I am currently majoring in computer science engineering. It is a field that is reasonably racially diverse but completely dominated by males. In my Computer Science 205 class, there is a total of 5 girls including myself and 30 males. This creates for an interesting class dynamic that I was not aware of until recently. When you walk into the class, all the female students are sitting on one side and the male students are on the other. This means that unless our teacher picks the groups for us, we always split up by gender. I never thought this was a problem until I went that convention for female computer science majors. It was brought to my attention how my classes were specified for a male student, how I am less likely to talk when in a
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They taught me that in order to well, I needed to balance my social and cultural capital because they worked hand and hand with each other. “Social capital focuses attention on differential access to opportunities through social connections.” (The Meritocracy Myth, McNamee and Miller 77) Cultural capital is your ability to “fit in” with the people around you. This past year I was given the opportunity to test my social and cultural capital when I went to Texas for The Grace Hopper Celebration. GHC is a convention to help women in technology fields to get recognized. My dad works for Bank of America and had a few acquaintances who were going to be at the conference. He gave their names and told me I should stop by. When I got there, they talked to me about my dad for a few minutes and then insisted that I sign up for an interview, something I was not expecting. The interview was not one of the best. I did not know any of the technical questions due to my lack of knowledge within computer science, but the behavioral part went pretty well. A few days later, I got a call saying that they were extending me position in their internship program for the Summer of 2017. I used my social capital to help me secure an interview and then it was all up to me. The skills I had learned from interacting with adults and coaches my whole life made me comfortable around them, that was my cultural capital. I was able to open up and talk …show more content…
I grew up attending parties for the “elite” families of Montclair even though I was not in the same social class. I belonged to the most exclusive pool club in town; you had to be someone or know someone to get in. Otherwise you were put on a four year waiting list. It took me awhile to realize that not everyone had the resources and opportunities that I did. Although I am half Italian and half Indian, I always identified as white. I never once thought of my race as hindering me in any way unless it was a stupid joke my friends were making. However, I learned to brush those off early in life. It shocked me when my African American friends got in trouble and brought their race into the situation until I took a step back. Out of the “Montclair Moms”, only a few of them were of color but all of them were from the first ward. That is when I learned how segregated my town was. For most of my life, I took for granted the fact that I never had to think of my race as being an issue. I was never scared to ask my parents for money and I was never scared of not fitting in. My habitus has provided me with so many opportunities and will continue to do for the rest of my
They taught me that in order to well, I needed to balance my social and cultural capital because they worked hand and hand with each other. “Social capital focuses attention on differential access to opportunities through social connections.” (The Meritocracy Myth, McNamee and Miller 77) Cultural capital is your ability to “fit in” with the people around you. This past year I was given the opportunity to test my social and cultural capital when I went to Texas for The Grace Hopper Celebration. GHC is a convention to help women in technology fields to get recognized. My dad works for Bank of America and had a few acquaintances who were going to be at the conference. He gave their names and told me I should stop by. When I got there, they talked to me about my dad for a few minutes and then insisted that I sign up for an interview, something I was not expecting. The interview was not one of the best. I did not know any of the technical questions due to my lack of knowledge within computer science, but the behavioral part went pretty well. A few days later, I got a call saying that they were extending me position in their internship program for the Summer of 2017. I used my social capital to help me secure an interview and then it was all up to me. The skills I had learned from interacting with adults and coaches my whole life made me comfortable around them, that was my cultural capital. I was able to open up and talk …show more content…
I grew up attending parties for the “elite” families of Montclair even though I was not in the same social class. I belonged to the most exclusive pool club in town; you had to be someone or know someone to get in. Otherwise you were put on a four year waiting list. It took me awhile to realize that not everyone had the resources and opportunities that I did. Although I am half Italian and half Indian, I always identified as white. I never once thought of my race as hindering me in any way unless it was a stupid joke my friends were making. However, I learned to brush those off early in life. It shocked me when my African American friends got in trouble and brought their race into the situation until I took a step back. Out of the “Montclair Moms”, only a few of them were of color but all of them were from the first ward. That is when I learned how segregated my town was. For most of my life, I took for granted the fact that I never had to think of my race as being an issue. I was never scared to ask my parents for money and I was never scared of not fitting in. My habitus has provided me with so many opportunities and will continue to do for the rest of my