Dear Diversity Champions,
It was amazing getting to know you on a more personal level last December 4th!
For those of you that were not able to attend, please know that we just opened a can of worms, now is time to go deeper, therefore your contributions from now on will be impactful and very much appreciated.
Based on your feedback and your amazing energy and the will to act and influence O&E now, we designed a developmental journey with the topics that you identified as most relevant for your own unique work and life situations.
I am sure that you already know this, but just want to remind you that this journey NEVER ends, the struggle of justice and inclusion still continues and I invite you to be an active part of the change thorough your entire life.
Here is the professional development plan to kick start your journey as diversity champions. Within this plan there are four stages. We are going to talk more about this plan in our next Diversity Champions virtual meeting and in the blog
The first stage of your journey is to explore your own racial identity and how that intersects with how you experience the world. For this amazing journey, we are going to use the theoretical framework of Courageous Conversations About Race. All of you who attended the “Setting the stage” event at the Fall conference have the blue book (I hope). If this does not sound familiar, contact me and we will get you up to speed.
The first time we will meet by zoom will be Tuesday February 20th at 9:30 am. Prior to this meeting please read part 1 chapter 2 and 3 and be prepared to reflect on and deconstruct your own racial identity. We will meet every 3rd Tuesday of the month for this journey. Please e mail me if you have a consistent conflict with this time arrangement.
I understand that not all of you are going to be able to attend this meeting (I really hope that you do). However, this plan is designed so that you can take charge of your own growth.
During stage 2, you will get to experience the 2-day Social Justice Training by the amazing Jane Waite, Senior Social Justice Initiative Director. This 2-day workshop is likely to be held here on campus during summer, we will send a doodle pool soon.
During stage 3, we will move to intercultural communication as well as personal bias. Most of you want to also advance in your ability to adapt practices and behaviors to different ways to experience the world. We will use the Intercultural Development Inventory
with this tool we will enhance our cross cultural competency (using a wide definition of culture that includes our learned behaviors and mindsets). Please feel free to suggest other methods or frameworks by e mail or in the comments section.
After you complete stages 1, 2 and 3, the final stage of this plan will transition to your own Personal Leadership Journey, in which you will get to decide your initiative based on your passion and the change you want to see in Outreach and Engagement.
Thank you again for joining this amazing group. Together we will transform the
ways we see and engage with ourselves and each other.
Diversity Champions, now more than ever is the time to build bridges to understand our own identity and to engage with each other in a meaningful way.
Looking forward to seeing you on the 20th!
