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When asked “What kind of cheese would you like?” from the commissary deli employee, there are all different kinds of cheese to pick from: cheddar, Swiss, pepper-jack, etc. What if there only one type of cheese? Much like varieties of cheese, people are diverse.
People are all a part of the same race – the human race. Among that race, every person is different in some way, shape or form. Team Mildenhall members reflected on diversity during RAF Mildenhall’s Diversity Day celebration.
“Not only skin tone, ethnicity and backgrounds, but people are diverse with age, ability, the way they think, creativity and even the way they talk,” said Master Sgt. Vivian S. Lewis, 100th Force Support Squadron career assistant advisor. “Multiple things can make a person diverse. Everybody is diverse in their own way. It’s not just what’s on the outside, it’s more of your characteristics and what you can do and your abilities that makes you unique.”
Not only do service members experience diversity when stationed at various locations around the world, but they experience diversity among their brother and sisters in arms. The military community consists of people from all over the world, from many different backgrounds and cultures. These people are plucked out of their home and brought together to support and defend the Constitution of the U.S. with no demographic or regional boundaries.
“It kind of shocked me when I joined the Air Force. Coming in, I saw all these unique people, different abilities and backgrounds. I thought it was awesome,” Lewis said. “I love being around people and learning things. What makes me ‘me’ is being around so many diverse people and taking in the good, and a little bit of the bad, from them. I’ve incorporated those things into my life. It makes you a more rounded person, which is what the Air Force does.”
There are several months set aside to celebrate the diversity and achievements of groups in society, RAF Mildenhall held an event to celebrate it in a day.
“Diversity Day was meant to bring awareness. It was for the people of Team Mildenhall to come experience and learn about different cultures. We did that through performances, providing information and food,” said Master Sgt. John Rey Alvarado, 100th ARW/IGI section chief of unit inspections. “Hopefully it provided a better understanding of the importance of why people should be different, and learn more to embrace the diversity within the Air Force.”
The Air Force embraces having a diverse community.
“As an organization, it’s very important to have diversity among employees, so you can pick and choose the strengths of its individuals so you can be successful,” Mejia explained. “We have members in the Air Force that represent each part of the world. We exchange ideas, experiences and knowledge.”
“Diversity opens our mind to doing things differently,” Lewis explained. “We are all in the same business, and in order to continue to work we need to have that diversity to have fresh new ideas and solutions.”
Diversity is everywhere, even in something as simple as cheese, and that’s a “gouda” thing.
| Date Taken: | 07.22.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 12.15.2016 10:32 |
| Story ID: | 217803 |
| Location: | RAF MILDENHALL, SFK, GB |
| Web Views: | 23 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Diversity gets cheesy, by SSgt Tenley Long, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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