How To Burst Our Bubbles

                The bubbles that we grow up in shelter us from the realities of other parts of society as a whole. We are only truly aware of the societal norms that have influenced us and the struggles or privileges that come with those norms. In order to accept others without judgement we must understand where they come from and why their background differs from our own. This is done by bursting our bubbles or moving away from what makes us feel comfortable and safe and exploring our surrounding cultures.

            Bursting our bubbles is important at Bryn Mawr because we are often coming together from very different places that uphold opposing morals. An example of this is how someone who comes from an area with an unaccepting culture would have a difficult time adjusting to Bryn Mawr’s culture of complete acceptance; whereas someone from a place with a very accepting environment would adjust to Bryn Mawr’s culture easily. Both of the hypothetical students grew up in bubbles. The first grew up in a bubble that showed them that judging others is fine and not accepting differences is normal. The second was shown that we should accept others no matter what. When brought together tension is created. This tension has the potential to grow each student. The accepting one learns that not everywhere is like Bryn Mawr and therefore prepares them for more than one type of encounter, and the other learns that acceptance is possible and only breaks the norms in places like their own.

            For Auri, the idea of bubbles came from a conversation that she had with another student in her Esem course. She and her friend are from very differing backgrounds and the friend was complaining about the sheltered nature of their neighborhood. They saw that it did not prepare them for “real life”. However, Auri also realized that her harsher upbringing did not properly show her how to accept others and their differences. When the friend came to Bryn Mawr, they adjusted rather quickly, and although Auri did not have trouble finding friends she still felt rather uncomfortable being in this new bubble.

            From Katarina’s perspective, she had no idea what her project idea was until she read Auri’s post. She was interested in Auri’s topic about “popping each other’s bubbles” and it reminded her of her experience in the Urban Teacher Academy at the College of New Jersey. This is a summer program for students who have a desire to become teachers, especially in an Urban District. Katarina’s eyes were opened when she saw the disparity between the lives of students in a suburban district versus urban. She wanted to take a closer look into these students “bubbles” and she saw the opportunity to do so in this project.

            In order to give these bubbles some grounding we plan to conduct interviews with four students from varying backgrounds and the admissions office about the diversity of the students here at Bryn Mawr. We will also collect as much data as we can from the admissions office and financial aid office in order to get a better understanding of the socioeconomic statuses of the students. We will be focusing on domestic students if possible, only because international students add a different variable since their cultures differ not only from American but each other’s as well. Lastly we will be conducting a survey in order to collect more personal information that cannot be seen through statistical data from the admissions office. This survey will ask questions pertaining to students backgrounds like the cultures of their hometowns and households. We will go to clubs like Zami, Mujeres, Rainbow Alliance, and other affinity groups that will provide racial and socioeconomic diversity to our survey. The end result is to validate the concept of bubbles and to also receive feedback from students about how they overcome their differences here. My personal hypothesis of how to burst our bubbles is through a combination of personal reflection and talking with students who grew up in different environments from our own.