Program
promotes diversity
By
Mike Sundberg
On-line Forty-Niner
The
fall 2003 Voices of Discovery program, which
promotes tolerance and understanding, concluded
its six-week awareness promotion course
with a closing ceremony last Thursday.
The
program, offered by Counseling and Psychological
Services, was originally started by the
University of Arizona and was adopted by
Cal State Long Beach in spring 2000 with
the purpose of enhancing students' personal
development as well as their awareness and
understanding of others.
The
program is composed of different on-campus
groups that come together in order to participate
in face-to-face dialogue -- discussing issues
such as stereotypes, discrimination, awareness
and understanding of others. The discussion
is mediated by two trained facilitators
who help the students confront their social
issues. Voices of Discovery was implemented
by Rosa Moreno-Alcaraz of CaPS, who said
she believes that the program really helps
students to learn communication skills as
well as promote a healthy and inclusive
campus climate.
According
to Moreno-Alcaraz, when students come to
the university they often find a certain
group and tend to only associate with that
group, and the university doesn't give students
many opportunities to dialogue about social
issues. In the Voices program, two different
groups of students are first taught to identify
themselves and their strengths and weaknesses
as well as the particular preconceptions
they hold about other groups of people.
Then, the two groups come together to discuss
how these stereotypes affect one another.
"In
the program, you actually get a chance to
talk about difficult topics without being
judged," Alcaraz said.
The
closing ceremony began with an activity
that allowed students to introduce themselves
to the other group and say something about
themselves and what they learned through
the program.
Deborah
Edelman-Blank, a co-facilitator of one of
the dialogue groups said she felt the structure
of such a program really allows people to
open up in a way they were unable to before.
"I have been really impressed with
how willing the students are to talk with
one another," said Edelman-Blank.
In
fact, many of the current co-facilitators
were part of the program in previous semesters.
Hannah Chang, who participated in an Asian
and White dialogue group said she was excited
about how each of the students was committed
to supporting the other students in the
program. Because of the success of the program
in her own life, she decided to help keep
it going by being a co-facilitator.
"It
is a very rich discussion and eye opening
experience," said Chang about the program.
"Students really get to see both sides
[of social issues]."
"It
is a very rich discussion and eye opening
experience."
–Hannah Chang, co-facilitator
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