 I'm Grace Loddick, and this is Educating Ourselves in These Difficult Times on ThinkTech Hawaiʻi. Today, we will be discussing college culture abroad and how education has influenced national responses to recent events. My guest today is Brayden Watanabe, a senior at Trinity Western University in Langley, Canada, who was raised in Hawaiʻi, graduating from high school here. He is a business major with a double specialization in accounting and finance with a minor in economics who is also pursuing a CPA or CFA certification. He will be sharing his experiences as an international student and give us some insight into Canadian student culture and how cultural and educational differences create the foundation for how we perceive and respond to global issues. Thank you for being a guest on my show today, Brayden. Thank you for having me. So to provide some context for our viewers today, could you give us a little overview about Trinity Western University? So Trinity Western is a really small university based in Langley, British Columbia, Canada, so that's just right above Seattle, Washington. It's a small school of maybe around 4,000 students, though it's the largest private university in Canada. It's a small Christian university, and overall it's a fairly diverse university with students from over 60 different countries. Wow, that is definitely amazing that you have such a mixing pot of so many people from so many different cultures, and I think that definitely creates a wonderful learning opportunity for us to learn about each other and different perspectives and different cultural practices and norms. What inspired you to choose to go to a college abroad? So initially when I was looking at colleges back in my senior year of high school, I wasn't exclusively looking at universities outside of the U.S., though I was looking at summer schools in Canada as well as the UK. What made me choose Trinity Western was when I went to visit there, how great the sense of community was on campus with just the student body and the way that everyone comes together and dorm life and even commuter life, which I'm a part of now. So building up on the idea of having a community at your university, what have been some of the greatest challenges and maybe surprises you experienced in transitioning from an American educational system to the Canadian education system? I think that the Canadian educational system, especially when it comes to things such as STEM, which is science, technology, math and engineering, is quite a bit more advanced in Canada than it is in the U.S. when speaking about general public high school education. Just because a lot of the funding that comes from education in Canada is subsidized through the federal government through various different forms versus the U.S. They always talk about how a school district's funding comes from only the property taxes in its district, which in a lot of cases actually limit how much funding they can get. There's been a massive global push to help encourage students to pursue STEM because it's often regarded as the most in-demand career positions in our current global state. You mentioned before our show that you actually formerly were a biotechnology major. Did you feel as though the American educational system adequately prepared you for a STEM curriculum at an international school? For me, I find it hard to argue an overall point of view on that when regarding like a U.S. education because the education that I received was from a very small private Christian high school based in Hawaii that was only about 100 students from 7th to 12th grade. So the education that I received there, specifically regarding science and mathematics, I believe was severely lacking, which kind of led me to being not prepared for what I thought biotechnology was going to be even though I have a passion for science and a passion for that. I didn't feel like that was an appropriate career choice for me. Overall, do you feel as though the pace or the rigors of Canadian university life is more rigorous than the American college system? I think it's more, yes, I believe that it's more rigorous simply because our typical semester that we have at my Canadian university lasts only about 12 weeks of course work. So we start the second week of September and we end the first week of December for our fall semesters. So it's quite condensed even though we're fitting in similar course loads as a typical American university. Wow, that is surely a challenge I'm sure having to condense all of that information into such a short period of time. Would you say that overall you felt less prepared when you look at your Canadian counterparts or perhaps other international students as well? I think when I compare my educational quality to those alike such as other Americans at my university or other Canadians at my university, I felt less prepared especially regarding biotechnology simply because my entire biology career in high school was limited to only ninth grade. So not having the developed knowledge of taking biology 12 that most or that several other students that I talked to have the opportunity to take in their junior and junior year of high school, I feel kind of pushed me back a bit. In what ways do you think that the American educational system and curriculum can be improved and do you think that there are certain areas in which we can draw inspiration from Canada or other countries abroad? So I think it's commonly argued especially now more than ever with the whole situation of racial segregation that public school education has to stop coming from funding of that district's property taxes because when you're talking about a district that has the average property tax of a home of only $200,000, when you're comparing that to a district where the average home is $800,000, you're going to see a clear difference in how much funding and resources each school has to provide education equally for all people. Would you say that there seems to be less of a divide in equity of access to education in Canada? Yes, I think so. And in what ways do you think that this lack of equity in education has perhaps prompted our national responses to certain controversial issues recently such as the death of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement, the protests, the riots, the looting. In what ways do you think that our education and culture in the United States has contributed to the way in which we have perceived and responded to these recent events? So I think that racism has always kind of existed in American culture, maybe not in the way that it used to be, but there's still a clear ethnic divide between different ethnicities. And so looking at secondary and post-secondary education institutions, it's just yet another way that we see how the segregation and the gaps still exist by seeing the quality of education that a Caucasian student can receive versus a Black student can receive. Would you say that racism is as prevalent of an issue in Canadian culture and is it addressed in their educational curriculum? So I think racism in Canada, it's kind of a complex topic and it's something that I'm still learning about today. I think now, speaking now about how Canadian culture exists now, that racism isn't as prevalent or isn't as big of an issue as it is in the US. In Canada, their primary minority is Indigenous people, who they refer to as First Nation and so they basically are who Americans refer to as Native Americans. And so just by giving them the title of First Nations, it kind of shows that they were the first people in the region. And to this day, Canada is still kind of, I guess you can say repairing the relationship with Indigenous cultures because of things that they've had in the past, such as residential schools, which separated children from their families in order to kind of shape and conform children into what Canadian society wanted at that time. Do you believe that the First Nations people have responded positively or perhaps appreciate the Canadian response to perhaps the prejudice and the segregation that's been created over time? Do you think that they appreciate being referred to using terminology such as First Nations? I think that those are all positive steps that the Canadian government has taken to repair the damage between, in their relationship. I think that the things that the Canadian federal government have done have been very beneficial to their relationship versus what America has done to try to rebuild our relationship with our minorities. In what ways do you think that the American government can draw inspiration from the Canadian government's response to the issues with First Nations, for example? So I think in regards to the American government, it's a little more difficult of a topic because America is so much larger and of course is everything, the larger something gets, the more expensive something gets. And so with Canada, they were able to, not to pool numbers, not to pool numbers, but they were able to finance this affordably or not affordably, they were able to realistically implement something of that magnitude because they were dealing with a population of only say a million people versus with America. Our minority groups make up a vast bigger percentage of our population than indigenous people make up with the Canadian population. So for us, I think implementing similar movements that Canada has taken such as creating Indian reserves, which we have, and growing those are some positive moves that we can take. You mentioned earlier that Trinity Western University seems to be quite the melting pot with students from over 60 countries. That is impressive. Would you say that having this mixing pot at Trinity Western University has prompted discussion about racism or perhaps appreciation or greater understanding for people from other cultures? I think that's a fair point. Trinity Western has made it quite clear from when I first stepped foot on campus that they were all about acceptance and racial tolerance, which is very positive in today's society. And I think just by creating initiatives such as, or not initiatives, just having professors from various different countries is just yet another way that the university shows that they are against discrimination. Is racism something that's often discussed at your university? For example, do you have any courses specifically for intercultural relations or perhaps identifying prejudices within society? To my knowledge, I know that there are several courses that discuss intercultural relations, primarily targeting Indigenous cultures. However, I don't know much of the, much information on those courses. Brenda, I would definitely love to continue this discussion with you, but we will actually be taking a short break in a moment. Again, I'm Grace Loddick, and you are watching Educating Ourselves in these difficult times on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Brayden Watanabe. We will be back shortly. Aloha, I'm Kisha King, host of Crossroads in Learning on Think Tech Hawaii. On Crossroads in Learning, our guests and I discuss all aspects of education here in Hawaii and throughout the country. You can join us for stimulating conversations to enrich, enliven, and educate. We are streamed live on Think Tech bi-weekly at 4 p.m. on Mondays. Thanks so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. Aloha. Welcome back to Educating Ourselves in these difficult times with my guest, Brayden Watanabe, senior at Trinity Western University. Welcome back, Brayden. So right before our break, we actually had one of our live viewers send in a question, and they would like to know if there have been any protests in Canada surrounding the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Great question. So yes, there actually have been several protests. I know of two major ones, one that took place in Vancouver and one that took place in Toronto. One thing to note about the protests that have been happening in Canada as well as other countries around the world, such as France and the UK and Italy, is that these protests outside of the US are more peaceful and are targeted not against their local police for police brutality, but rather against the US embassies for allowing something like this to happen and demanding some sort of change. In what ways do you think that American culture and our educational system has prompted our protests to be particularly violent? Sorry, can you repeat that question? So you mentioned that many of the protests abroad, such as in Canada and Italy and the UK, tended to be more peaceful. Whereas in the United States, the protests tend to be more violent and include things such as looting and rioting. In what ways do you think that our American educational system and our culture has contributed towards America's more violent response in comparison to other nations? So I think because America still has a stigma of as they call it fascism, which is rooted more in the right wing philosophy, we still see remnants of racial stigma against African Americans and people who are viewed different than the majority. And I think something like that is something that has kind of dissipated much quicker in other countries in Europe and in Canada that is likely because they take more of a liberal approach to these issues. And when there are such controversial issues, such as racism in Canada, I remember there was a bit of a scandal a few years ago where the Canadian Prime Minister, they found photos of him having blackface. Did Canada have a similar response to racism in the way in which America responded to racism in regards to George Floyd and the BLM movement? I would have to say no, simply because Canada has shown a lot more effort by both local provincial and federal governments to want to change and break down the walls and the stigmas surrounding racism versus the U.S. has talked about these issues for now years, though there's been no meaningful gain or showing that something is changing. So I think that has kind of led to that. In what ways do you think that the American educational system can be amended to perhaps continue to eliminate prejudice and biases against those of other races or ethnicities? So I remember having a conversation with one of my professors who was from Nigeria back in my first year of university and he talked about how people often, especially teachers, argue that they have what they refer to as color blindness, meaning that they don't see your skin color, that everyone is the same. And he was telling me that he thinks that this is something that's detrimental because you shouldn't have to see everyone as being the same in order to treat everyone the same. He said that you need to have something called racial tolerance, which is that you see everyone as being unique and seeing everyone being themselves. However, you don't treat them differently just because of that. You mentioned earlier in our conversation that racial tolerance is a pretty prevalent sentiment in Canadian culture. In what ways is this embodied in its educational system? Do you think that there's more active discussion on racism and helping to eliminate bias? Is this perhaps something that students are instructed about from a young age in Canada? I think because Canada does address this issue a little more than U.S. does, Canada addresses issues such as racism that it does exist in societies around the world. However, they teach children from a younger age that everyone, though everyone is unique, everyone is made equally. You mentioned earlier that there does seem to be a bit of an issue with lack of equity for access for resources and education in America because of the way in which our funding is allocated for educational systems. How is the funding allocated in the Canadian government for education that enables students to have more equal access to education? So in Canada, it's similarly through property tax, except the property tax, rather than staying locally within the district, all get funneled through the provincial government, which then distributes that funding equally based on student population and student density, so that each student is viewed equally and having equal opportunity within the public school education system. With your business and economics background, how would you suggest that the United States amend the way in which funding is currently allocated for their educational system to help create greater access and equity to education? So I think adopting a similar method that Canada has taken on would be one step that the U.S. could take by allowing each individual state to use a collective fund of based on property taxes to distribute equally amongst all of its residents and all of its citizens in order to create an equal opportunity for everyone, and that would be one method. I think that throughout the summer, the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the death of George Floyd, is going to continue to be on the front headlines of the news. When you return back to Canada in the fall, do you think that there will be greater discussion on campus regarding the Black Lives Matter movement and perhaps better targeting racial injustices? I think that that's something that could be a possibility. Again, as I mentioned before, racism isn't as widely talked about of a topic in Canada as it is in the U.S., mainly because racism isn't something that's as prevalent as it is in the U.S. So I think there will be remnants of discussions that still exist between community, sorry, my university community on campus, as well as even provincially or federally in Canada. However, I don't think it'll be based on anger and frustration that is in the U.S. As an international student who is living abroad in Canada, have you experienced any instances of cultural or racial misunderstanding at your university? I have had a couple minor instances of something like that, but it wasn't racial discrimination, it was more just misinterpretation. How would you say that our college curriculums can better prepare students to handle global issues such as racism and not only beyond racism, but just being better prepared as a global citizen to successfully navigate controversial issues like this? Do you think that our schools and education systems, especially for post-secondary education, are currently adequately preparing students to navigate these issues? And if not, how do you think that we can better improve our education system for that? I would say that our secondary and post-secondary systems don't adequately prepare students to having these hard conversations like we're having now. You see so many instances on YouTube or on TV of news reporters going to college campuses around the U.S. and having discussions on this and you see how little people have been educated on these topics. And so I think there needs to be more of a emphasis and a focus on universities doing their diligence to educate their students in order to better prepare them to kind of change society and change the future for the U.S. Would you say that this responsibility falls solely on universities or would you say that this responsibility also falls on other government sectors or perhaps beyond post-secondary education? I think the responsibility kind of falls on all of us. Like we have the responsibility to, if we have the responsibility as elementary teachers to kind of shape children into that. In middle school you have the responsibility of growing their education and growing their knowledge on these topics and especially in high school and post-secondary. You have the responsibility of really shaping the students into knowledgeable people and citizens. Would you say that there are particularly any countries or cultures that you've encountered where you think that there are certain things that we can learn from them in particular to help bolster our educational system or the way in which we navigate these complex global issues? So I know so Canada has taken a good approach but I've also heard that Germany has taken a fairly good approach to their educational system by allowing for all students to basically use what's called school vouchers to attend their choice of school be it public or private so that they still get their choice of education will also be given an equal opportunity to everyone else and to take another approach like that which I know some states in the US have tried to adopt or have considered adopting would be one step that we could take. Do you think that your experiences as a student abroad and living internationally have helped perhaps like shift your worldview in regards to issues such as racial injustice, the Black Lives Movement or just misunderstanding between cultures or perhaps adopting more cultural communication competencies? Would you say that you would recommend living abroad as a good experience for people who perhaps want to gain a different perspective and a new worldview? I think that yeah living abroad or even if you don't want to take that big of a move living out of state for a year is just a great way to kind of broaden your perspective and your worldview because I know for me coming from Hawaii which even though it's a very liberal state I grew up having more conservative principles. As I moved off to college in Canada which is very liberal and a much bigger city than Honolulu in Hawaii, my worldview and my opinions have definitely changed within the past several years that I've been attending the school. Braden I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to share about your experiences living abroad. It was amazing hearing about how your time living as an international student has helped to shift your global perspective. Again I just wanted to thank you Braden and thank you for watching Think Tech Hawaii. We hope that today's program shed some light on what life is like as an international student and what we can learn from other cultures and educational systems. Again I'm Grace Lottick and see you every other Thursday at noon. Aloha.