Category Archives: Transforming

Projects that are making a difference, improving lives, and building communities.

Southern Culture, UTC Interns

5 Tips for Southern Yankees — by Kimberly Nelson

In the 1956 film “Good-bye My Lady,” Walter Brennan says to a fellow Southerner: “Had a tourist here once – a Yankee that got bit by a snake. Snake died.” It must have been fate that compelled me to watch this outdated, random movie on a Saturday morning while preparing to write this article. “Good-bye My Lady” contains several such jabs that made me laugh even though it is not a comedy and not even about Yankees. I hear quips like this every day from people who don’t realize that I’m a Northern transplant and not native to the South. So, after sixteen years in Chattanooga TN, and ten years previously in Atlanta, I would like to offer my top five tips for a successful transition into Southern living. By the way, to Southerners, a Yankee is anyone not from the South, not necessarily someone from the Northeast.

Continue reading 5 Tips for Southern Yankees — by Kimberly Nelson →

Generational, UTC Interns

Universities Revamp Grades – by Melanie Mayne

How much do grades actually matter in the real world? A letter doesn’t say much about what a person can do. A percentage doesn’t tell you how to do it better. In the real life, we are not graded. Life is too complicated to sum it up with a single letter. That’s why colleges and universities all over the world have revamped their grading policies.

Continue reading Universities Revamp Grades – by Melanie Mayne →

Authors I-Q, Education, Generational, USA Culture

Diversity: Education’s Greatest Challenge? – by Altha Manning

In my last article for American Diversity Report, “Embrace Diversity, Embrace the Future”, I used the example of Zanzibar and how the people there appeared to deal with diversity by accepting differences of other cultures including religion without co-mingling or requiring others to bend to the will of any one group.  However, since my visit there and writing that article, I have discovered that more recently, Muslim youth riding on motorcycles threw acid on the faces and bodies of three American young females who were walking through the streets of Zanzibar on their last evening in the city.  The girls were at the end of their mission to help out in the area and were going to celebrate their stay there.  They will forever be scarred both emotionally and physically by this experience.  This example simply shows how fragile our cultural stability is as mobility of the world’s people increases at a rapid pace and the introduction of new ideas, ways and cultures are seen as a threat to the old established ways.

Continue reading Diversity: Education’s Greatest Challenge? – by Altha Manning →

Around the world, Authors I-Q, Commerce, Social Issues, Teams & Leaders

Embrace Diversity, Embrace the Future — by Altha Manning

When the issue of diversity is raised, most think of race and ethnicity.  Although these topics are very important, they are just the tip of the iceberg. The lens through which we see the world is significantly influenced by the whole of our life experiences. Factors such as socioeconomic status, gender, religion, occupation, language, where we live, cultural background and a host of other factors are all critical components of the concept of diversity.

Continue reading Embrace Diversity, Embrace the Future — by Altha Manning →

Authors A-H, Of Women, Social Issues, USA Culture

I Can Do Anything Better than You — By Dr. Fiona Citkin

“Anything you can do I can do better” was an unspoken refrain of the interviews I conducted with immigrant women leaders, researching my upcoming book. Their combined brilliance nearly triggered my inferiority complex. How come they did SO MUCH better than me? I’d ask myself (I typically take everything personally).

Continue reading I Can Do Anything Better than You — By Dr. Fiona Citkin →

Authors I-Q, Gender, Healthcare, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Racism and Prejudice Among Healthcare Workers — by Gay Moore

Providing patient care without regard to race, ethnicity, gender, or religion is a core value of all medical professionals. However, do they extend the same level of tolerance, stand against prejudice, with other members of their profession?

Continue reading Racism and Prejudice Among Healthcare Workers — by Gay Moore →

Authors I-Q, Healthcare, Native American, Race & Ethnicity, USA Culture

Myths, Reality, and Solutions of Native American Alcoholism — by Gay Moore

Beginning in colonial America, the myth of the drunken Indian persisted throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. The current, more “enlightened,” explanation for the high incidence of alcoholism among Native Americans, concludes that since they were exposed to alcohol for only the past few hundred years, they were genetically unprepared and, therefore, have little genetic “immunity.” American Native people, therefore, have little tolerance for alcohol, become intoxicated on small amounts, and, consequently, experience high rates of alcoholism. This belief, like many others concerning Native American culture, adds to the stereotype of genetic inferiority that continues to influence white American thinking.

Continue reading Myths, Reality, and Solutions of Native American Alcoholism — by Gay Moore →

Culture, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Diversity Struggles from the US to the UK– By Gay Morgan Moore

Riding happily on the London Underground’s crowded Piccadilly Line, I was headed for the famous Harrods’s Department Store. My fellow passengers were a diverse group. They included two young Asian women, several people from India or Pakistan, a Sikh man with the signature maroon turban, several black people whose accents indicated Caribbean or African origins, several white Brits with various British accents, a few white American tourists, and next to me were two young men, one black, one white talking about their families in South Africa. I sat, taking it all in, and thinking “This is what I love about London. Such diversity and all living together, mostly peacefully, going about their lives. What an interesting and exciting place! So unlike east Tennessee!”

Continue reading Diversity Struggles from the US to the UK– By Gay Morgan Moore →

Around the world, Social Issues

Diversity & Identity — by Susan Popoola

It was my birthday recently and I was presented with the following question – “Do you celebrate your birthday with a cake in your culture & country? Would love to know if this a recent cultural phenomenon or long established? Is this a personal sign of globilisation?”

Continue reading Diversity & Identity — by Susan Popoola →

Authors I-Q, Race & Ethnicity, Social Issues

Unconsciously Biasing Children — by Susan Popoola

I recently found myself watching the “Doll test” An experiment where children, black and white are shown two different dolls at the same time and asked questions such as which one is pretty, nice, bad and ugly.  Most of the children, black and white alike point to white doll when it comes to the positive attributes and the black doll when it comes to the negative attributes.

Continue reading Unconsciously Biasing Children — by Susan Popoola →