This week’s class introduced the  terms discourse communities and cultural diversity. I enjoyed this week’s class because it further developed my understanding of cultural diversity at Baruch. Discourse communities are groups who have common interests or goals including culture. I defined culture as the traditions, beliefs, or customs people accept as part of their identity. It’s important to know about cultural diversity at Baruch because it encourages students to talk to people they usually don’t interact with. Adding onto that, cultural diversity relates to cultural competence, the ability to understand and effectively interact with people, because awareness allows students to be considerate and learn from others. In class, a video showed participants placed into boxes based on their cultural race and asked questions. Participants were shocked that despite looking different, most people from different background shared similar experiences. This can be applied to learning at Baruch because while we may consider everyone to be different because of our appearances, we are likely to share similar goals or interests thus sparking a relationship.