Ashley McBride

I am an African-American female with Filipino, Irish and German ancestry, who comes from a single parent household. My mother makes less than $40,000 a year, but she still provides me with everything I need for school and for my personal life. I, myself, am diverse.

I currently reside in what some call the most powerful city in the world. More specifically “on” what others call one of the most prestigious “hills” in the universe. But to me, it’s just Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Capitol Hill is one of the few diverse communities in a city where the majority of the population is African-American and Hispanic. I can head north from my neighborhood and enter a predominately African-American community, and I can head south and enter a predominately Caucasian community.  But on my street, there are people from many different ethnicities, cultures, economic backgrounds and religions unlike mine.

On any given Saturday I can leave my apartment building and head south to my very own “melting pot,” otherwise known as Eastern Market. There I can experience different cultures and encounter different people shopping for vegetables from farmers in the country and crafts from all over the world. In a couple blocks you can find Pakistani, Greek, Italian, Cuban, Chinese and Belgian restaurants, to name a few. It is so important to me to have this experience to widen my view of the world.

My school, however, is a different story. With a school body of approximately 850 students, not more than 15 come from a different ethnicity than mine. In school, I find it very important to contribute to diversity, because I am not in a diverse community. Although my school is one of the best in the city academically and, in some cases athletically, it lacks variety. To stand out in school, I get good grades, excel athletically and participate actively in the school newspaper, of which I am editor. The fact that I am working extremely hard in school and still have time to dedicate to sports and volunteering in my community adds to my diversity, because not many people can balance all three equally.