For my cultural interview, I interviewed Marlena Parker.

Marlena is the Director of the

Scholarship Resource Center at Georgia State University and has over 13 years of college
administration experience. Marlena Parker is a US born, single-parent, female, never married,
African-American. She has a Bachelor of Science in Human Resources from Georgia State
University and is currently a candidate for a Master of Education in Higher Education
Administration at Georgia Southern University. She has an eight year old daughter in the fourth
grade, Armani, who is enrolled in elementary school in Gwinnett County. Marlena is very
committed to education and believes education is the key to success. Her daughter is currently
part of the challenge and gifted program and also a straight A student. She also was one of the
highest scoring students in the third grade on the CRCT. Since she scored so high on the
examination, she will be helping pilot the new computer based exam which she was selected
from her elementary schools third grade. Marlena chose to purchase her home in a specific
location, so that her daughter can attend one of the best elementary schools in the metro Atlanta
area. She said that there is a lot of diversity in the school and the school introduces different
languages and food culture to its students. Also, the school administrators and teachers know
their students by name and Marlena says that makes her happy and it shows that the school cares
about her daughter. We also talked about Armanis academics and how she loves to read and
loves reading and language arts subjects in school; she isnt too excited about math, but Marlena
hopes that over time that she will be excited about math. We talked about Marlenas involvement
inside the school which her work can sometimes limit her to how involved she can be, but she
attends field day and tries to have to lunch with her often and take part in school activities. I
asked about what Armani wants to become and Marlena said that she wants to become a brain
surgeon because one of her best friends mother is a Nurse Practitioner and that her friends
mothers career has influenced her to want to currently pursue a career in medicine. Furthermore,
Armani is a leader within her classroom and is very friendly and possesses advanced social
skills. Also, she takes parts of programs that allow her to enrich her knowledge outside of the
school. We talked in depth about the school that she is enrolled in, her daughters experiences
with having to deal with race with the children in the neighborhood she has to live in and how
she learned from that experience. Also, we talked about Marlenas upbringing and how her
family and the church has shaped Marlena and her life and the decisions that she makes today.
Furthermore, Marlena is a first generation college graduate from her mothers side and also the
first one in her mothers side of the family to pursue and be a candidate for a Masters degree
which she will complete in the fall.
After interviewing Marlea and talking about her daughters school, looking at the various themes
and theories we studied throughout the course, Armanis school most likely follows the Human
Relations Approach to Multicultural Education. When we were talking about her school and how
they work to bring about Multicultural Education, she said that they introduce different
languages, have different foods from different parts of the world and that they embrace diversity
and host international programs that allow for students to interact with different cultures and
reduce stereotypes and more unity and acceptance amongst the students and out in the real world.