Highline Community College is a school of diversity; a school that provides a broad education for many students who come from around the globe to get good education. Many students come here not because they could not get education in their native countries, but they come here to get good technological skills and educational opportunities. From my observations, many of the students who study at Highline are mainly in the technology fields, such as Computer Science and Engineering. These students bring many useful things to the Highline College as well as to the community. They create an environment where people can learn each other's culture, tradition, language and background. Therefore, it is an important factor to have students who come from different countries of the world. On the other hand, diversity may have some downbeat effect as well, but its advantage is much greater than its harm.

Many of the international students contribute such enormous advantages for Highline Community College. The first and foremost important thing they bring is their culture and traditional differences. We see many highly educated people study and publish books about other peoples' culture because of its essentiality. For one, it helps to educated people who want to learn about different culture. Secondly, it helps to adapt and respect other people's culture. The same reason in school, when you have students who have different culture, two major things happen. The first thing is that the students and even teachers can learn someone else's culture. Let's take a history or geography class, for instance. When there is a presentation project about culture and tradition, they give their presentations to the whole class. Then, people begin to learn and visualize other cultures. Or they know something they never knew before. Hence, there is a learning trade in this process. The other thing that comes to my mind is that when you see someone culturally different, you begin to adapt and respect their culture. For instance, when you see some students wearing very unusual cloth in the class, after a while you get used to them and you start to respect them because they are just simply following their culture or tradition; they are not trying to be different and unique people. So, having students with different culture in one school is a way of bringing different people together.

People have been asking me about where I came from many times. However, when I tell them that I am from Eritrea, they do not get it quickly simply because they never heard of my country before and they do not even know its location. In fact, sometimes, I have to repeat my self as many as three times just name it self, Eritrea. But once I tell them a little bit about my country, such as location, they learn something and next time they ask someone from the same country as me, it will not be strange for them. Therefore, I really think that people can learn and improve their geographical knowledge by asking students or people in general.

Dating can also be a great way of learning diversity. I know one of my friends, Abraham, who has been dating an American girl (white) for about two years. Her name is Sara. She said that she likes to date people that have different cultures so she can learn from it. She goes to Eritrean restaurants with him very often and she likes our cultural food as well. Also, she has been learning how to cook Eritrea food too. She has been learning our language, Tigrigna, from her boyfriend and from me as well; every time I go to their house, she asks me to translate some of the words to her. She looks very beautiful when you see her wearing "Zuria", a cultural and traditional Eritrean women's dress. Eritrean women dress Zuria in special occasions, such as Independence Day, which is May 24th and Christmas. Sara plans to go to Eritrea sometime in the future with her boy friend to spend a couple years there. She thinks if she stays for a long time there, she will learn and adapt to the Eritrean culture. I really think that if she goes there for a while, she will learn many things quickly especially our national language, Tigrignia.

The other way to learn about diversity is by making study partners. This creates an opportunity for the students to discuss about their past experiences. They can ask questions each other and learn about each other's culture and ethnicity. For example, I see many students with different colors and ethnicity studying together at the library. I am certain that they ask questions about each other, such as where they come from, what kind of life they used to have, the different learning experience at their schools, and so on. I think that is one way of learning about diversity too. For example, I have been telling my friends that when I was in my native country, Eritrea, that I had to walk about four miles to get to my school, we had to copy the notes from the blackboard because we did not have books. That way, they can visualize the different learning experience that goes on around the world.

Highline College benefits from the international students greatly. International students pay about three times of the normal tuition. To be exact, one student pays about $2400.00 per one quarter. Imagine how many international students are attending at Highline, there are around 300 students. In fact, the number of international students attending at Highline has been increasing yearly. How does this benefit to Highline? This means more revenue to the school. Highline, which then the school can spend the money for may academic improvements, such as technology, computers, teachers raise, and hiring new teachers so that the school can provide broad education, and to enhance the school, such as new buildings and renovating the old buildings.

From my observations and as statistics show, the majority of the students at Highline who came from around the globe have strong educational backgrounds and academic strength. Most of the students are very intelligent and they have such high standards; they are persistent, focused, and they have good organizational skills. They are career oriented; they know what they are doing and they know about their future objectives. Having these type of students in our school can benefit Highline. How can these students benefit Highline? I want to bring an example. Suppose, in a class there are different kinds of students, such as some of them have high skills in Mathematics and Physics. And, some students find themselves having some difficulties in these subjects. They can overcome their problems in many ways; by being inspired by these good students by getting help directly from them. I have seen many students who serve as tutors in the tutoring center. They help many students who have some problems mainly in the core subjects, such as Physics, Calculus, Chemistry, and other subjects. This is a big contribution to Highline. Generally, when students improve their skills and achieve very good grades, Highline Community College's reputation becomes well known.

Parallel to the benefits that Highline gets from the international and other immigrant students, pointing out some minor problems that occur periodically would be necessary because many people feel and think there are some problems. As I have noticed (including myself), these students who come from different origins and ethnicity are shy; they have difficulties expressing their ideas and point of view. It may not be easy to say anything you want using your second language, English. Hence, most of the students have this particular problem. There is one thing in their head; what if I make a mistake? Alternatively, what will the whole class think if I make a mistake? Even if they knew the right answers, or even when they know exactly what to do, they still don't say anything or they do not share it with their group members and teachers. How this can create a problem? For example, suppose a teacher assigns a group project, a group consists of different types of students, such as students whose English is their first language, and the others English is their second language. We know that a group project means "contribution, communication, and cooperation." If I cannot express what I think or if I cannot share what I have in my mind, that means I am not cooperating or contributing to my teammates. Not because they don't know what to say or they don't have any ideas, but because they are shy to speak up and express their point of view. Thus, the outcome becomes throwing the job to someone else's shoulder or back. Basically, it is like being a "parasite", being a dependent not independent. In addition to this, the group may not fee good because they have extra works to do and besides their portion, they do someone else's job. This may lead to a stereotype as well; students may have bad feeling or experience on students whose English is their second language.

Some students do not like students of color or students with different ethnical background for different reasons. It can be because those people think students of color do not belong at Highline. Alternatively, maybe they think that their space is being taken. This can lead to something serious problem; students fighting each other and segregations among student instead of cooperation and building friendship. For instance, during lunchtime at Highline, we can find many students who do not like to sit by colored student. This is one of the causes and of effects of having diversity students at Highline

Moreover, it maybe not be obvious to many students, but those students who come from different corners of the world will be competing against the native students in getting a job. "The more competitors exist, the less chance of acquiring a job." After their graduations, they will be hunting jobs all over the place, which means they can create less opportunity for these who are native citizens. For example, here at Highline, there are many positions that are occupied by international students, such as work -study programs. Thus, they are creating fewer opportunities for the native students.

Diversity is the way people exchange different values that are necessary for human beings: culture, language, tradition, ethnicity, and background. Diversity is a way of discovering and knowing social life of society without actually traveling to different places or countries. Therefore, considering the benefit that diversity brings, it is an important factor at Highline, even though it can create some minor problems. Diversity brings different people together and it creates an environment where all people exchange valuable things and respect each other. Diversity helps us to educate ourselves about what is going on in the world as far as culture, history, and other things. Therefore, diversity plays an important role at Highline Community College and in many other schools as well.