Day One
Today, the first day of IL was very informative and discussion-driven. We opened with an ice-breaker, which consisted of naming an interesting place we have traveled to and identifying differences in culture. Within the ice-breaker activity we also shared what we wanted to learn from the cultural awareness trip this Intensive Learning.
After the ice breaker, we talked about core cultural identifiers and recognized that several are on a spectrum and not one specific thing. We then read an article, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack by Peggy McIntosh, followed by a discussion about some of the conditions people face within society.
Everyone created an Identity Circle, a chart that shows how we personally identify ourselves based on Key Core Cultural Identifiers: socio-economic status, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, age, gender, and sex.
Then, we created presentations on different groups of people and their influences on Philadelphia, some of which included Jewish, African American, Italian, Catholic, and Quaker groups. Many people in the group spoke about how they identified themselves. It is a very diverse group filled with people with interesting backgrounds and lots of insight on their cultures.