Social Awareness; noun; The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse cultures that may be unfamiliar to one’s own. Culture contains factors of different values, traditions, communication, learning styles, and relational patterns that require the surrounding to be respect full and open-minded.

            At the University of Evansville, students are always learning about the diversity within the campus. There are many different cultural student organizations on the campus! UE’s International Club was created by students to represent and give support to the diversity present on the campus.

            On Friday September 29^th, the International Club hosted their monthly members meeting with free pizza, snacks, and soda for their committed members. This meeting was also the callout for the 37^th International Bazaar. From 5 to 7 pm, the club enjoyed each other’s company and was presented with a speaker.

UE Ace, Fiza Imran spoke to the audience of her home country, Pakistan. She shared her culture to students. Her goal was for her audience to understand that, “students are better able to understand and appreciate the diversity around the world when they are aware of various cultures” (Imran). Fiza explained to students that understanding various cultures is important for the world to function and be “interconnected”. Overall, Imran states that, “in general, knowing about different cultures promotes a more welcoming and connected society and gives future generations useful life skills.”

The goal of allowing others to share their cultures is for the UE community to gain social awareness and treat all fellow Aces with respect! Thus, social awareness is an important and necessary skill for teachers and students, employers, and employees – and the list could go on.

Familiarizing oneself with other cultures creates the yearning for life-long-learning, avoids creating social chambers and leaves the audience, and the ones putting in the effort, with a diverse and open mindset, making a change in our world. 💚