spanish and English, summarized by saying, “The American dream is an idea. We all come here for different reasons.” Prostko knows whereof she speaks. She is an American citizen who emigrated from Peru.

The classroom cultural exchange is part of a series of discussions called Dialogues on Immigrant Integration. Karen Ramirez, associate director at Sewall and the instructor for this class on The American West, and fellow Sewall instructor Ellen Aiken, who jointly began this program, emphasized that the primary goal of these classroom discussions is educational.

Bringing students and immigrant workers face to face helps broaden the students' understanding of other people and cultures. It helps them think critically about social issues, historical events, and economic trends.

A byproduct of the dialogues is less academic but no less important: they engender greater respect and understanding among students, faculty, and staff. Students and immigrant workers inhabit two overlapping but separate worlds. “Some of these employees have been working here for 15 years and nobody has ever said ‘hi,'” said Prostko.

With the dialogues, however, that is changing.

The dialogues arose because of the efforts of Aiken and Ramirez to teach civic engagement courses and help their students learn about immigration. Through these discussions, students have become more aware of the people in their midst who cook and clean for them. Workers say that since the dialogues began, students are neater and have become friendlier.

Aiken, Ramirez, and Prostko are expanding their program. Instructors of six courses in Sewall and seven courses in other residential academic programs have incorporated dialogues into their syllabi. More dialogues are being planned.

In the News » Redefining Understanding Other Cultures