{"id":56176,"date":"2023-11-02T14:31:42","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T14:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/?p=56176"},"modified":"2023-11-02T14:31:42","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T14:31:42","slug":"together-in-harmony-by-jad-habib","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/2023\/11\/02\/together-in-harmony-by-jad-habib\/","title":{"rendered":"Together in Harmony by Jad Habib"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Uncovering Vocation Series<\/h3>\n<p><em>Uncovering Vocation is a partnership between <a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/campusministry\/\">Campus Ministry<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/\">Christensen Center for Vocation<\/a> at Augsburg University. Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month, a member of the Augsburg community is invited to share a component of their vocation story. It has become a way of building community, becoming reacquainted with one another, and celebrating the diversity of people and vocations that make Augsburg University the beautiful place it is.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Uncovering Vocation | Jad Habib | 2023.10.24\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4O_-QG7uYwE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m going to start by reading a few quotes that I find fit well in the story I\u2019m about to share.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">American Author Jacqueline Woodson shares that \u201cDiversity is about all of us, and about us having to figure out how to walk through this world together.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another American Author Audre Lorde explained once that \u201cIt is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Howard Schultz, a business figure was quoted saying: \u201cI\u2019ve traveled around the world, and what\u2019s so revealing is that, despite the differences in culture, politics, language, how people dress, there is a universal feeling that we all want the same thing. We deeply want to be respected and appreciated for our differences.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">American minister and activist Martin Luther King, Jr. once said \u201cWe may have all come on different ships, but we\u2019re in the same boat now.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The last quote by MLK really resonates with me because as a teenager, I came to the United States on a foreign student visa albeit not on a ship but I am indeed in the same boat now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On that note, let me introduce myself, my story and why I chose to speak about harmony through Unity.\u00a0 I hope to show through some of my stories why I feel my calling is that of a unifying person.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was born in the \u201cR\u00e9publique de C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire\u201d in West Africa known in English as the Ivory Coast, to Lebanese parents in a mostly French speaking household.\u00a0 I grew up exposed to Ivorian, Lebanese and French cultures and foods.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortunate to experience travel often and from an early age across Africa, Europe and America contributed to my desire to learn other languages and experience other cultures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This, I believe, shaped the adult I became and person I am today.\u00a0 Experiences and friendships gained throughout my life have been varied and colorful in the most wonderful ways and have definitely been learning opportunities and growth triggers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From an early age, I felt that desire to connect and bring people together.\u00a0 As I talk through some of my experiences, this will hopefully become apparent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After arriving to the United States, I was immediately drawn to connect with other students learning English at the Pacific English Language Institute (PELI) in San Luis Obispo, California.\u00a0 Although my English was satisfactory at the time, I was required to take the TOEFL or Test of English as a Foreign Language in order to join the local 2-year Community College.\u00a0 It was a rewarding feeling to get a group of PELI students to break barriers by creating opportunities for all to connect through meaningful conversations, activities and games.\u00a0 I learned a lot about Japanese culture for example among many other things.\u00a0 There were students from a handful of countries from Asia, Europe and South America.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shortly after joining Cuesta Community college three months later, I quickly realized that there was no organization on campus that connected the diverse groups of people represented there.\u00a0 So along with a couple of like-minded friends, I decided to create a club that would just do that. Empowered by the multitude of resources available at the time, I was able to draw up some bylaws and create the MCC or the Multi-Cultural Club, which was the first of its kind in that campus\u2019s history.\u00a0 The MCC quickly grew to include over fifty members.\u00a0 Through activities that included folklore dancing, singing and reading events, ethnic food fairs, fundraisers and more, the club\u2019s intent was in full display by exposing people to different experiences and cultures.\u00a0 The college paper also ran an article at the time to promote the organization and to encourage membership.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After graduating with an AA in linguistics, I transferred to a four-year university in Fresno, California.\u00a0 I stayed involved by working for the International Students Office, where I would welcome and assist International Students through their journey at the school.\u00a0 In that capacity, I was able to be part of many events that brought people together from all areas of the world.\u00a0 Again, I felt fulfilled by connecting with a lot of people from many different walks of life.\u00a0 The beauty of working for the International Students Office is that it was in no way limited to foreign students so that others could join the events and students from abroad could learn first-hand about American culture.\u00a0 American families would host events for all to join.\u00a0 It was a great feeling all around.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a student majoring in Business Administration, I also got involved with organizations like the International Business Association and I was voted president of the Financial Management Association. Although I was not a Finance major, I took it as an opportunity to influence further the cause of promoted diversity I had started at Cuesta College.\u00a0 This allowed me to further promote inclusivity in a different setting and through these organizations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While attending Fresno State University and probably because of my active involvement on Campus, I was invited to join a select group of students to a diversity retreat at a lake resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains above Fresno.\u00a0 There, students shared their stories and background and got to cook together and mingle during an extended weekend.\u00a0 This was a great experience I will never forget.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another experience I would share where I wanted to embrace diversity was my enrollment in Chinese Mandarin classes.\u00a0 I had lived with a family from Taiwan in San Luis Obispo for a short time and picked up a few words.\u00a0 It was only logical that I should pursue another language I felt connected to through them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a French Citizen and before my last year at Fresno State University, I was required to attend a summer military bootcamp in France in order to push back my draft by 1 year so that I could graduate without delay (the French military was compulsory then).\u00a0 I ended up joining the paratrooper\u2019s unit.\u00a0 There, I again met a lot of diverse people and worked to promote camaraderie and togetherness.\u00a0 As the pattern now shows, I encouraged my new friends to connect and share their experiences.\u00a0 Although it was just a summer, I stayed in touch with most for many years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once I joined the workforce in the late nineties, I tried to apply the same principles to my work.\u00a0 I often would create opportunities for people to come together and connect as I\u2019m sure some of my colleagues here at Augsburg can attest, I do that every late spring by inviting all to a gathering at my house.\u00a0 I\u2019m still in touch with some of my old colleagues like a team I managed at HealthPartners.\u00a0 One of my colleagues there once wrote a recommendation and I\u2019d like to read a passage from it that I think really captures well what I\u2019m trying to convey: \u201cJad brought us together and took a personal interest in us as individuals and a team. He brought cohesiveness and camaraderie and helped us become aware of our different strengths so we were able to utilize the knowledge of our team members to gain perspective on the issues we solve daily. Our team is better and stronger due to Jad\u2019s leadership!\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In summary, looking in and analyzing what I feel really is my vocation and from the few examples I\u2019ve shared out of the many more I did not or wouldn\u2019t have time to share, I would say that connecting, uniting and bringing people together as they are is truly what has driven me.\u00a0 I think that what I\u2019ve learned most from these experiences is that regardless of your background, religion, creed, race, ethnicity, culture or orientation, you should always interact with people based on the way they treat you and others, based on their personal traits and character rather than their affiliations because although we are all different in our own ways, at the end of the day, as Schultz puts it, \u201cwe deeply want to be respected and appreciated for our differences.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is only fitting that I ended up at Augsburg where I feel we live these values every day.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uncovering Vocation Series Uncovering Vocation is a partnership between Campus Ministry and the Christensen Center for Vocation at Augsburg University. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":56186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261,165,181,289,264],"tags":[44,96,176],"class_list":["post-56176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-ministry","category-christensen-center-for-vocation","category-staff","category-uncovering-vocation","category-vocation","tag-chapel","tag-staff","tag-vocation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56185,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56176\/revisions\/56185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/ccv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}