Macalester has four pillars to their mission. There's internationalism, multiculturalism, academic rigor, and service. Students are so engaged, and they really are passionate about the causes that exists both on Macalester's campus and in the Twin Cities. And I think that creates a really strong sense of community as well. And so I think that's always been really valuable to me is being involved in sort of service in the Twin Cities and on Macalester campus. At Macalester, they value multiculturalism, and as an anthropology student, we learned that culture is what is learned and shared among a group of people. So we can share the culture of everyone. They could come from different countries. They come from different backgrounds-- had different stories in their life. So we learn a lot about others, and we are not limited to the physical location of the campus. One thing I find very particular to me is to learn different kinds of identities. My gender identity as neutral, because I don't really want them to be biased based on my gender. And that was really not common in my community back home. So this is something that I find very unique. Those four pillars were important to me before coming here. That's part of the reason I wanted to come to Macalester. I think that's a reason a lot of people come to Macalester. But I think that being here has given me much more like tangible and concrete experiences with all four-- in a way where I was sort of generally interested in them but not sure like, what service could look like? Or what multiculturalism really meant? And then being here is definitely strengthened my interest in those areas.
