Students,
faculty discuss diversity
By Jack Schneider
On-line Forty-Niner
In
order to teach students the importance of
diversity and race, the Multicultural Center
has developed a project called STAR, or
Students Talk About Race.
The STAR program is a six week training
course in which students and faculty volunteer
to teach middle and high school students
the value of race in society.
James Manseau Sauceda, director of the Multicultural
Center, said that student interaction is
essential for students to get the message
behind STAR.
Presentations by STAR use icebreakers and
dialogue to present the subject matter.
“The key is to get students into certain
groups and divide them into smaller groups
and discuss the issues presented,” Manseau
Sauceda said.
STAR has been a part of Cal State Long Beach
since 1992 and has recruited over 1,500
college volunteers, working with 76 middle
and high schools around the Long Beach area.
The nation-wide program was created in 1992
by the People for the American Way as a
thirty-year commemoration of the Greensboro
sit-ins in North Carolina.
Cynthia Schultheis, administrative coordinator
for the Multicultural Center, said that
students are to obtain six hours or meet
requirements of the class one of the programs
which students volunteer for.
Some students volunteer from faculty members
from various departments including educational
psychology.
“It is a perfect way to augment a student’s
interest and maturity,” Manseau Sauceda
said.
Some of the topics STAR covers are gangs,
friendship and dating and a discussion about
the 1992 Los Angeles Riots called “Riot
or Rebellion?”
“This semester we are expecting around 30
or 50 students and placing them out in local
schools to hook up with teacher and facilitate
on a weekly basis,” Schultheis said.
With an abundance of students willing to
volunteer, it is not suprising that there
are some conflicts with coordinating schedules.
“We’re real sensitive to better ways to
support students in already crowded schedules,”
Sauceda said. “But, we still have them have
experience with creating a different support
system.”
Another conflict in presentation is high
school block scheduling, with the rotation
of the days in which STAR members present
to the classes.
“Sometimes a presentation will be presented
on a Monday or Wednesday and next week it
is on a Tuesday or Thursday,” Manseau Sauceda
said.
Despite the conflicts of scheduling and
coordination with school presentations,
students are still willing to volunteer,
such as senior computer engineering major
Sophia Green.
“I think all people need to know the importance
of diversity,” Green said.
With coordinating presentations, Sauceda
said that STAR wants to work with other
resources and centers on campus.
In the future, STAR has been looking at
presenting in classrooms at Long Beach Poly
and hopes to have assemblies for the entire
school to observe.
Above all, STAR wants to teach students
the need for understanding cultures.
“The experience of STAR is for students
to get to know who they are,” Sauceda said.
“Culture can help a teacher in a classroom
and students need to understand that these
are national and international issues.”
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