college students you study abroad
anybody study abroad here it’s a great
program right 300 thousand of you 300
thousand every year usually in your
junior year immerse yourself in a study
abroad program you could have China and
Australia and France you immerse
yourself in the culture you learn the
language you learn people’s courts also
you can successfully navigate on that
global stage importance absolutely but I
would posture this device of time in our
own history
it is perhaps more important to immerse
yourself in American culture as in study
America Indiana West Virginia Ohio Texas
South Carolina Oregon Washington State
hey that’s a great other things you know
c’est quoi doesn’t bite on the same
excitement I guarantee you we’ll find
out something much more important you
will find that we as Americans are not
so different after all
if you still don’t get where I’m coming
from let’s play a word association game
when I think Midwest or Midwestern what
pops into your mind
back in the day if you have known the
east coast or the west coast friendly
and hardworking like come to mind today
I would guess that the words that pop
into your head when I say Midwest are
much less complimentary I know I’m a
native Ohioan I’ve lived in New York
City and now I live in Los Angeles my
husband is the president here at LMU I’m
the first lady so I ask our students
that question all the time I graduated
from Kent State in Kent Ohio I asked
students there how they feel about
Californians so the Intel I gathered for
this talk comes from those amazing
brilliant honest students at those
institutions let’s start here in Los
last year I went down to the Starbucks
and I met a graduating senior from LMU
named Hiro and over a latte I asked her
that question when I say Ohia and she
looked at me and she said do you want me
to be honest
I said yes I said hit me I’m braced I’m
ready just tell me be honest she said
she said and my friends talked about
Ohio the words that come to mind are
very conservative white racist and
cheese now the cheese part confused me
because I think she was getting like
Ohio mixed up with Wisconsin and the
cheese said I don’t know but the number
one phrase that came to his mind
she thought about Ohio was Trump or
Trump land and let’s face it
Trump land were Trump has become an all
encompassing terms for all of those
awful descriptors above right but the
most disturbing thing that here–it old
me that day at Starbucks was this she
said when I think of America I think of
the East Coast and the west coast and
everything in between us like a foreign
country everything in between is like a
foreign country why because in part Ohio
is Trump land that makes me sad because
that reduces all Ohioans all
Midwesterners to a stereotype and it is
a stereotype give you a little bit does
the reality now during the election of
2016 among the most popular candidates
54% of Ohioans voted for mr. Trump and
46% voted for mrs. Clinton put another
way if you threw a party and you invited
100 people 54 would have voted for mr.
Trump and 46 would have voted for mrs.
Clinton that’s a difference in eight
people eight I put it another way if
five of the people on the Trump side
would gravitate over to the clitty side
Ohio’s red state status would turn blue
yeah to me that doesn’t say I was Trump
my hand
and to me that says Ohio is America
it stems from life on the ladder in Kent
State and Kent Ohio care they’re from
Tom’s land all the time I talked with
Abel last year she said I’m from
Cleveland Cuyahoga County voted for mrs.
Clinton by a wide margin but people in
the Midwest they stereotype to anybody
asking Ohio and how they feel about
Californians and you’ll hear shallow
plastic hippy dippy liberal to the point
of insanity I talked with Josie who’s a
graduate student at LMU she’s also from
southeastern Ohio she tells me her
friends think all Californians are pot
smoking liberals California they tell
her it’s like a foreign country name I’m
playing young people for stereotyping I
played my generation the older
generation of the partisan media for
reducing all Americans to cartoon
cardboard cutouts and all states to
solid Lana crumbs study America I’m
enjoy thinking I want to go to parts of
America they’re mean people there are
press America would make me really
uncomfortable
I agree it isn’t part of the reason you
study abroad is to put yourself at
uncomfortable situations so that you can
become comfortable learn to become
comfortable so you can navigate on that
global stage sometimes being
uncomfortable I’m just gonna share one
example from my own life that plus
traits that in 2015 I was a
correspondent for CNN and I also
anchored show and CNN sent me to
Baltimore Maryland to cover the riots
there a young man named Freddie graves
thrown into the back of a police paddy
wagon and he died people in Freddie
Gray’s neighborhood they thought it was
because of police brutality and things
became very tense in the city of
Baltimore things became violent at one
point people in Freddie Gray’s
neighborhood looted the only brother
serving the community and they burned it
to the ground you can’t believe how hard
it was to get anybody to do business and
then they were good these people weren’t
even trust her to the ground I went on
the air that day and I said can you
believe it those idiots
those idiots burned them the only drug
store in this community they’ve hurt
later that night Baltimore police we’re
going to institute a 10:00 o’clock
curfew because they wanted people off
the streets because it was attacked by
happen so I called my team around me and
we got outfitted I had my flak jacket on
I got my gas mask I have a bodyguard and
we went to ground zero to wait to see
what would happen when ten o’clock roll
around there were hundreds of people on
the streets hundreds and not very many
of those people look like me and I’ll be
honest with you just as honest as those
students were with me I felt
uncomfortable but we stood there waiting
to see what would happen at some point
in the evening a young african-american
woman and her boyfriend approached me
and this young african-american woman
got in my face
she said it’s you from Santa she was yes
you you pulled this idiots on the air I
heard you on television
you don’t call us idiots I said well I
didn’t call you an idiot I called the
people who burned up in the drugstore an
idiot and she looked at me and she said
you know about my life you think that
can make an appointment the mayor’s
office and all my problems will be
solved around my neighborhood what do
you see you think anybody really cares
I had nothing to say because she was
wrong we taught for a long time and I
don’t know it what wouldn’t conversation
that things became emotional but they
did he started to cross he stood in the
street with his hundreds of people
around us and we just cried and I
promised her that the next day on the
air I would tell her side of the story
she said thank you
she melted away into the crowd I kept my
word the next day on the air I did tell
her side of the story do I still think
the people who burned down the dress
my mind was opened
sometimes being uncomfortable he’s a
good thing asking how I would describe
themselves and they might say friendly
and we’re hard-working and boring we say
that but we don’t really mean it
I often text with three of my friends
from Columbus Ohio I’ve known them for
thirty years the other day my friend a
kid she texted all of us and she said
hey I’m making my mom some oatmeal
cookies and then I’m gonna bring her to
church and my credit list chiming she
said Oh Oh yep and then like my friend
Kim added one worth of things she goes
yeah I’m beggin him look we can bring
him my mom to church god I’m so boring
I’m from Ohio right my friend Liz chimed
in and she said listen again if you were
doing that in California you can make
any mom pot brownies and you know we all
what I was intrigued by this exchange
right I said seriously guys how would
you describe Midwestern culture because
I gotta tell you people on the coast
think we’re panning their own oh that
Midwest modesty Mills their way my
friend Marcy she’s a single mother and
she was a very successful at the
then really weird um-hmm because family
oriented because some of us are
religious because we can buy a nice home
in a nice neighborhood and actually be
able to afford it
because we can see the same concerts you
do without sitting in traffic for five
hours yeah I would say most of the
traffic thing in the affordable housing
and being put Los Angeles might describe
themselves the same way family oriented
you bet
religious understanding here giving this
talk a tell of you a Jesuit institution
who’s a chapel right over the way and on
Sunday I’ve been there it’s full of
people see my friend Kim making her mom
oatmeal cookies and bringing her mom to
church is it an Ohio thing it’s not a
Midwestern thing it’s an American thing
I’m in substitute the oatmeal cookies
for what your family likes best sounds
to church or synagogue but you get it
right it’s not a Midwestern thing it’s
an American thing
I’ve lived in 13 different cities and
towns I visited nearly every state in
the nation and I have never felt like I
was in a foreign country I went to
Beijing China four years ago yeah I felt
like I was in a foreign country than
seriously study and I’m not saying don’t
study abroad cuz I know that’s important
you should do it study America seriously
go to Michigan you realize that Michigan
has 300,000 acres of sand dunes 300,000
acres of Sanders Michigan go to New
Orleans and immerse yourself into
everything Cajun go to Charleston South
Carolina visit the slave reviews again
it is an emotional punch of that but I
guarantee you will learn that Charleston
is a city trying to understand the evils
of its past so
the city in the future go to Baltimore
don’t go to the dangerous parts every
city has a dangerous part we live in Los
Angeles for goodness sake go to
Baltimore walk the same streets that
Frederick Douglass did in Edgar Allan
Poe and then sit down and have the best
crab cake you’ve ever had in your life
go to Oakland San Diego and I don’t know
Fresno three different cultures and all
within the same state yes you will find
that Americans have their differences
I’m telling you more the same than you
think we are savvy students you know
this talk with mechanic Kent State last
year he said you know what I immersed
myself into Szechuan province in china
but I never immersed myself into
Charleston now South Carolina it’s time
I did that I think hate him too nabhi
who was student body president here at w
last year put it best and it used a
borrowed quote to do it and I’m going to
read it to you right now because I carry
it with me all the time when the heart
is touched by direct experience the mind may be challenged to change amen
anybody study abroad here it’s a great
program right 300 thousand of you 300
thousand every year usually in your
junior year immerse yourself in a study
abroad program you could have China and
Australia and France you immerse
yourself in the culture you learn the
language you learn people’s courts also
you can successfully navigate on that
global stage importance absolutely but I
would posture this device of time in our
own history
it is perhaps more important to immerse
yourself in American culture as in study
America Indiana West Virginia Ohio Texas
South Carolina Oregon Washington State
hey that’s a great other things you know
c’est quoi doesn’t bite on the same
excitement I guarantee you we’ll find
out something much more important you
will find that we as Americans are not
so different after all
if you still don’t get where I’m coming
from let’s play a word association game
when I think Midwest or Midwestern what
pops into your mind
back in the day if you have known the
east coast or the west coast friendly
and hardworking like come to mind today
I would guess that the words that pop
into your head when I say Midwest are
much less complimentary I know I’m a
native Ohioan I’ve lived in New York
City and now I live in Los Angeles my
husband is the president here at LMU I’m
the first lady so I ask our students
that question all the time I graduated
from Kent State in Kent Ohio I asked
students there how they feel about
Californians so the Intel I gathered for
this talk comes from those amazing
brilliant honest students at those
institutions let’s start here in Los
last year I went down to the Starbucks
and I met a graduating senior from LMU
named Hiro and over a latte I asked her
that question when I say Ohia and she
looked at me and she said do you want me
to be honest
I said yes I said hit me I’m braced I’m
ready just tell me be honest she said
she said and my friends talked about
Ohio the words that come to mind are
very conservative white racist and
cheese now the cheese part confused me
because I think she was getting like
Ohio mixed up with Wisconsin and the
cheese said I don’t know but the number
one phrase that came to his mind
she thought about Ohio was Trump or
Trump land and let’s face it
Trump land were Trump has become an all
encompassing terms for all of those
awful descriptors above right but the
most disturbing thing that here–it old
me that day at Starbucks was this she
said when I think of America I think of
the East Coast and the west coast and
everything in between us like a foreign
country everything in between is like a
foreign country why because in part Ohio
is Trump land that makes me sad because
that reduces all Ohioans all
Midwesterners to a stereotype and it is
a stereotype give you a little bit does
the reality now during the election of
2016 among the most popular candidates
54% of Ohioans voted for mr. Trump and
46% voted for mrs. Clinton put another
way if you threw a party and you invited
100 people 54 would have voted for mr.
Trump and 46 would have voted for mrs.
Clinton that’s a difference in eight
people eight I put it another way if
five of the people on the Trump side
would gravitate over to the clitty side
Ohio’s red state status would turn blue
yeah to me that doesn’t say I was Trump
my hand
and to me that says Ohio is America
it stems from life on the ladder in Kent
State and Kent Ohio care they’re from
Tom’s land all the time I talked with
Abel last year she said I’m from
Cleveland Cuyahoga County voted for mrs.
Clinton by a wide margin but people in
the Midwest they stereotype to anybody
asking Ohio and how they feel about
Californians and you’ll hear shallow
plastic hippy dippy liberal to the point
of insanity I talked with Josie who’s a
graduate student at LMU she’s also from
southeastern Ohio she tells me her
friends think all Californians are pot
smoking liberals California they tell
her it’s like a foreign country name I’m
playing young people for stereotyping I
played my generation the older
generation of the partisan media for
reducing all Americans to cartoon
cardboard cutouts and all states to
solid Lana crumbs study America I’m
enjoy thinking I want to go to parts of
America they’re mean people there are
press America would make me really
uncomfortable
I agree it isn’t part of the reason you
study abroad is to put yourself at
uncomfortable situations so that you can
become comfortable learn to become
comfortable so you can navigate on that
global stage sometimes being
uncomfortable I’m just gonna share one
example from my own life that plus
traits that in 2015 I was a
correspondent for CNN and I also
anchored show and CNN sent me to
Baltimore Maryland to cover the riots
there a young man named Freddie graves
thrown into the back of a police paddy
wagon and he died people in Freddie
Gray’s neighborhood they thought it was
because of police brutality and things
became very tense in the city of
Baltimore things became violent at one
point people in Freddie Gray’s
neighborhood looted the only brother
serving the community and they burned it
to the ground you can’t believe how hard
it was to get anybody to do business and
then they were good these people weren’t
even trust her to the ground I went on
the air that day and I said can you
believe it those idiots
those idiots burned them the only drug
store in this community they’ve hurt
later that night Baltimore police we’re
going to institute a 10:00 o’clock
curfew because they wanted people off
the streets because it was attacked by
happen so I called my team around me and
we got outfitted I had my flak jacket on
I got my gas mask I have a bodyguard and
we went to ground zero to wait to see
what would happen when ten o’clock roll
around there were hundreds of people on
the streets hundreds and not very many
of those people look like me and I’ll be
honest with you just as honest as those
students were with me I felt
uncomfortable but we stood there waiting
to see what would happen at some point
in the evening a young african-american
woman and her boyfriend approached me
and this young african-american woman
got in my face
she said it’s you from Santa she was yes
you you pulled this idiots on the air I
heard you on television
you don’t call us idiots I said well I
didn’t call you an idiot I called the
people who burned up in the drugstore an
idiot and she looked at me and she said
you know about my life you think that
can make an appointment the mayor’s
office and all my problems will be
solved around my neighborhood what do
you see you think anybody really cares
I had nothing to say because she was
wrong we taught for a long time and I
don’t know it what wouldn’t conversation
that things became emotional but they
did he started to cross he stood in the
street with his hundreds of people
around us and we just cried and I
promised her that the next day on the
air I would tell her side of the story
she said thank you
she melted away into the crowd I kept my
word the next day on the air I did tell
her side of the story do I still think
the people who burned down the dress
my mind was opened
sometimes being uncomfortable he’s a
good thing asking how I would describe
themselves and they might say friendly
and we’re hard-working and boring we say
that but we don’t really mean it
I often text with three of my friends
from Columbus Ohio I’ve known them for
thirty years the other day my friend a
kid she texted all of us and she said
hey I’m making my mom some oatmeal
cookies and then I’m gonna bring her to
church and my credit list chiming she
said Oh Oh yep and then like my friend
Kim added one worth of things she goes
yeah I’m beggin him look we can bring
him my mom to church god I’m so boring
I’m from Ohio right my friend Liz chimed
in and she said listen again if you were
doing that in California you can make
any mom pot brownies and you know we all
what I was intrigued by this exchange
right I said seriously guys how would
you describe Midwestern culture because
I gotta tell you people on the coast
think we’re panning their own oh that
Midwest modesty Mills their way my
friend Marcy she’s a single mother and
she was a very successful at the
then really weird um-hmm because family
oriented because some of us are
religious because we can buy a nice home
in a nice neighborhood and actually be
able to afford it
because we can see the same concerts you
do without sitting in traffic for five
hours yeah I would say most of the
traffic thing in the affordable housing
and being put Los Angeles might describe
themselves the same way family oriented
you bet
religious understanding here giving this
talk a tell of you a Jesuit institution
who’s a chapel right over the way and on
Sunday I’ve been there it’s full of
people see my friend Kim making her mom
oatmeal cookies and bringing her mom to
church is it an Ohio thing it’s not a
Midwestern thing it’s an American thing
I’m in substitute the oatmeal cookies
for what your family likes best sounds
to church or synagogue but you get it
right it’s not a Midwestern thing it’s
an American thing
I’ve lived in 13 different cities and
towns I visited nearly every state in
the nation and I have never felt like I
was in a foreign country I went to
Beijing China four years ago yeah I felt
like I was in a foreign country than
seriously study and I’m not saying don’t
study abroad cuz I know that’s important
you should do it study America seriously
go to Michigan you realize that Michigan
has 300,000 acres of sand dunes 300,000
acres of Sanders Michigan go to New
Orleans and immerse yourself into
everything Cajun go to Charleston South
Carolina visit the slave reviews again
it is an emotional punch of that but I
guarantee you will learn that Charleston
is a city trying to understand the evils
of its past so
the city in the future go to Baltimore
don’t go to the dangerous parts every
city has a dangerous part we live in Los
Angeles for goodness sake go to
Baltimore walk the same streets that
Frederick Douglass did in Edgar Allan
Poe and then sit down and have the best
crab cake you’ve ever had in your life
go to Oakland San Diego and I don’t know
Fresno three different cultures and all
within the same state yes you will find
that Americans have their differences
I’m telling you more the same than you
think we are savvy students you know
this talk with mechanic Kent State last
year he said you know what I immersed
myself into Szechuan province in china
but I never immersed myself into
Charleston now South Carolina it’s time
I did that I think hate him too nabhi
who was student body president here at w
last year put it best and it used a
borrowed quote to do it and I’m going to
read it to you right now because I carry
it with me all the time when the heart
is touched by direct experience the mind may be challenged to change amen
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