S.T.A.R.

(Students Talk About Race)

Professional Diversity

Training Workshop

will be offered on

Saturday March 2nd 2013

[confirmed date]

from 12:00-6:00 p.m.

in

MCC's Conference Room

Located in the north end of F03 in Room-02

     To Sign-up come into the Multicultural Center

F03-Room-03

                                 For more information call: 562-985-8150                                

or email:cschulth@csulb.edu

S.T.A.R. is offered every semester!!

~About S.T.A.R.~

On June 14, 1997, U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton announced One America in the 21st Century: the President’s Initiative on Race, established with executive Order 13050, was a critical element in President Clinton’s effort to prepare his country to embrace diversity. The main thrust of the effort was convening and encouraging community dialogue throughout the country designed to heal racial and ethnic divisions wherever they exist.

President Clinton envisioned an America based on opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and a unified community of all Americans. He was convinced that, even as America rapidly was becoming the world’s first truly multi-racial democracy. Race relations remained an issue that too often divided the nation and kept the American dream from being real for everyone who worked for it.

 The S.T.A.R. Project: A Promising Practice For the Nation

Students Talk About Race (STAR) is a signature project of the Multicultural Center (MCC) at California State University, Long Beach. Since its inception in November, 1992, with just 15 CSULB students, STAR has trained, at times, over 400 students per semester drawn from CSULB as well as other Los Angeles area campuses (including UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, and Loyola). STAR has recruited over 2,500 college volunteers, training them to become facilitators in cross-cultural communication and placing them into 76 middle school and high schools (serving some 18,000 students) and continues to serve in this capacity. The eight week STAR experience has proven itself to be a compassionate and candid forum, addressing difficult issues of diversity with vulnerability and humor.

STAR'S ACHIEVEMENTS

In February of 1998, the STAR program received a rare honor - being officially designated as a "Promising Practice for the Nation" by President Bill Clinton's Commission on Race. The following month the White House issued a press release stating that the STAR project had been selected as one of only three programs in Los Angeles to be visited by Advisory Board members of President Clinton's "Initiative on Race" Commission. On March 26, 1998, the STAR training was attended by:

• Judith A. Winston-Executive Director of the President's Initiative on Race
• William F. Winter-Former Governor of Mississippi and Advisory Board Member
• Grace Garcia-Spokesperson from the President's Initiative on Race

At the conclusion of the STAR training, Governor Winter stated emphatically "STAR should be in every classroom in America." Judith Winston added, "I would like STAR training to be brought to the White House staff."

Just prior to receiving such national attention, the STAR project was also featured on a panel as part of the first CSU Statewide Conference on Intercultural Studies, March 6, 1998. This occasion afforded the MCC Director an opportunity to share the CSULB philosophy of diversity and the STAR format of training with many campuses in the California State University system, (the CSU being the largest public university system in the country.)

Other notable endorsements of the STAR project include:

• Morris Dees - Co-founder and Chief Trial Lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center

In 1996, STAR won the University of Southern California's prestigious "Building Better Communities" award. But, perhaps, a Los Angeles Times headline said it best when it called the STAR Program "A Safe Place to Face Racism." The STAR Project was just beginning when journalist Dianne Klein followed two CSULB graduate students, Steve Mortenson and Analisa Ridenour, into Jefferson Middle School in Central Long Beach. The schools ethnic breakdown at the time was 30% Latino, 27% black, 25% white, and 17% Asian. Klein's appreciation of the STAR project-in-action appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Sunday edition, March 28, 1993. STAR's message of creating "a safe place" for diversity dialogue still holds true today.

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation funded an independent, exhaustive evaluation of the STAR program in the 1997-1998 school year. The results showed that STAR met all five criteria that scholars have identified as constituting a successful prejudice reduction intervention. The five criteria are as follows: (1) participants are given equal status within the situation;(2) the contact is individualized, so participants get to know one another;(3) cooperation across groups is fostered;(4) positive interaction is promoted that weakens negative images or stereotypes and strengthens positive images;(5) support from authorities (teachers and facilitators) strengthens expectations that the group will interact positively.

The STAR project received a generous donation of $100,000 from Producer/Director Norman Lear's Foundation.

STAR'S GOALS

• To provide a forum for youth to share their personal thoughts and experiences about diversity;
• To assist the participants in recognizing the personal and social cues for racism;
• To invite the participants to take steps along the continuum from intolerance toward tolerance, then, if possible, past mere tolerance, to understanding, acceptance, and even celebration of people who are different from themselves;
• To contribute to community-mindedness and volunteerism among college students, and to create a bridge between neighborhoods and local colleges and universities.

STAR'S HISTORY

People For the American Way is a national non-profit organization founded in 1980 by a group of civic and religious leaders to combat tolerance and to strengthen America's sense of community. People For the American Way created STAR in 1990 in North Carolina as a thirty-year commemoration of the Greensboro sit-ins, where college students engaged in civil disobedience for the sake of racial equality. The program was designed to capitalize on the ability of peers to act as role models in the struggle against racism and intolerance . STAR is unique in this way: it uses peers to reach young people and draw out their personal views and experiences.

Working with the cooperation of Dr. James Sauceda, Director of the Multicultural Center at California State University at Long Beach, People For the American Way brought STAR to California in 1992 as a response to the Los Angeles uprising of that year.

CSULB quickly became the flagship for the STAR project in California with the MCC Director:

• Providing the Professional Diversity Training for all STAR students in Southern California.
• Co-authoring the STAR curriculum with Dr. Joseph McKenna, (Los Angeles coordinator of People For the American Way).

The Multicultural Center on the campus of California State University, Long Beach officially took over the STAR Program from People For the American Way in the Fall of 1999 with STAR's primary focus being middle schools and high schools in the Long Beach Unified School District.

HOW STAR WORKS

STAR seeks the permission and endorsement of Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) administrators to approach middle and high school principals and teachers with the STAR program. Interested teachers then make their requests directly to the STAR staff.

At CSULB, STAR works with professors, administrators, and staff to identify and recruit college student volunteers. These volunteers attend a six-hour training, after which STAR places the volunteers in middle or high school classrooms near CSULB.

STAR has always been offered without cost to students and teachers and this practice will continue.

Some of the past Southern California SCHOOLSwhere over 18,000 students have participated at 76 schools in S T A R Students Talk About Race

Southern California Colleges
22 campuses have provided over 1,500 STAR facilitators

STAR TESTIMONIALS

Wow, what an empowering, enlightening and spiritual experience! It's amazing to realize I had the ability to influence the students in such a positive way. - Brandon Tull, CSU Long Beach. The experience gave me a chance to discover the potential I have to be a teacher. I really found myself becoming attached to my kids. Cat Padrosa, CSU Dominguez Hills. This experience helped dispel my pessimism. The students seemed genuinely concerned about these issues. The teacher was also very supportive and enthusiastic. Veronika Geronimo, Pepperdine.

I learned an incredible amount about myself and about society. It was the best feeling when a quiet student spoke out and told their story. I may have gotten more out of this experience than they did. I recommend STAR to all my friends. Joanna Airey, Loyola Marymount University. It's been a wonderful growing and learning experience: very mind-opening and fulfilling. A wonderful training by Dr. Sauceda. Rita Marwah, USC. The kids really looked forward to us coming. On a personal note; I found that I really enjoyed working with this age group. Erika Maya, UCLA the students had a real need and desire to speak on the issues. - Craig Hopkins, CSU Northridge. This semester was great! The bound curriculum was nice and there was a good mix of kids to make discussions interesting. Genevieve Santillanes, Occidental College. Seeing the diversity of LAUSD was eye-opening. I felt I was doing something positive for peace and justice. - Jeffra Becknell, UCLA. I think we helped relieve tension among the students and the teachers by making them all really listen to each other. - Alex Diaz, CSU Fullerton

STAR'S MISSION IS TO

e ducate participants about racial and ethnic intolerance and tolerance, and to encourage understanding, acceptance and celebration of people who are different from ourselves;

h elp participants acknowledge the equal human worth of distinct groups of people;

a ssist participants in recognizing the personal and social signs of racism, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry, stereotyping, and scapegoating, to understand these attitudes and behaviors and risks posed by them;

c ontribute to community-mindedness and volunteerism, and to create a bridge between neighborhoods and local colleges and universities;

e xplore strategies for the creation of a climate of civility in our schools;

p ersuade participants that there are no race of people, per se, but rather one race, the human race.

STAR HIGHLIGHTS

• STAR was cited as a "Promising Practice" by The President's Initiative on Race

• STAR currently operates in American's most diverse county, Los Angeles County.

• STAR has operated in America's second largest school district, Los Angeles Unified School District.

• STAR has reached 70,000 students in five states, 30,000 in California.

• STAR won USC's "Building Better Communities" competition

• STAR trainer, Dr. James Sauceda, has been a keynote speaker in several national forums.

Back to the Multicultural Center Main Page