Diversity

This week was all about diversity. I thought that Amy's teaching was great and the questions she made really made me think about the role I play in diversity. Being the majority is easy and many do not know what if feels like to be the minority. Many of the older generation have preconceived thoughts of the minority and they have thought that way for so long that it is almost impossible to change their minds. That leaves it to our generation to get prejudices to be a thing of the past. And us as peer mentors are going to be able to help inform the minds of the incoming freshman about the importance of peer mentors. 


I went to the communications session in the morning and it really informed me on how to communicate and to mediate conversations between people that are having conflicts. It helped me find ways to encourage, re-ensure, and support peoples actions and help build their confidence. 


I also went to the "Taking the Sit Out of Diversity." This session was great! Denise was able to get everyone involved and she was able to give us many ways to engage students in activities about diversity. When I first walked in, we were told to fill out this survey about different things like your race, your sex, your religion, if you have ever made a racial joke or laughed at one, and the final one was if you felt uncomfortable checking some of these statements. There was only six people that came to the session so we were not able to do the activity but it made me think. It made me think about if I was the only one that checked the last question. That is one of the things that I need to work on, being more comfortable with diversity and gaining the confidence in being able to ask questions and make conversation. There were a lot of other great activities that talked about diversity and I am very excited to use some of them next year because I enjoyed them and I enjoyed being able to do activities and not have to sit there and be lectured to.