How Diversity Makes Us Stronger

“Diversity leads to beauty and strength”

-Maya Angelou

Diversity is a reflection of the world we live in. Over the years, research has found that it is an important aspect that builds strong corporate culture and eventually increases profits. It is therefore important for universities to integrate diversity on an academic level so as to prepare students who will be engaged citizens and responsible leaders while at the same time creating a campus community that appreciates every individual’s contribution.

Moreover diversifying one’s skills set can be advantageous in any social setting. For instance, to succeed and do well in a football game there must be various positions with different skills required for example defense, midfielders, attackers and goal keepers among others without which they cannot make it through or even develop. It is only natural to wonder what benefits diversity of race, gender, or cultural background provides us.

Numerous studies by The Century Foundation about racial and socioeconomic diversity have indicated that school learning systems benefit from social diversity because such systems expose learners to different cognitive and social value. Simply put: “diversity makes us smarter.” Also, it is worth noting that college education encourages individuals’ intelligence growth by not only making them special but also preparing them for their future professional life after graduation (Gurin et al., 2002).

Let us first look at how academic training can take advantage of this.

Ballooning critical thinking

Classroom discussions are more effective when students come from diverse backgrounds (The Century Foundation). By doing this exposes one to other points of view apart from oneself hence leading into critical reflections on ones assumptions as well refreshing our minds with new perspectives on life.

Scientific American also came up with findings showing that exposure to diversity changes how people think thus leading them towards better innovations/creativity/solving problems in general making a person smart. Secondarily Antonio et al., 2004 postulate that cognitive thinking comes as a result of diversity. This means that criticising someone from a different background than oneself leads to critical thinking, but not when it is done with someone from the same background as oneself or who shares one’s views.

Diversity prepares students for adult life

The professionalism of working life is quite different from campus. It becomes important, therefore, to be prepared to face the work world where people come from various backgrounds. However, in case these colleagues differ from us significantly then interaction may become difficult especially if one has an experience of working in a non-diverse environment.

Thus school diversity and group project management with diverse team members who share and represent diverse perspectives, race/gender/ethnicity helps in building up students to fit into workplace and the world at last.

Creativity comes exclusively through diversity

According to both professional and academic research diversity is one of the key elements contributing to innovative teams. This fosters creativity by allowing for many different ideas that can come together for a unique idea or output or strategy. However, this process entails bringing together disparate concepts and shaping them towards something new and distinct altogether on the other hand. Finally studies have shown that racially mixed teams perform better compared to those with minimal diversity when it comes to problem solving.

For one, benefits of diversity can accrue to students as individuals in schools, businesses and the whole society. On the other hand, it is important to note that poor diversity management may lead to conflicts resulting into some classes not achieving their desired learning outcomes.

“It is in our differences that much creativity and many innovations lie.” This makes it necessary for diverse people to meet each other, so that students and professionals may have a chance at learning and excelling in a richly diverse creative learning environment. We can only become stronger or better and live fulfilling lives by appreciating diversity and acknowledging what others bring through different views.