In the Spring of 2022, I virtually attended the Pan-African Conference. The theme of the conference was equity in education. I attended 9 of the sessions totaling over 11 hours. As a white woman who grew up in a mostly white community, I was interested to learn about injustices in the school system that I had not experienced myself and of which I was not previously aware. The major topics that stuck with me are the role educators play in making school a more inclusive environment, black representation in literature, the lack of black educators, and the trauma that the education system pushes onto many black students.

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My attendance at the 2022 Pan-African Conference fulfills Self-Awareness 4 and Knowledge and Understanding 2 and 4.

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Before attending the conference, I was certainly aware of inequity in the education system. However, I never quite understood in what ways because it was not at all my experience in a small white town. The speakers at the conference opened my eyes and showed me exactly where the gap is in our education system. I think hearing stories from people who had experienced these injustices was especially helpful for my understanding. In addition, I was able to relate to some of the things the speakers pointed out. For example, one speaker pointed out how black people are represented in literature. I could immediately recall that a lot of the books assigned in English class portray black people as slaves or as less-educated individuals. I’m not proud to say that I had never deeply considered this before, but of course this in addition to countless other issues widens the gap in the education system. Not only is it detrimental for black students to be poorly represented, but it is also detrimental for white students to only have unrepresentative exposure to black people.

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My biggest question coming into the Pan-African Conference was: why is equity in education still an issue in America? The speakers answered this very thoroughly as I left the conference with a new understanding of what challenges young black people may face as a student in America. Although my question was answered directly through countless examples from the speakers, I still struggled to understand why race discrepancy in schools is not an issue of the past. I decided that while much progress has been made regarding race in America, cultural practices and perspectives change slowly based on history and politics. This has helped me form a global citizenship philosophy that cultural prejudices cannot change overnight, but every individual can do their part by staying educated to make progress toward eliminating misunderstanding between cultures.

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I will continue to seek knowledge about different cultures, just as I did during the Pan-African Conference, which will increase my empathy with others. In my future career as an engineer, I hope to help countless communities and people regardless of race, class, or gender orientation. I will be aware of our differing backgrounds and try to be understanding of their unique engineering needs pertaining to cost or other constraints.