Personal Statement Of Diversity

Ghassan SHAHIN
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Statement of Diversity

I am a Syrian Christian person who grew up in Damascus, the capital of Syria. In Syrian, which is a relatively small country, more than 70 ethnic and religious sects can be recognized. However, the majority are Muslims with minor communities of Christians and Jews. As a child, I attended the Orthodox Al-Asyeeh School growing up in a society consists mainly of Christians. Such an experience separated me from the real society which I faced at first when started my undergraduate studies at Damascus University. In Damascus University I realized very quickly that I was a minority from two perspectives. First, my beliefs were unlike; I was interacting with a community of major

As I am a minority, I know that I am different, and thus might recompense for it. My mother used to encourage me for working twice as hard to get the recognition that the other students will get. To understand the cultural differences I had with my colleagues, I decided to explore their holy books. Though it was hard and tough to be explained, I introduced my friends to my beliefs and cultural elements. Such differences might seem, from the first glance, as intangible as to be inconsequential to someone at the university stage. In fact, I still remember the period at which my colleagues were fasting Ramadan, I desired to respect them fasting; I stayed all the day without having food; it was just like I am fasting Ramadan. Looking back, this experience was my first research project. Curiously, I watched everything going around me, I had to investigate first hand a different culture with different beliefs. When I could not understand what was going on, I referred to their holy books exploring the missed

This international program led me to have friends from all over the world. In addition to European colleagues, people from China, Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Algeria, Russia, United States, Canada, Mexico, Chili, New Zealand, Colombia, Costa Rica, Turkey, Palestine, Israel and Lebanon joined the program working and interacting together through our everyday activities: morning in the class and hanging out in the afternoon. Indeed, this experience exposed me to the most diverse community I have ever met. Due to the crisis in Syrian, I was exposed to a different kind of