Scholarship Recipient Builds Cultural Intelligence

I thought I had high cultural intelligence.

I was born in Korea, completed my Bachelors Degree in England, worked with the US Air Force, and now I am living in Michigan. I spent most of my life learning a new culture at every turn. I thought I spent plenty of time developing cultural intelligence. As it turns out, I was wrong.

I became a Race Relations scholarship recipient in 2021, and one of the things that I was privileged to enjoy was a workshop called “Cultural Intelligence (CQ) Building.” At first, I was not very excited. Like I said above, if anyone has high cultural intelligence, it would be me, because of my complex background. Again, I was so wrong.

Thanks to the Multiracial Student Scholarship Fund and the workshop that I participated in thanks to that scholarship, I was able to grow so much as a person, intellectually, spiritually, and (most importantly), culturally. I realized that our ability to act and react in positive ways across cultural lines does not come naturally or easily; it is something to be studied. I learned that one needs the skills of knowledge, motivation, interpretation, and behavior to have good cultural intelligence.

I would like to thank those who made this scholarship possible and who run these workshops. They really helped me grow. I also recommend everyone who wants to serve the Kingdom of God by breaking down cultural barriers to take the workshops facilitated by the Office of Race Relations.