Guaging Student Levels of Comfort and Approachability

As part of Anthropology 103’s Ethnographies of Parkland College Project, this is a summary of the qualitative study conducted by the author and two other students which examined the approachability of strangers, especially in regards to how comfortable someone feels when been approached by someone of their own demographics versus very different demographics (age, gender, and ethnicity). The group hypothesized that Parkland students and faculty would either display a lot of openness to diversity, or they would be close-minded. However, data proved to demonstrate a mixture of results, as well as more complicated themes. They concluded that students and faculty members at Parkland feel that they are open to diversity, but noticed that most people were either cautious of everyone in general or had slight preferences toward people of certain demographics, usually their own