My admissions essay to Webster University asked me to reflect on a question "What
does it mean to be a global citizen?" This was my answer. Other opinions are welcome.
The world is
getting smaller every day. The speed at which we can communicate with others in
the most remote locations gets faster and is changing the way we view the world
around us. This shrinking effect is bringing conditions, cultures, and events
from exotic places right to our own homes. The nature of the workplace has
changed profoundly; now more than ever, it is likely one’s team is made up of
engineers in India while one’s customers may live in Nicaragua and one’s boss
is in Germany. This new world requires us to reevaluate our sense of belonging
and citizenship. Global citizenship requires cultural relativism, political
mindfulness, and global participation.
A key trait of a global citizen is
cultural relativism. One must seek to understand a person’s culture through that
person’s particular lens. Judging a person’s customs through one’s own cultural
lens means things may get lost in translation. This was reinforced for me when,
in order to learn Spanish, I also had to learn about political and cultural
history. The more I learned a new perspective, the more I came to appreciate
the language as a whole. Language can shape how one views the world. Even simply
assigning gender to objects changes the perspective of that particular object.
More than that, one begins to understand that, just as there are many ways to
see the world, there are many ways to approach a problem. My time at the
National Model United Nations Conference drove this home. My committee was the
UN Environmental Programme, which covered the subject of clean and safe water
access worldwide. We produced no less than six resolutions on the topic, each
idea coming together to solve one complex problem. Being a global citizen
allows one to appreciate the different views that others have to offer.
A global citizen is politically
aware and understands that the world today is interconnected; no country makes
an isolated decision. A global citizen understands that decisions made on a
personal level have complex effects on others, as I learned during my study
abroad experience in El Salvador. We spent a week working with Habitat for
Humanity, where we constructed a house for a family whose parents, for economic
reasons, were often away for work. My seemingly simple decision to travel to
this country helped make an impact on that family’s daily lives. While in India,
we visited several multinational firms that employ thousands of local people
and provide opportunity for escape from cyclical poverty. Many of these were
American firms; the largest we visited were ADP and Microsoft. Their existence
in India was based on a series of economic and political decisions made by hundreds
of people in America and India. Being a global citizen means having a deep
appreciation for the political complexity of our world.
Most importantly, being a global
citizen means being a global participant. An awareness of other people’s
cultures and an awareness of political integration are only the surface. One must
also participate in what the world has to offer. A billion dollar tourism
industry allows one to travel without ever leaving home. It is incredibly easy
to read about places and people in an academic setting and understand them
through research, but until one has been there and spoken to people, one never
gains full appreciation for the world. One needs to leave the hotel and walk
the streets, ride the train, eat the food, dance the dances. As Mark Twain
said, “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Until one
participates in the global process, one will only have half an understanding.
In the end, being a global citizen means having a rich appreciation for the complexity of
human life, both culturally and politically, and open-mindedness about trying
new things. I am proud to be a global citizen. We live in a rich, diverse,
world and I have been personally blessed to have gotten opportunity to really
begin to experience this, and I will continue to seek more opportunities in the
future. Above all else, being a global citizen means the world is your home and
every person is your neighbor.
