College, Career and Life from My Perspective

Growing up in my home, college was never something that was talked about. It was just not apart of my family's culture. By this I mean it was not normal to progress from high school to college; anyone who had gone that route was stepping outside of the box and faced its challenges alone. When I graduated high school I received a chance to go to college. Because of the lack of college graduates in my family I had no guidance from home on what to expect with the college experience. Due to the lack of funds and exposure, I am the only one of my siblings that received the opportunity to pursue college full time and graduate.

In college one of my close friends was Pakistani and practiced the Muslim religion. I learned a lot about her culture and religion from hanging out with her and occasionally going home with her for school breaks or weekends. The things I learned were opposite of what I would see in news media and taught me how important it is to interact with people of many backgrounds. As her friend we both introduced each other to a new culture that is often times depicted very differently to the world and our communities by the media; African American and Pakistani American cultures. I remember a challenging year where there were student protests over racial discrimination driven tension. A peer of ours was jailed as a result of one protest. Several multicultural organizations came together to discuss getting through this difficult time. By then the Pakistani friend was my roommate and she'd introduced me to several people in the Muslim community. At the meeting with the various organizations a member of a Christian organization decided to offer a public prayer.

Out of outrage my friend Sma decided to leave and she took a few people from the Muslim community with her. After the occurrence I met up with her and the friends in our dorm room and discussed what happened earlier that evening. In Sma's opinion a public prayer was forcing one person's religious views on to others that did not share the same religion. She spoke of this being a common practice in various American communities. After our discussion she and our other Muslim friends agreed with my understanding of what happened. I told them that one person offering a suggestion to pray did not mean everyone was subjected to pray with the same beliefs in mind. I also told them this was a time for an intervention outside of what people could offer and whether it was from one religious stand point or the other was not the point. The experience taught me how important it is to consider more than one perspective in various situations. If the person that suggested that the group pray would have simply acknowledged that there may have been more than one religion represented in the meeting then Sma would not have been offended. Outside of our friendship in college I also learned how important it is to have people of different backgrounds in a classroom setting. When current events were discussed in class it was only beneficial to have students of various backgrounds to offer different perspectives on the issue discussed.

After I graduated college, I worked in television and radio producing various programs. Working in television has opened my eyes to media as an important form of persuasion. The media is very influential to how the public view each other and how the public view the world. It has caused me to be more passionate about changing how people view me and other diverse people. My first experience in a professional newsroom I believe was very positive. It was also an experience that opened my eyes to many things. I remember speaking with a prominent African American anchor who worked for the station for over 20 years. He'd been there through many changes. In conversation I told him I was very pleased to see that the newsroom he worked in employed many people of color. He told me to look closer at what each person of color did and rethink my statement. It was not until I was actually working as a news producer at a different station was I fully able to understand and appreciate his statement. Of the newsrooms I've worked in or had a connection to the decision makers rarely were people of color. Even as a producer I would decide what was considered news but often times my Executive Producer or News Director would make final decisions or changes in my newscast. In each newsroom there lacked the ability to discuss important issues for people of diverse backgrounds or to discuss how people of color fit into the bigger picture of important issues. In the end the product being discussed was often similar to whether a story on President George W. Bush's daughter bailing a friend out of jail for public intoxication was more important or a story on a local African American police officer being fired because he would not cut his culture driven dreadlocks hair style to conform to police appearance standards.

My college and my professional experiences have taught me the importance of my voice whether it went ignored or praised. Unfortunately, without the presence of people from different backgrounds in various institutions the voices of many people go unheard, whether it is in news content or in the developing of and passing of a law. I have decided to study law to use my voice for a greater cause. These experiences have led me to pursue law in an attempt to help shape the world in a more prominent way. Studying law is an opportunity for me to continue to express my voice in ways that can change a community. Furthermore, coming from a media background and representing the African American culture allows me to have a perspective that is diverse and imminent. Veronica Sanders