Running head: THE BENEFIT OF DIVERSITY

THE BENEFIT OF DIVERSITY The benefit of diversity to staff, faculty and students of United States University

ABSTRACT

This paper is a research about learning the benefit of diversity in School United States University to increase and sustain practices that foster diversity for students, faculty and staff. The research was conducted by giving some survey form to staff, faculty and student with answerable statement about diversity awareness and openness; also an observation was conducted during the office and school hours to monitor the interaction of staff, faculty and student at the campus. The result of the survey supported the hypothesis that the benefit of exposure to diversity varies from individual to individual but it is indeed a skill to be possessed by a person.

Introduction:

The primary goal this research is to learn the advantage of having a diversity at school, and knowing how to maximize the benefit of this to the students, faculty and staff of United States University According to the dictionary diversity means the state or quality of being different or varied, areas such as race, ethnicity, religion, culture, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, educational attainment, socio economic status and ideology. Educational diversity is an awareness of being different to one other and understanding that each one has a unique dimension, and this research explore diversity of differences in a positive way. What makes United Stated States University unique is that; administration, staff, faculty are working together to promote and supports diversity initiative at school that aims to develop and improve the quality of education of the university as well as the growth and success of all student. United States University (formerly InterAmerican College) was primarily opened to cater the needs for education of those Hispanic and immigrant in Southern California by offering affordable and quality education (usu.com). A student centered institution that provides minority in this country an equal opportunity to have quality education and brighter career in the future; with the core value dedicated to the success of students. One of the core value that USU emphasis is to promote diversity though inclusiveness, bilingualism, multiculturalism and equality (usu.com).

RESEARCH QUESTION "What are the Benefits of Racial Diversity at United States University? And how is this beneficial?

Researching the educational benefit of diversity is necessary in order to understand the educational value of diversity in higher education, this will also help maximize the benefit of this diversity to the students and also to be able to prepare them to the complex world that eventually they are leading too. A school's diversity can have an effect on educational outcomes; most specifically to those who will be living and working in diverse environment. Diversity has a positive impact on learning, on student attitudes, and on important democratic ethics and ideology. HYPOTHESIS United States University promotes and supports diversity of staff, faculty and students. Walking around the university campus, the first thing that you would notice is that everyone is different; each one is unique, by race or color but everyone seems to understand each other and working harmoniously. A welcoming environment and a shared set of diversity standards are important to create a trusting, open, and connected environment that will create a climate that is comprehensive of both visible and invisible diversity among faculty, staff, and students. That students understand that diversity in classroom have a huge impact to enhance education learning and future career. Difference in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies are not disadvantage but an advantage in widening the knowledge not only of student but also the faculty as well as staff. REVIEW OF LITERATURE: An article entitled School diversity is a review on how sensitive is the issue of Diversity in this country due to the fact that this country is one of the most diverse country in

the world. American education system requires reform and there is also little agreement on how to improve it. The crisis in educational success is imbedded in 1954's class, which forbid racial segregation in schools this case diversified all student population in classrooms. Actions had been taken to close the gap, the most well-known being President Bush's 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, this program is designed to give all children regardless of color an opportunity for education. In 2007 the Supreme Court ruled against programs that use race in school assignments to build diversity, appealing that any discrimination on the basis of race - even if it's encouraging diversity - is still racial discrimination. The issue of promoting diversity still exists and to promote diversity, should race be a factor? ( govspot.com) Another article about diversity entitled Fostering Cultural Diversity in Your School is about the evolution of acceptance of diversity in this country and how to promote this diversity. Diversity in all its forms is now on the list of other issues and challenges facing most schools; In a multicultural, pluralistic, global community, understanding diversity begins the process of living in harmony with others .This are the 3 ways that was suggested to combat diversity problem at school, first is to hold workshop for faculty and staff this will increase their awareness on how to deal with diversity as well as give them the skill to address the issue, second to teach diversity by encouraging new, more diverse student activities, hiring 'different' teachers, the last one is to promote diversity faculty and staff must become proactive when it comes to encouraging diversity( privateschool.about.com). RESEARCH PLAN A research will be conducted using the survey form that would unveil the personal idea of staff, faculty and student regarding diversity at school. This survey form composed of questions regarding awareness, benefit and openness to diversity will be given to five staff,

five faculty member and ten students. The majority were statements that required a response on a liker type scale strongly agree to disagree and neutral. Aside from the survey a research observation will also be conducted by walking around the campus and observing the interaction of diverse staff, faculty and student during meetings, classroom settings, and casual conversation. DATA COLLECTION PROCESS This chart of survey calculates percentage of the diversity openness and awareness of the benefit of staff, faculty and student at school United States University. The chart is composed of the percentage, statement and the degree of likeness in different color of staff, faculty and student. The right axis is the summary of the calculation by percentage and the bottom axis is the statement, left side is the guide color for degree of likeness. there are three chart that was created to give a comparison to separate entity and an extra chart to compile all the result.

Summary result of all survey about how open and aware and beneficial is diversity.

USU DIVERSITY SURVEY FORM

Staff Age :_________ Gender: _______ Ethnicity: ______ Marital Status: ________ 1st Language: ___________ 2nd Language: _____________ Others:________ Faculty Student

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Not -applicab le N/A

( FOR STAFF, FACULTY AND STUDENT) Benefits of Diversity

Diversity leads to the possibility of enriched and engaging academic environment where greater learning and growth can take place. Having diversity at school would help me be more flexible in dealing with other people outside the campus. Interactional diversity experiences had strong effects on diversity competence on me. The real value of a college education lies in being introduced to different values. Having skill in dealing with diverse people would help me in my future career. Learning about people from different cultures is a very important part of my college education. Language is not a barrier for student learning outcome Faculty, administrator and student find diversity produce positive outcome.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutra l

Disagre e

Strongly Disagree

Diversity Acceptance I enjoy having dialogues with people whose ideas and values are different from my own.

I enjoy courses that are intellectually challenging.

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I enjoy taking courses that challenge my beliefs and values.

I enjoy talking with people who have values different from mine because it helps me understand myself and my values better.

Having diversity at school would help me be more flexible in dealing with change.

RESULT Perhaps the most obvious result of this research is that the United States University supports and encourage diversity at school, where in it was includes in the mission and vision statement that one of the priority of school is to cater to the educational need of immigrants of this country; this was also supported with the range of ethnicity entered during the survey. Variance of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies are not disadvantage but an advantage in widening the knowledge not only of student but also the faculty as well as staff, this study provides ground-breaking evidence that diversity at school has a huge impact in learning outcome of student. Due to the diversity of people in California the training in dealing with diversity and change would impact in the future career of the student although this idea was not primarily supported in this research but was based on other research and observation. Communication enables diversity, language is sometimes a problem but not a barrier to learn and excel in school. The knowledge of dual language would be an advantage in the future career where multicultural society exist. IDEAS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

From a multicultural perspective, all students should receive an education that constantly affirms social diversity. Given the chance to continue and be funded to pursue my research on a more in-depth perspective of diversity at school I would create a team that would help me continue my research and conduct seminars and trainings that would enhance the awareness of the benefit of diversity to staff, faculty and student. A separate research and training for the faculty will be conducted for more effective teaching strategies in educating students varying in culture, language, abilities, and many other characteristics and be identified, nurtured, and utilized to promote student achievement. A continuation of this research will be conducted to further prove the hypothesis and as well as to see the result. CONCLUSION In conclusion United States University is a very diverse school and this diversity makes it unique and stands out from other school; that the benefit of this is diversity is countless. This shows that diversity experience in school is tied to many individual, institutional and social benefits. The ethnical diversity of staff, faculty and most importantly of student has a significant possibility of enriching academic environment where greater learning and growth can place. Being exposed to diverse culture would help in shaping students flexibility in dealing with the real world. Over all the outcome of learning and the success of students are the main purpose of school and dealing with diversity is definitely one area that student of USU would excel. I have learned the value of being unique from each other contribute to the success of every individual that is involve in the organization. The Bilingual proficiency is an advantage and encouraged for all students and cultural diversity can be assets for teaching and learning.

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School is the place to learn and having diversity at school is a plus factor that everyone should appreciate having.