Cultural Background

I have stumbled upon my DREAM scholarship. Its Full-need (This is important because I live in a single parent household, and my father is unemployed) to my dream college!! So, I just got to the essay portion and it asks about my cultural background. I really do not want to sound under educated or anything but I have NO CLUE what my cultural background would be. I really am unable to even identify what culture is.

This scholarship is open to "Urban Youth" Normally people of color. I have read that White people go to foreign countries to experience culture so I am assuming that the people who apply for this scholarship are able to easily identify culture.

People of EC, I ask of you to either describe an example of American Culture, or to ask guiding questions that will help me better understand and identify my own culture.

Thank you in advance

[Anne Nonymous]

I'm a Czech-American and my girlfriend is Dutch-Dutch (lol), so we talk about American culture a lot. Basically, we make huge generalizations about how Americans are and then complain that they can't be more like Czechs and/or the Dutch I could write quite the essay about it ... and the college board would totally eat up my smug anti-Americanism!

Your situation is trickier, though. You might wanna think about your community in Washington (state?). Is it a working class area? Is there a lot of diversity? Does everyone know everyone else? Are there any local stories about ghosts or something? Is there a unique accent? Are people there mostly republican or democrat?

Hmm ... I hope those questions help. Good luck

[TraceElement]

I am willing to say that there is no one set "American Culture" but more of local culture. Based on the subset of people in the area will shape how "norms" become local "norms".
Let me ask you this: Is there just one American accent or does it vary by region?

[alexi12]

In big american cities, immigrants used to live in the same area. For example: how many cities seem to have a Chinatown? I know Chicago has one of those. We also have a greektown and a little italy (better food then Chinatown)

I've found that in less urban areas in the U.s., more people tend to live in the same house. More families live with their grandparents or cousins.

If you want some American culture that outsiders may find stand out. Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, chevrolet And then there is Hollywood of course. There is american football.

Idk if that was helpful, but that's what I have..

[Robert]

Americans trust government less than Europeans, apparently.

Thats all.

Sorry for not being of more help

[Chip]

This isn't a perfect answer but for the purposes of financial aid essays, "cultural background" usually refers to your cultural heritage, which, in essence, is usually tied to your racial heritage.

If the scholarship is aimed at urban youth, they are probably, reading between the lines, aiming for low-income African-American or Hispanic applicants from the inner city. These applicants would be talking about their cultural experiences living in low-income households, what their cultural community is like. For example, people of both cultures often have a strong tie to their churches, and in many urban areas, gangs and gang violence have an impact on culture. And both cultures tend to be close to extended family and have tremendous familial support growing up.

Assuming that's what they're talking about (and it's a guess, but I think it's probably a pretty good one) it might be an uphill battle to be awarded the scholarship if you don't have much that you can meaningfully say about your own culture. Some other examples might be Russian immigrant families, Italian-American or Asian-American cultures, all of which tend to have strong and deep-knit family, community, and religious ties. And there are dozens of others. But you can spin it in whatever way you can think of that will speak to your understanding of your culture, how it influences you, the benefits and challenges arising from growing up in that culture, etc.

Hope that helps.

Thank you! Every single one of you helped me form a definition of my own culture. I know one person who was awarded this scholarship and he was telling me that it IS aimed at everyone but Caucasians. However, there ARE Caucasians who are awarded the scholarship. There are no racial limitations on it.