Cultural Curriculum Chat with Jebeh Edmunds

Season 6 Episode #11 Bridging Cultures: Dr. Elsa Maxwell's Journey to Global Understanding

• Jebeh Edmunds

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What happens when a monolingual girl from Duluth, Minnesota, becomes a catalyst for global intercultural understanding? Join us on the Culture Curriculum Chat Podcast as we welcome Dr. Elsa Maxwell, an inspiring advocate for multicultural education. Dr. Maxwell shares her transformative journey, illustrating how early exposure to diverse cultures through her family's hospitality to refugees sparked a lifelong passion for international community building. From mastering Spanish in Central America to her profound experiences in Chile, she reveals how these pivotal moments shaped her life's mission: bridging cultural differences through meaningful human connections.

Discover how Dr. Maxwell's passion led her to create Shift Intercultural Consulting and develop a pioneering diversity course for law enforcement students. Through intimate reflections and insights from her extensive career in education, she highlights the importance of cultural competency and self-awareness in fostering inclusive environments. Dr. Maxwell's stories illuminate how embracing diversity in classrooms and the workplace can joyfully bridge differences, inspiring listeners to foster lifelong learning and intercultural communication. Prepare to be moved by her call to action, encouraging us all to share this vital knowledge and passion for a more culturally connected world.


Learn more about Dr. Elsa Maxwell's work here: https://www.shiftintercultural.com/

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Speaker 1:

All right, welcome back listeners to the Culture Curriculum Chat Podcast and if you're watching Mrs Edmonds' Cultural Corner, I am so excited that we have Dr Elsa Maxwell in the guest chair today. I met Dr Maxwell at a Women in Leadership Conference and we got to talking all things multicultural education and her passion for bridging the gap of intercultural understanding and we're going to dive into it really quickly because she has a plethora of knowledge and, as you heard in the intro, she is all over the world helping organizations all over the world, in her wherewithal in knowing dual languages in Spanish and English, afro-latino studies and literature, and she is the expert that I'm excited that we're going to learn more about and her own business that she launched this year, and so we're going to get into it. So, without further ado, welcome Dr Elsa Maxwell. Welcome.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Deva. It is a delight, a joy to be here with you and also an honor. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to chat and to really dig deep into intercultural and multicultural learning.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I'm so excited. Thank you for being on the show, my dear. So let's just go back a little bit. Tell us your origin story. I knew you grew up in Northern Minnesota. Can you tell us? A little bit more what led your passion to this work.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to share those backstories, and I've really enjoyed hearing yours too at the Women in Leadership Conference, the keynote, which was phenomenal. And yes, I grew up in Duluth, minnesota, the city that we're both in right now, and I grew up in a monolingual white family, predominantly white community in the 80s and 90s in Duluth, and there wasn't a lot of cultural diversity that I was aware of in my schools, for example, but my parents were really good, I think, at instilling in us and me and my siblings an interest in other cultures, and from a very young age they brought people into our family and into our household. For example, we hosted refugees from Vietnam and then later from Central America.

Speaker 2:

When I was a baby, just a few months old, my parents hosted a man from Vietnam who had to leave behind his own family to establish himself in the United States, and my mother still talks about how beautiful that exchange was. This man, who was separated from his family and for a temporary time, could really become part of our family, and he cooked for my mother when she was a new mom, you know, had a newborn, and he would prepare these just nutritious meals for her, and so it was a really beautiful cultural exchange there. And then later in my childhood my parents hosted two men from El Salvador who were fleeing persecution, also refugees. They eventually moved on to Canada and those are really special instances in a very intimate space, right to be able to exchange with people who were coming from really difficult situations, who spoke different languages. English was not their first language and so I think early on that instilled this idea of compassion and curiosity and building international community.

Speaker 1:

Wow. And building international community, wow. What an amazing thing gift your parents instilled in you and your siblings of you know, inviting their neighbor in, you know, as a safe haven and also immersing yourselves with cultures that you wouldn't, you know, have those touch points otherwise. You know, because of the area where we live.

Speaker 2:

Yes, very much so. Yeah, yeah, it really was a special gift from such a young age to be exposed to cultural difference right in the home, right, and that really pushed me forward, propelled me forward to be seeking out these types of international connections. When I was in high school, I had the great privilege to participate in a service program in Central America. I was able to travel to Central America and that really shaped me in profound ways. When you're in your teens, some students really get into robotics, others get into video games, others get into sports or animals. For me it was the Spanish language and understanding Latin American culture and I just really it became my number one interest. And when I was around 14, when I had this opportunity to travel to Latin America for the first time, I made myself this promise that I wanted to speak Spanish like a native speaker, and I had no idea what that entailed, but I really wanted to make that effort and so it really shaped the course of my life and it really gave me a lot of meaning and purpose in really trying to bridge those cultural differences.

Speaker 2:

And then, when I was in college, I really sought out a college that would allow me to study abroad. That would give me that flexibility to make my curriculum very international. And I landed on Augsburg University. They had a really robust study abroad international education offering and so I was able to go to Central America again for a whole semester. I was in El Salvador and Guatemala, nicaragua and also Honduras, and then I was able to go again, which was so amazing. They allowed me to go abroad for a whole year and I spent a semester in Chile doing direct enroll there, taking courses alongside Chilean students, so continuing to work on my Spanish and understanding the cultural context gradually as I deepened my immersion. So those were a number of young formative experiences that really shaped, I would say, my whole life path. I can't imagine what I would be doing now if it weren't for those opportunities early on.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I love that, elsa, and just hearing your passion of learning new things and challenging yourself, like you said, as a teenager, to have this goal in mind, to say I want to be an immersed Spanish language speaker, like a native speaker. And what can I do to really envelop myself in the culture, in the inflections, in the syntax, in all of the things you know in order to bridge that understanding? I really love how you shared that there are study abroad programs, you know, for high school students and you know, and students in academia and college as well. To continue that passion and just give us a little, I would like to say a story or something that you experienced abroad.

Speaker 1:

You know, living on your own in the culture, there's so many stereotypes, especially of people in the Latinx community, here in our society. What is a story that you can help dispel that myth? You know, to just help our listeners have an understanding of you know a white American woman. You know, to just help our listeners have an understanding of you know a white American woman, you know, leaving in her early twenties, living in the culture. You know you might hear some attitudes and people going. Why are you going by yourself? You know, is there some glimmer of I don't want to say hope, just glimmer of reality that?

Speaker 2:

you can share with us because it's just real life.

Speaker 1:

You know, can you?

Speaker 2:

share with us? Yeah, absolutely. So. I think the stereotype that I encountered most often and definitely I had people asking me well, why are you going to? Why are you going to South America, why are you going to Latin America, why are you going to the developing world, why don't you go to Europe or why don't you go somewhere else that's more similar to the US? And I just really have this draw, this calling in Latin America.

Speaker 2:

And I think what I took away from the years that I spent there because after study abroad, I moved to Chile and I worked for a study abroad organization there, for a nonprofit, and I ended up living there for 16 years, and so I really was deeply ingrained in Chilean culture and I think my biggest takeaway, and the reason I am so grateful for that opportunity to have lived in South America for so many years was the, the focus or the emphasis on relationship building and on friendship, and that is something that I have wonderful friends in the United States, amazing, amazing friends that would do so many things for me and vice versa. But I think in Chile I really understood what a community oriented culture was, something that I hadn't experienced in the United States before before when I was going through big life transitions, big life changes. While I was living in Chile, my friends were there for me in ways that I never would have expected and in terms of weaving me into their family life. I was thousands of miles away from my family, still in Minnesota, and I could have felt really alone.

Speaker 2:

I could have felt really isolated and so far away from my family, but because of a certain number of friends who really brought me in, like I was their daughter, like I was their sister, I felt an extreme sense of belonging and connection really taught me how to be a good friend, how to be there for someone, offering me things that I don't think I would have ever offered someone.

Speaker 2:

They really opened up my perspective and helped me understand what relationships mean, and that oftentimes is more important than being efficient or being on time or, you know, being productive, because it's really about, at the core, it's the connection, and that doesn't mean that we don't do our work and that we don't move through our tasks and do the work that we need to do, but those relationships were really key. There were times when I was sick, when I needed someone to take me in and care for me because I was thousands away from my mother and there were women who did that for me and it just really blew my mind that they would take me in and care for me in ways that were unimaginable.

Speaker 2:

So, I think that was the, you know, countering that stereotype and there are many stereotypes out there, but the human quality and what it taught me about friendship and relationships is something that I will always carry with me.

Speaker 1:

I love that. I love that, elsa, and that human connection. I'm hearing you say relationship building. I'm hearing you say you know, stepping up when they see a need, in that compassion in others, and not asking for anything in return but, just that real.

Speaker 1:

You know meaning of belonging and to feel that, even though you're a thousand miles away from your family, you still had family there and they took you under their wing. That's just beautiful. So, as a learner, lifelong learner, as an academic, what can you share with our educators of tips, of ways of infusing their own cultural understanding in the classroom?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a really great question and I think as educators we have such a rich opportunity it's such a gift to be an educator to really shape the future of today's youth and equip them with the tools to really move forward and carry out positive change. I would say one of the biggest aha moments for me as an educator. I've been in education for 20 years. The assumption with which I was raised, as both a student and then later as an academic, was to look outward. If you want to be culturally competent, you need to study other cultures, you need to understand their values, their history, their traditions, etc. But it had never occurred to me that we also need to look inward.

Speaker 2:

And when I started to really get into intercultural training and intercultural development, it was a complete paradigm shift for me.

Speaker 2:

So, instead of just looking outward and understanding the other, really looking inward and understanding what are the cultural values and experiences that shape my point of view and shape my cultural lens.

Speaker 2:

And so when I really started to take that apart and I had some wonderful mentors who took me under wing, as you said, and took me down that path, it really started to help me understand some of my challenges in adapting to another culture because I was framing them through my own cultural viewpoint, my own personal experiences.

Speaker 2:

So really taking that inward look, I think, has been the most helpful thing in understanding my assumptions, my biases, my point of view, and it's only then can we really start to understand another point of view, when we first unpacked our own cultural lens, so to speak. So I think that practice of cultural frame shifting or perspective taking is really important. So I would encourage educators to, if you haven't already, to really look inward and look at yourself and understand your own cultural background and how that influences your expectations, your assumptions, etc. And to guide your students through that too. What are their cultural values? What are the cultural groups that have shaped them? I think that's a really powerful exercise and then we can start to really focus on how do we learn about other cultures once we've taken that deep dive inward. So I would say that's a big one for me, that was a big paradigm shift for me.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I love that, and we are. We're constantly, as educators, critical thinkers, we're constantly reflecting what could we do differently, what? What worked, what didn't work? You work, you know what is something in myself and my lens of what I thought to be true, but what does this person's lens seem to be true? You know, there's no wrong answer in some cases, but what can we see each other in a multifaceted way? And that is awesome, awesome. So I know I mean lifelong learner, academic educator and now business owner. Ok.

Speaker 1:

I'm so proud of you. You have launched your own business, shift Intercultural. Tell us, listeners and viewers how you got this. You know, dream of starting your own business and what it's about, because I really want them to use your services huge.

Speaker 2:

I really appreciate your support and enthusiasm and also your guidance as an entrepreneur, and it's a scary leap right when you've worked within institutions or universities, colleges or schools for so many years. I think we've both experienced this the moment when you decide I'm going to take off, I'm going to launch this, I'm going to go out on my own and do something, create something new, really, which is what we're trying to do and it's definitely a scary moment full of a lot of ambiguity. But here I am, almost a year into shift intercultural consulting and it's been an amazing year. I've learned and grown talking about being a lifelong learner, right Shifting into an entrepreneurial mindset but I've had just the pleasure of really embracing types of work that I don't think I otherwise would have had if I were still working within a university setting, because I'm able to work with multiple organizations and, at the end of the day, my mission is to help organizations increase their intercultural capacity and embed intercultural learning and development practices throughout their organizations.

Speaker 2:

The opportunity, the catalyst that set this off, was a message from uh fond du lac tribal and community college here in the northland, in our community, and they were looking for someone to develop a diversity course for their law enforcement students, and this was a a field with which I had never worked. I had not done any work with law enforcement but as I continued to talk with the uh, the leadership, the program leadership, they were looking for someone with experience in, uh, service learning and experiential learning and also intercultural frameworks, and that, uh, that was my, that's my profile and so it was a really perfect really, in service learning and experiential learning and also intercultural frameworks, and that was my, that's my profile and so it was a really perfect, really perfect connection, and so I've been supporting them with curriculum development and then also facilitating the course this semester.

Speaker 2:

This fall we've launched the first course and it's gone exceptionally well. I have just been so pleased with the students are so curious and interested and engaged and I've learned so so much also about their field of work, and so that's one of the type of projects that I've been doing a lot of curriculum development and development and facilitation, also working with the College of State Scholastica here in the Northland and doing faculty development and workshop design and facilitation with them and program evaluation. So it's been a really fruitful year and I feel very grateful for the organizations that I've worked with this year and really looking forward to 2025 and some exciting projects on my plate and connections back with South America, which makes me really happy. So both a local and a global scope right, doing this work and looking to make those connections in our local community, but also branching out and keeping those international connections alive.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I am so proud of you, elsa, and listeners and viewers. We will have Elsa's information in the show notes so you can learn more about her business and her wonderful impact. She is not only doing locally but also globally, and I love how you shared you are bridging the gap of understanding, helping, you know, organizations really dig deep into their own intercultural proficiency and understanding, because there's so many organizations out there, you know, that are stuck, that don't know where to turn, where to go, and they also want someone who is an expert in that field to guide them through it.

Speaker 1:

You know you can't have two novices trying to work on something that's big together. So you know it's nice to have more experts out in the field, that I am so excited that they are going to be so honored to work alongside you. And your approach is just disarming, very welcoming and open, with your own lived experience and research expertise to guide them through. So this is just oh, it's just the beginning. I can't wait to hear more on your journey. You know, of entrepreneurship, yes, oh goodness. So is there quick words of wisdom before we wrap up our episode today that you'd like to share?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I was thinking about, you know, those tips or tricks that we could offer educators, because I think we're always looking for new ways to infuse creative practices into the classroom or into the training room or for facilitating in a corporate or in a business or nonprofit setting, and I think one of the also big takeaways from for me in the past couple of years has been really leveraging the diversity in our, in our offices, in our classrooms. It's right, here we don't necessarily have to travel abroad. If we can, that's amazing, it's a really tremendous privilege to be able to do so. But there is so much diversity and when we really tap into it and embrace it, especially when working with students, there is so much joy in discovering similarities but also figuring out what those differences are, and so really opening up that space and structuring that conversation so that students can ask each other those questions.

Speaker 2:

You know, oftentimes we have so much, we carry so much with us and our appearances don't necessarily reflect that.

Speaker 2:

So unless we open up the conversation and create those safe spaces for our students as educators, oftentimes we can spend, you know, a year with someone in a classroom and never know about their cultural background, because it might not be that evident or obvious.

Speaker 2:

So I think another really important thing to open up, to facilitate those conversations so students can learn about each other, because we've got so much going on right here and we might have a you know student group that looks apparently homogenous and no, there's. If we start to pull back the layers, there's so much cultural diversity right here in front of us, um, and and learning how to bridge those differences right here, that prepares us right, um, to be welcoming and to embrace people who are different from us and really accept those differences and see them as positive and that contribute to the well-being of our society. So I think finding that difference right here and that in doing so with joy and role-playing and making it fun, that really keeps students engaged and ignites that passion in them to continue exploring, to be those lifelong learners that we are.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and you know, and it's good practice. Good practice when they're young, so when they, you know, become adults, it's just, you know, another muscle of that relationship building and connections. Oh, Dr Elsa, I could talk to you all day, girlfriend. I mean, this was wonderful, and listeners be sure to share this episode with someone who is curious about intercultural communication and development, who really wants to you know, understand and peel the layers of their own passions of learning and understanding people of different cultures to promote positive change. Thank you so much, Dr Elsa, for being a guest on our show, and thank you all listeners for listening to the Culture Curriculum Chat podcast and watching on Mrs Edmunds' Cultural Corner. We will see you here same time next week. Bye-bye.

Speaker 2:

Bye. Thank you, teva. Thank you, hang on, hang on.