Personal Narrative: My Experience At Biola University

Since more cultures are crossing geographical boundaries, it seems that it would be much easier to be a servant for Christ. Elmer says, the “focus is relational

Upon arriving to Miami Dade College, you will never imagine all the resources offered to students to succeed during their scholastic years. I’ve been lucky enough to been advised by some of the best staff at their Interamerican campus. From their advisement office to their profoundly knowledgeable professors. As a current student of ENC1102, we were required to attend one section with a tutor at the writing center. I always thought I had sufficient knowledge of the English language and taking time out of my busy schedule to attend a section with a tutor was absurd.

It was tough growing up Vietnamese-American, because there weren 't many of them at my school. Finding friends was grueling because there was no one I have in common with. People gave me odd looks at lunch too, since I pray and make the sign of the cross before every meal; thus, made school difficult because people couldn 't accept who I am and prevent me from expressing my freedom of religion.  That is, until I joined the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement. My youth group, Thiếu Nhi Thánh Thể (TNTT), consists of Vietnamese Catholics all over west Michigan gathered under one facility.

I have received a great education and an understanding of my religion that has readied me for an amazing high school career and later a great life. One of the most important values OLG has taught me is to accept everyone because we are all equal in God’s eyes. OLG has a very diverse student population that has introduced me to many different cultures and religions. In the real world, we are not all going to look or act the same. God made each of us different!

When I was was younger, I was a caterpillar crawling around trying to get through life, waiting to turn into the beautiful butterfly I know I could soon become. I made good decisions along with bad ones, saw the beauty in life as well as the unpleasant. I was like everyone else trying to be their own person, but now as I look at myself in the mirror I can finally see who I really am. I see myself as the beautiful butterfly I once dreamed of becoming, ready to fly down my own path. I have been in my chrysalis and I am finally out and ready to fly into my bright future.

I was born and grew up in a Christian family in China. My dad work as the full-time pastor in a house church in Beijing. My family have been deeply involved in this church for more than twelve years. I remember my brother and I would spend the whole day every Sunday at church; we helped to do the cleaning, organizing before and after the service. This church became a big portion of my life, and it is as important as my family.

Getting involved means being apart of something more, having the chance to met different people, helping out the community, but its also means learning more about who you are as a person. Starting off at Washburn University I plan to get involved right away, in activities or clubs that would help my academically and socially like the Hispanic club , Freethinkers and French club. I will set goals for myself and achieve them, some small some big. One goal I am pursuing right now is learning french and Portuguese, i plan on going to Brazil next year. School goals, are turning in my work on time, stay focused on any task that is given to me, making sure I understand what i need to do and how to do it.

The most surprising world view I discovered in the book, The Transforming Vision, by Walsh and Middleton was the ability for a follower of Christ to be open-minded toward other cultures that are different in their beliefs, practices, and values. The reading has taught me not to be so one-sided on issues, but to listen to others who have a different perspective than I do. We all come from different backgrounds and not everyone shares the same values. The book gives examples of how each culture practices their traditions and customs. For example, the Japanese value the trait of loyalty.

With all the six years I’ve been at GCU I never had a counselor who never told me they couldn’t help. On top of the lack of assistance from her she really didn’t give me good advice. She wanted me to drop my new class and owe. I told her that was not what I was wanting to do but for her to assist me with informing my instructor,so that they all know what I was going through at the moment.

Duane Elmer’s book is very insightful on relating cross-culturally, and it is easily applicable to international and cross-cultural missions and travel and also to all relationships that attempt to bridge two groups who are very different. Elmer firmly rightly believes that every single culture and even person has their own unique frame of reference and perspective. Everyone at some point needs to adjust from their perspectives of generations, ethnicities, cultures and genders. “No one person or people group knows the mind of God well enough to be able to draw right-wrong-difference lines in an absolute way for all time.” Elmer asserts that the only way we can effectively get “closer to the mind of God” is to “come together and learn from each other” (Elmer, 26).

In chapter one I was surprised to find many terms from when I was in my freshman year of high school. I had to take principles of science and learn about hypotheses, control groups, independent variables, etc. I never put together using those terms with the human body and behaviors of the human body, I always thought of those terms with scientific theories and experiments. It also never did occur to me that psychology was a type of science. I always thought of it as of what I saw on television, like reading minds and telepathic communication and what not, so I was very surprised to find that it was a type of science.

I am taking away a lot of new information from my observations and time I have spent with the ELL students. I witnessed the struggled that these students sometimes have to deal with something as simple as copying a sentences off the board and keeping up with the rest of the class. It takes them twice as long, because they have to look at each word and each word multiple times to copy it correctly. I learned how much more work it is to teach ELL students and how much more effort you as a teacher have to put into these students, but also how much more effort the students themselves have to put into their work. I learned you have to be patient and calm with ELL students, because they need that from their educators, ELL students need to surround

For instance my pa’ Beto, always thanks to God for the hardships in his life because, he said that through them he was closer to heaven. As well the good times he called a gift from the above. My grandpa was always there to help the less fortunate, this was a way for him to showed that every human is valuable and worth of living, my grandpa, always tried to find the goodness in all people, because we are all represent Jesus Christ on

That is a question that I still search for, but I know I will be someone who never give up, have the courage to try, not scare by challenge and also like my mom who has faith in Christ. Even I was raised in Christian family but my family still hold on some Taiwanese tradition. For example,

As soon as I stepped onto the campus of UNC Wilmington, I fell in love. I love the school, the town, the people, and the nursing program. The town reminded me of where I had grown up, giving me a sence of saftey and of being at home. I knew then I could spend the next four years of my life there. Upon arriving I was greeted with warm smiles from the friendly students on campus.