MAKAYLA WRAY
Bachelor of Science in Communication
Diversity
SOC. 320 Social Inequality
I took this course during the Spring 2019 semester, more recent compared to most of my displayed courses on my ePortfolio. Throughout this course we tackled topics that can be difficult to talk about and many people have very different opinions of them. These topics include religion, race, the class system, and the war on drugs. This class provided students with a safe space to talk about these difficult topics and gave us the chance to ask those uncomfortable questions that we may have never had to chance to. Social inequality had a huge impact on me and my mindset. It allowed me to open my eyes and hear the things that people who are different than me go through and allowed us to better understand each other. During this class we had weekly reading and quizzes and at the time I thought that it was too much, but I am appreciative that I was able to learn about all of these topics through popular readings, movies, and shared experiences.
Gender & our World
This is a paper that I wrote towards the end of the semester for my final assignment. We had free reign to choose a topic that we learned about during the semester and I chose to write about gender differences in society, such as the gender pay gap. I chose to write about this because it has effected me personally and thousands of other women. This gender inequality often starts at home and then moves its way to the workforce. Women hold less managerial positions and although I am only one person, I would like to be one more woman who is a role model to others and holds a respected managerial position within my field.
Jane Elliot
One of my most memorable moments within this class was when Jane Elliot came and spoke to us. She was in town to speak with students at Old Dominion University and our professor was able to get her to make a special visit to our class. She is famous for her brown eye/blue eye psychology experiment in her classroom in 1968. She spoke heavily about racism and the different things that separate our society today. As seen above, CNN was also in our classroom to record Jane Elliot's presentation. I was able to speak with her after she was done with her presentation and I expressed to her how thankful I was for her wise words and the huge impact that she had on me. She was very kind and was just as thankful that I came and spoke with her. After everything wrapped up, I was asked to have an interview with CNN about racism in Norfolk and our campus culture. This is by far one of the most interesting experiences I have had to date and am so thankful for being able to participate.
Skills the Employers are Seeking
Throughout this class I learned rules to live by. The 'golden rule' of treating others the way you want to be treated and that people grow up with very different backgrounds. Especially in the workplace, it is very important to remember that not everybody has had the same life experiences. Some people may view things that you think are normal as offensive and it is so important to remember to be conscious about the decisions that we make. In this class we often worked in groups and did role playing as members from different class systems. It was beneficial because I was able to 'walk in someone else's shoes' for a brief period of time and am more aware of differences that I may come across in the workplace.