Thirty-six students shared their cross-cultural experiences with a crowd of about 300 at the third annual Student Forum on Global Learning held in Kemeny Hall and the Haldeman Center on Monday afternoon. The student presenters covered an array of issues ranging from immigration to sexual identity to clean water preservation. Many had traveled abroad to conduct research, with their work covering six continents.
Provost Carol Folt and Seeds of Peace Educators' Program Director Daniel Noah Moses said the students' experiences across the globe reflected Martin Luther King, Jr.'s commitment to finding common ground among all people.
"In so many ways, the stories that our students will share are pictures of their own transformative learning," Folt said.
Javed Jaghai '12, who was born in Jamaica, explored the role of the Jamaican media in shaping cultural attitudes toward gays and lesbians in the country. Jamaican gay rights activists have tried to emulate American activists' efforts, but the attempts have been unsuccessful because the Jamaican people tend to view homosexuality as inferior to heterosexuality, encouraging gay Jamaicans to hide their sexuality, he said.
"Telling Jamaicans they are homophobic constantly through many types of media might have an impact on how Jamaicans on the whole understand themselves," Jaghai said.
Yanjiao Chen '12, an intern at the American University of Kuwait, researched the differences between American and Kuwaiti women majoring in computer science. Only one out of ten computer science majors at Dartmouth are women, compared to over half of the computer science majors at AUK, Chen said.
The female American students tended to be intimidated and discouraged by male demonstrations of academic skill, while the Kuwaiti women tended to be inspired to study harder as an act of rebellion, according to Chen.
"You forget how important these freedoms are to be able to walk around and not be stared at," Chen said. "To not have people judge you and look at you saying, Why are you out?'"
Returning to Dartmouth underscored the cultural differences between women, Chen said.
"I realized that what was missing was that there are so many girls here who act not because of personal affirmation but they act because they want social gratification," she said.
Tara Kedia '12, Campbell Miller '12, Gurveen Chadha '13 and Ryan Tincher '12, participants in the Paganucci Fellows Program, discussed working with Financial Access at Birth, an economic project that seeks global financial inclusion.
In a collaborative effort with the Tuck School of Business and the Dickey Center for International Understanding, the four students traveled to Ghana to explore the possibility of establishing bank accounts with $100 initial deposits for every newborn.
A variety of publications, including Forbes and The Economist, entertained such an idea in the past, "but nobody had gone to make it work," Kedia said.
Working in tandem with ACCION International, a microfinance and microlending organization, the group determined that Ghana's stable government and economy and the success of comparable projects in the region made it the ideal location for the experiment.
"[Ghana] is forward-looking, and they do want new innovations in the process of development," Chadha said.
The goal was to provide opportunities for upward mobility to the poor and "not disincentivize work in Ghana," Miller said. "Most of the money would be used for basic needs, like education."
The forum was held in conjunction with Martin Luther King Day celebrations to underscore King's message of unity, Christianne Wohlforth, acting director of the Dickey Center, said.
"Three years ago, we got together with different offices on campus," Wohlforth said. "Students didn't have many opportunities after doing an internship or off-campus program to share what they learned with the Dartmouth community."
The Student Forum on Global Learning was modeled on Wellesley College's Tanner Conferences, a program that devotes a day to student presentations on international understanding, according to Wohlforth.
