After traveling to more than 100 countries in his lifetime, guest speaker Christopher O’Shaughnessy brought his first-hand experiences to Ferris in presentations about cultural differences.
On Thursday, Feb. 22, O’Shaughnessy held three presentations for the Big Rapids community. His final presentation took place on campus, where he spoke about adaptation to different cultures and “moving beyond tolerance.”
O’Shaughnessy was referred to as a ‘third-culture kid,’ meaning that he had to adapt and live in many different kinds of cultures. According to O’Shaughnessy, the reason he decided to start sharing his story was to spread information and terminology about what a third-culture kid was.
“I grew up as a military kid, and I did not have a lot of the language about third-culture kids,” O’Shaughnessy said. “It wasn’t until quite a bit later that I heard terminology about third-culture kids and what it is, and it made a huge difference, just having some language and framework. I realized that everyone I grew up with was in the same boat as me.”
In his presentation, O’Shaughnessy explained how there is much to be learned from third-culture kids. He stated that third-culture kids are “a preview of coming attractions.”
“The more I researched [third-culture kids], the more I realized what we know about them is actually relevant on a much wider scale,” O’Shaughnessy said. “So, if we can do things to help them, that suddenly will benefit everyone.”
One of the sponsors of O’Shaughnessy’s presentation was the Office of International Education. The director of the Office of International Education, Tara Braun, met O’Shaughnessy internationally and bonded over their shared love of culture, which led to his presentations at Ferris.
“I knew that he did this talk circuit and I just know that there is so much value in his messages,” Braun said. “I think that it is really important to be thinking about the things he says, and really educating our students well to prepare them for the world that they are getting ready to go into.”
O’Shaughnessy shares many messages in his presentations, but what Braun believes is so important about him is the content of the messages. Braun stated that the scenarios, concepts and ideas O’Shaughnessy talks about are important to learn about to understand how we view each other.
An 11th-grade student from the Big Rapids High School, Finn Kutschke, attended two of O’Shaughnessy’s presentations and explained how they were very inspiring for him.
Kutschke is a study abroad student from Germany, so he felt very connected to the stories O’Shaughnessy spoke about.
“It was very fascinating how he described third-culture kids’ lives as rooms in a hallway because that is basically how you feel,” Kutschke said. “When you are from Germany and you feel something so different and see people acting in such different ways in America, you have to try to adapt to it.”
O’Shaughnessy’s final presentation was viewed by many community members, faculty, and students. He ended his presentation with a quote that he felt was important for everyone to hear.
“Our gift to the world around us is hope. It is not a blind hope that pretends everything is fine when clearly, it’s not, but it is the kind of hope that comes from staring pain and suffering right in the eyes and refuses to believe that’s all there is.”
EIC JO
CE RS / EC