My Cultural Plunge

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For my Cultural Plunge, I participated with Project Excell (Extending College Education for Lifelong Learning). This is a group that meets on campus, in the union, every Saturday morning from 9:00-11:00 AM. Each participant has a developmental disability and they come from various places around Manhattan. Project Excell offers around 4 different classes for the participants to choose from, which range from dancing/theatre to the history of Nigeria. After completing a “session,” the participants go through a graduation ceremony and then begin a different type of class for the next few weeks. I joined this group as a student ambassador, who assists the classroom teachers while building relationships with and tending to the needs of the participants. I decided to focus my plunge on adults with mental and physical disabilities, because I had no prior experience with this group. Coming from an able-bodied family where no one has significant handicaps, I was generally shielded from people with disabilities. Over the years, I grew to associate dangerous stigmas with these people, even though they have no control over their circumstance. The …show more content…

I had always heard people talk about people they knew with disabilities as “the sweetest people you will ever meet,” but that phrase meant nothing to me until I met this group. I honestly could never have imagined the impact that they would have on my life. The next time that I went back after my first session, I had participants say things like, “You came back! Hi!” or “Look, it’s Megan! Megan everybody!” As an introvert, it is sometimes difficult for me to approach new people and immediately build relationships with them. This group of people has absolutely no issues waving at strangers to making friends effortlessly. They made me feel appreciated and loved having only been with them for one session, and this feeling grows each time I

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