With #Lochtegate trending, this summer's Olympics quickly went from a unifying celebration of human prowess to an international discussion of U.S. citizens abroad and the "Ugly American" stereotype reared its annoying head, once again. The international conversation got me thinking more about stereotyping and how it can affect people closer to home, particularly on my university campus.

Recently, I began my third year of college and my second year as an international ambassador on my campus. I love the program because through it I have been able to meet some amazing people from countries I would have had trouble pinpointing on a map a year ago. As an ambassador, I am assigned to a particular international student every year, to help them individually adjust to the United States university system. Last year, I met a phenomenally talented piano prodigy from Turkey, and this year I was matched with an impeccably gifted Canadian hockey player. Throughout this year and last I have been reminded again and again that each student is unique, and I have already had vastly different experiences with each of my “matches.” But, my contact with international students on campus is not limited to the two I’ve been matched with. I have learned valuable lessons from everyone I have had the pleasure of meeting.

Most of all, the one thing that has stood out to me is exactly how ignorant I have been of other cultures for most of my life. Considering that I am the resident hipster of my family, this came as a shock. But, seriously. I do not speak for all American millennials when I say this, but personally, I have said some things that seem fairly uninformed in hindsight. Recently, I commented, “Canada and the U.S. don’t really seem too different,” to my student from Toronto. But, aside from the same national language (in some areas), what is so similar about the U.S. and Canada? As I have learned within the past few days alone, not nearly as much as I had always assumed. Meeting people from other places has enabled me to differentiate between what I have seen on TV or online with reality. I am beginning to realize that maybe I’m not as cultured as I always thought.

The ideas we have about people from other countries, and ideas they have about us are not 100 percent accurate, and we need to take what we see online and on TV with a grain of salt. This past week was my first of the fall semester, and something my professora said in my Spanish course has been playing on a loop in my head. She asked the class why we enrolled in her course, and what we each thought of when we considered Hispanic countries and cultures. Most people answered that the music, food, dancing, history and traditions come to mind. But, after we each answered her question, she looked at us gravely and explained that many times students will give other answers that are rooted in stereotypes because it’s what they see most often on movies. This terribly misinformed and ultimately sad answer started me thinking that maybe this is a bigger issue than people realize.

Unsurprisingly, the U.S. is also not immune to misrepresentation abroad. Not for the first time this year was I told that Americans and the United States “are not so bad” and that we really are not like the media portrays us to be in other parts of the world. At first, I wondered, and subsequently asked “Why? What do they say about us?” The response was, “Well... We've heard that people in your country can come off as cold, rude and even hateful.” Though it could have been worse, I still felt very uncomfortable with those answers. I know that they are not true for everyone in the U.S., and definitely not the majority.

The person I spoke with assured me that, in all honesty, those attitudes are what they see in movies, on the news and online, and actually being in the U.S. has allowed them to see the inaccuracy of those depictions.

It was around this time that I realized that stereotyping is a global issue. Simply because something may be true for one person or a small group of people, we should not judge each other on a massive scale. Instead, we must realize that we have more in common than we know.

If I had to choose the most meaningful lesson I've learned from my experience as an International Ambassador, it's that humanity is more similar on a core level than we are often aware. Yet, I must also keep in mind that there is a delicate balance to cultural literacy. If, in our attempt to culturally “naturalize” each other, we forget about or ignore the differences entirely, we lose the point. We must remember not to erase each other’s identities, but also to not let our perceptions of what those identities are cloud our view of the people we interact with.

I know now that I need to think for myself and do my own research, and that the best way for me to understand and appreciate world cultures is to not let anyone else’s point of view cloud my vision, but to find my own perspective.