Lorena Prifti

IDS-400

Module 5

Choosing to focus my topic on a specific type of diversity and bias, which is how do

income levels affect diversity? Having a critical look into this topic has positively informed my

personal experience because I see how it impacts my own personal life; it has made me look

inward in my life and how it affects my relationships with the people in my life. My friends are

from all over the world, however most of my friend group is from relationships I have made at

work so that means professionally, we relatively have similar income brackets, or the same

access to those opportunities. I also have friends who I grew up with and those friends are on

different levels income-wise. If we had not been friends growing up, it would have been harder

for us to meet since we are in different circles due to

Examining these relationships, I saw how my own bias has affected who I interact with.

Growing up in an immigrant household meant that I was surrounded by other immigrants and

our community was mostly Albanian, so I saw firsthand how money affected my community.

However, over the years as my parents and my parents friends grew their careers and moved, I

saw that the difference in diversity was extreme. My parents moved to a different city and I went

to a different school and noticed the lack of diversity in the people we were now surrounded by.

Early on, I was able to see the difference in how perception is important. If it had not been for

my early years surrounded by different types of cultures and diversity, I would have likely had

unintentional bias toward those living in lower income neighborhoods. This is due to how
people spoke about and associated with those in lower-income communities, normally having a

negative connotation associated with them.

Diversifying is important in my field because as a project manager, you communicate

with many different types of people and I find that my experience working in different fields,

living in different states and countries, and having a variety of cultures and diversity in my

personal life will allow me to interact with my team members in a more positive way since I can

find a way to relate to them. This insight into diversity allows me to make more conscious

decisions when hiring or contracting out work as I want to be inclusive with all companies or

team members that submit ideas, feedback, or work. Understanding how my own bias can deter

from this process helps me be more inclusive.