Choose to Stretch Your Cultural Comfort Zone

When we select a college, most of us look for a place where we will be comfortable. This might mean finding a student body that looks like us, talks like us, and acts like us. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why many students gravitate to a college close to home. What if we set out to find a college that might be a stretch for us and even might make us a bit uncomfortable? After all, think back to those times when you stretched yourself, moved out of your comfort zones, and opened yourself to new experiences in diverse settings? As for me, those situations have been some of the most valuable learning experiences of my life.
Recently, I read a piece by Carly Martin, a softball player at Howard University. She has drawn more attention than most athletes. She has been called a “snow-bunny” by locals, and is often asked, “Does she really go here (Howard)?” As a white student at a historically black college (HBC), she says she is constantly reminded of what it is like being a “minority.”
I was intrigued by Carly’s experiences, because I too went to Howard a long time ago. As a white male student, I often remember feeling like an outsider. Rarely did I ever encounter another white student on campus. I think back to an issue of The Illtop (Howard’s newspaper is called The Hilltop), a humor magazine supported by Chris Rock. The Illtop poked fun at Howard and its students. One of the articles was entitled, “White Students’ Guide to Howard University.” In this article, for example, white students were advised not to be absent too much since it will be very noticeable. “Your professors will know your name on the first day of class. Actually, everybody will know your name on the first day of class. Even people you haven’t met yet.”
Like Carly, I felt very accepted by other Howard students and faculty. And like Carly, I would not trade my formal and informal education at Howard for anything. Besides providing me with a strong academic background in sociology and my field of specialization, race and ethnic relations, Howard changed my cultural lens and made me much more aware of my cultural encapsulation . As a Howard alum, I see and feel things differently, and I run a lot deeper. To quote Carly, Howard has “made me a stronger person in many ways.”