Experience of a Lifetime

You never know what you get yourself into until you fully emerge yourself into it. Hi everyone, my name is Melissa Rico and I am the Community Relations Facilitator for the Westside.  I am ending my fourth week on the job and already I have so much to say, think about, learn, and most importantly, DO!

I must admit I took this job thinking it was going to be a piece of cake. I thought in order for me to be successful, all I had to do was stand in front of the room and talk about issues of Social Justice and Diversity. Surprisingly, my job these past few weeks has involved more self-reflection than anything else.  I am thankful that I came to this job with a strong leadership foundation because it is helping me be stable and focus on my responsibilities as a student and a CRF.

You’re probably wondering what about this job threw me for a loop. The biggest thing is that I have to feel comfortable enough to talk about my own social identities in order for me to fully engage other people to talk about them as well.  I’ve lived 22 years of my life focusing only on the fact that I am a Mexican-American, that I love eating mostly everything with tortillas while still enjoying a nice Sloppy Joe for dinner. I’ve never had to continuously explore my gender identity, age, able-bodied status, or sexual orientation because those were all just assumed “normal” for me, and I chose not to explore them further. In regards to my socio-economic status, I was better off just keeping that to myself until four weeks ago when I started this job.

I have to admit CRF training was definitely emotionally challenging. I had to learn how to put my guard down and open up about who I am and where I come from. All this time I’ve hidden these things. I realized it was time for me to open up and grow as a person. If I am really serious about making a change in the world and help others become more fully developed citizens of this world, I had to start with me. I now choose to challenge myself to think critically and help others do the same. Achieving social justice is a process and I hope we can start this process together.

Melissa Rico

Community Relations Facilitator-Westside

www.oregonstate.edu/uhds/diversity_initiative/crf

The comments shared by the Community Relations Facilitator program are strictly the point of view from the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of UHDS. If this article has inspired a desire to dialogue, the author, another CRF, and/or any Resident Assistant, Cooperative Director, or Resident Director would be happy to participate. Please contact (Victor.Santana-Melgoza@oregonstate.edu), UHDS Multicultural Resource Coordinator, to assist in making arrangements.