CAPA Spring 2019 Diversity Advocates scholar Kim Corona writes about the sense of camaraderie she experienced after seeing singers Mitski and Clairo live in Sydney. As a music enthusiast, she tells us about the creative spirit in the city, what it's like to be surrounded by locals with similar interests, and the empowering experience within music. 

CAPA Spring 2019 Diversity Advocates scholar Jeff Chan shows us how Lunar New Year is celebrated in Sydney. He tells us about the similarities and differences between the celebrations in Sydney and Boston (where he grew up), as well as what he enjoyed the most during this cultural festival. 

Lunar New Year is a celebration of the beginning of a new year based on the lunar calendar. Determined by the cycles of the moon, this date changes from year to year. Typically held in January or February, cities all across the world hold festivals and celebrations to help ring in the new year. Unlike the United States, Sydney celebrates the holiday for a week!

CAPA’s commitment to diversity extends to personal, experiential, and academic engagements throughout all of our communities. We strive to create inclusive environments for our students that allow them to experience and learn from people with diverse backgrounds, worldviews, and cultural traditions. We view our commitment to diversity as a form of social justice by promoting international education as an opportunity that is available and achievable for everyone.

The HBCU Grant

As part of this commitment to diversity, we developed the HBCU grant program. This initiative provides students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) with an automatic grant to participate in a variety of CAPA programs. Students attending HBCU institutions automatically receive $1,000 toward a fall or spring semester programs with CAPA or $500 toward CAPA’s summer programs. Students receiving the HBCU grant are still eligible to apply for CAPA’s other scholarships such as the Diversity Advocates Grant or our Blogger/Vlogger Grants.

The following is an excerpt from a paper written by Lauren Ehrmann—currently a sophomore of Indiana University—that focuses on Black History Month as celebrated in Florence, Italy. The research paper was completed as a requirement of receiving a Diversity Advocates Program Grant and studies other organizations in Florence that explore and encourage the intersections of cultural heritage and immigration. Lauren's focus on these organizations is born of an effort to explore the porosity of multiple cultural heritages made possible in Florence, and the ways that CAPA students could become involved with either cultural heritage or immigration issues while there.

CAPA Fall 2018 Diversity Advocates scholar Lauren Ehrmann reflects on her time teaching English at Anelli Mancanti in Florence and how her experience teaching locals with diverse backgrounds completely changed her preconceived ideas about Florence.

I arrived at the specified time to a historic building with bright orange hallways decorated with optimistic murals about community and diversity, ready for my first day of volunteering. Linguistic confusion ensued when I asked the young adults at the front desk where to find Jacopo, the person I was supposed to meet: they cheerfully tried out their English on me, while I further confused things by attempting to use my rudimentary Italian. Just as I was about to despair, I was saved: Jacopo came down the stairs, shook my hand, and greeted me (much to my relief) in excellent English.

CAPA Fall 2018 Diversity Advocates scholar and art history major Lauren Ehrmann experiences the Islam e Firenze exhibit at the Uffizi Gallery and shares her Revisionist History-style take on the forgotten story of Florence’s exchange with the Islamic world.

Like any good art history major, the Uffizi was first on my list of things to see in Florence. I hurried to the galleries my second day in the city. When I arrived to the grey arched courtyard that contains the entrance to the museum, I noticed a large banner proclaiming the special exhibit currently running: Islam e Firenze.

My specialization within art history is Islamic art, so naturally I was overjoyed to see an exhibition about my area of interest. I rushed through the whole museum to get to the special exhibit space at the very end which housed the show.

At CAPA, we seek to foster increased student diversity and to provide all participants with the opportunity to explore, challenge and redefine their identities in distinct ways. Launched in Spring 2017, the Diversity Advocates Program (DAP) is an extension of this philosophy and provides resources for advocates to pursue diversity initiatives of their own within their global cities.

In this week's post, Maya sheds light on the reality of being a minority in Barcelona and shares her views on living in a country with a completely different language. She also opens up about her identity as a black woman and contrasts her living experience in Boston to her semester abroad; and expresses her commitment to improving her Spanish conversational skills.

Studying abroad has really given me a chance to reflect on who I am as a person, and what I identify myself as. I am an American black woman from the inner city of Boston, my only fluent language is English, and I am currently working on my Spanish. These traits made me incredibly different from the population of Barcelona. When signing up for study abroad, I expected a lot more diversity than what is really here. I thought it would be a bit like England, where there is a mix of many different looking people. I was very, very wrong. Majority of Barcelona is white, there are little to no black people which made me a big minority, which I am not used to.

Mariah is an official CAPA blogger, sharing her story on CAPA World. A Journalism major at SUNY Purchase College, she is studying abroad in London.

In today's post, Mariah reveals her observations about London and its diversity, the areas that celebrated it and what reminded her of home, as well as the cultural differences she noticed.

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I decided to study abroad because of the amazing opportunities I knew would come from it. I knew I would be putting myself in a foreign environment that I wasn’t used to. Surprisingly enough, the environment didn’t differ too much from back home. I was surrounded by a diverse environment where some areas were vibrant. In terms of adapting, their work environment was a bit "politer" than what I assume the Americans environment is.

My colleagues were not shy of being passionate during their conversations or discussing politics. It was also a usual thing to ask everyone if they wanted “anything to drink” throughout the day. It was a form of politeness I wasn’t used to.

At CAPA, we seek to foster increased student diversity and to provide all participants with the opportunity to explore, challenge and redefine their identities in distinct ways. Launched in Spring 2017, The Diversity Advocates Program (DAP) is an extension of this philosophy and provides resources for advocates to pursue diversity initiatives of their own within their global cities.

Now, it’s time to announce our Fall 2018 Scholars!