I have been on an
amazing journey these last couple of weeks. I have had the privilege to
work with our newest group of student leaders. Lulú, our assistant director, who filled in for me during the past six
months chose some of our best, brightest and most dedicated students to take on
this role in our residence hall student leadership team.
I believe this
year we may have the most diverse and best team with 14 young people who are
passionate, dedicated and committed to building a better and more understanding
world. From each of their own experiences they have witnessed situations
enacted by ignorance or unkindness or lack of understanding that caused people
to be diminished, to be made fun of, to be humiliated, to be insulted, or to be
discriminated. These students spoke up when they could, acted with
firmness and kindness and are passionate about learning how to manage these
situations better. They are committed to making a positive change in our
environment.
Most of the
situations may range between a lack of awareness of how words and actions can
hurt to acts of prejudice, stereotyping and holding biases. Each year,
many more apply for the role of the Cultural Diversity Advocates (CDAs) and to
be a team member with our other student leaders on our campus. This year
we filled our 14 positions with the top candidates.
These past two
weeks we have been in student leadership training for one week, and then
welcomed our early arrival students from international countries and U.S.
scholarship students. With the CDAs' help, encouragement and leadership,
we welcomed these first of the new students and started creating a community
that believes in the importance of an open and accepting community. We
played games to help "break the ice" - lots of name games, and team
games. We got to share about ourselves and our culture from wherever we
are from. We laughed and played hard. The journey has begun - a good
start toward a better and more understanding community.
Click on this link to see a short clip of the training week: CDA 2012 Training Week
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