Photo Credit: Economic Modeling Specialists International. 2012.
Many T.C.Ks attend private schools during their years abroad in which they experience a lot of cultural diversity through the international experience. This gives a lot of T.C.Ks an international mindset and cultural awareness, however, there's a type of diversity that a lot of these students don't experience, economic diversity. As my friend Ciara brought up in her interview, we have both only attended private schools, both abroad and domestically, but now that she is attending a public school for college she realized that she lacked knowledge about economic diversity. International schools tend to be expensive and a lot of jobs that take families abroad are high paying so many T.C.Ks have never been in an economically diverse environment and are accustomed to being around people and families who are more well off then most of the population. It made me realize that coming to Emory was not at all out of my comfort zone as many, but not nearly all, of the students here are well off and the population is very international, whereas my friend went to a school that is the opposite of our high school as it is not very international but is very economically diverse as a lot of international don't accept or have limit for host country students and many schools are built to make money thus having steep costs of tuition. (Nagrath) Many private universities don't have economic diversity due to the constantly rising price of college. Being in an economically diverse environment is as important as being in a culturally diverse environment because you can never really have an international mindset without it. My friend Ciara's closest friend and some of my friend Mina's closest friends are from small towns in North Carolina and California, respectively, and have never left the state. That is a completely different mindset that can be learned from and is important to be around. I am aware that there are people living very different lives from me and I am always well aware that I am living a privileged life for which I am grateful every day, but I currently I cannot truly understand or appreciate that fact as many of my friends from high school in college are just as privileged as me. I can read all of the statistics I want, for example, 14.5% of Americans live below the poverty line according to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2013, but that can't educate me on economic diversity. Economic diversity is a type of diversity that is not often discussed, it needs to be brought into the conversation and not simply swept under the rug.
Sources:
Nagrath, Cynthia. "What Makes a School International?" What Makes a School International?The International Educator, 26 Aug. 2011. Web. 09 Dec. 2016.
U.S. Census Bureau. "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S.: 2013." The United States Census Bureau. U.S. Department of Commerce, 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 09 Dec. 2016.
Nagrath, Cynthia. "What Makes a School International?" What Makes a School International?The International Educator, 26 Aug. 2011. Web. 09 Dec. 2016.
U.S. Census Bureau. "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S.: 2013." The United States Census Bureau. U.S. Department of Commerce, 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 09 Dec. 2016.