The Event I Decided At Attend

There are many reasons why I want to attend this year's Student Diversity Leadership Conference. As I am part of the SOC at Dexter Southfield, we have many discussions on diversity, beauty standards, stereotypes, and what it means to be a student of color. I think it would be great to be part of SDLC with a bigger community and have conversations that aren't talked on the daily or not well addressed.

Over the last couple of years, I have had many opportunities that dealt with me enriching diversity for my campus and community. Being a member of Phi Theta Kappa has many immeasurable benefits. One benefit that came with me being a chapter officer at North Hennepin Community College is that every year we get to choose a project that benefits or raises awareness to the community. This year me and my Phi Theta Kappa team chapter members wanted to see what our fellow student body members thought about equally underrepresented minorities in position of power. We were able to gather and interpret the results. From the results, I personally changed my attitude, I learned that everyone needs to be educated so that they could be more knowledgeable

The location I chose for this outsider assignment was one of Lewis University’s Rotaract meetings. Rotaract is the collegiate level of Rotary Club, a non-profit organization whose motto is “Service above self”. The club itself, both collegiate and adult level, dedicates its time and resources towards a wide variety of charitable acts. The meeting I went to was not an informative meeting, rather it was one of the many charity events that the group hosts year round. When I went, the event was called “Purposeful Purses” and it was taking the time to fill gently used purses with toiletries and some basic necessities in order to donate them to women’s shelters. Generally, such an event would seem like an odd location to conduct this outsider assignment, however, my reason for wanting to be there to see if I would feel like an outsider was influenced by a previous event that occurred a few months before. I am actually a member of Rotaract and was inducted into the club a few months prior. At the event, I became hyper-aware of the fact that I was the only racial minority being inducted that night. I was highly conscious of the fact that all of the collegiate Rotaract inductees, their families, the adult Romeoville Rotary club, the guest speakers, and the faculty were White. The only other minority groups in the room were the staff serving the food. Despite these circumstances, I would have never really felt like an outsider until I was spoken to like one. Even then, that took a

It took a long conversation with another student talking about the various points of privilege; it became clear that I am not of the norm. Rather than thinking I’m better than others, I’ve considered myself, equal to. I stand up for others if treated poorly, and have also been treated poorly for standing up with minorities. I feel I’ve fought for what was right, respect for the individual and their culture. However, through this conversation, it became clear that I noticed and refuse to participate in the

On Wednesday, March 15, 2017, I attended the JMU Diversity Conference held at Festival. I attended the workshop titled, “Engaging With Black Lives Matter and Supporting Our Communities.” Originally, I was thinking this workshop was going to be a small group discussion of how to bring the movement Black Lives Matter into our JMU community. This was indeed the case, but there was also more to it. This discussion was led by three librarians, who work on displays that are put up around the two libraries. These displays usually have a topic that is based off of what is brought up as important to the committee. This specific time it was the movement “Black Lives Matter”, where the display read, “Understanding Black Lives Matter: This is not a

The event that I attended was hosted by the Academic Success & Tutoring Center (ASTC). It was a one hour program that was part of series to help new students ease into and survive their first semester at Stony Brook University. The particular topic that I decided to attend was Goals and Motivation. I have a hard time staying motivated and getting my work done. I always seem to wait until the last minute to do things and then I break down because I am so stressed out. I'm also having second thoughts on what I want to do in my life and how I am going to get there. Therefore I thought that this topic was particularly good for me and I think that it was actually quite helpful.

The Diversity and Pre-College Center recognizes the important of discussing sensitive topics. Each month we host an event called “Courageous Conversations.” This event is held for students, faculty and staff to discuss sensitive topics such as LQBTQIA, religion, gender roles, stereotypes/biases, etc. It is a safe and respectful environment where students get to share their thoughts and views on different topics. After reflecting on the past events, there was one topic I had trouble participating

In the Past year I have played basketball with Indians, tasted Korean barbeque, spoken with albinos, and learned what LGBT stood for. Coming from a town that lacked diversity, if you would have told me I would have done these things I wouldn’t have believed you. In my hometown, most people had shared experiences and opinions. Then I came to NCSSM, where everyone has a different story and background. This gave me the opportunity to see other people’s viewpoints, and the conversations I had with the other students caused me to think about why I had the opinions that I had. It gave me the opportunity to try new things. Not only does NCSSM have all these different backgrounds, the discussion of those backgrounds is encouraged, both directly using

In the summer of 2016 I volunteered for a camp by the name of Camp Harmony. A Non-profit Organization that drives at least three hundred elementary school students from public schools around Los Angeles to a camp spot in Malibu. Out of the 150 councilors volunteering at the camp, I was the only African American male counselor. For the kids to see a counselor be a race other than caucasian I felt that I gave them that new perspective that they were no different then us. I remember when I first went on the bus with the other councilors to pick up the kids the counselors talked about the difficulties when helping campers come out of their comfort zones. A period that would last a full day at the most, but when I met Tobe for the first time it

Going to to the ISCORE event that was at the Memorial Union, allowed me to view racism in a different perspective. I wouldn’t say I am a racist person, but every once in awhile a racist joke might slip out. Because of how we are in society, I don’t really get offended by racist jokes; I find it normal. I assume they are just joking and not being literal. I am not as passionate about racisms as others, but I do like going to events that talk about racism. I want to become more informed about the subject, and how it is being affected in the world. That why attending ISCORE was something motivational for me; I hope to attend NSCORE next summer for the opportunity to become even more informed about other races.

The event I went to go see was a Guest Master Class instructed by Barthold Kujiken. This event was held on Sunday afternoon in Ferguson Hall at the University of Minnesota. It was held in a small auditorium similar to a class setting. Barthold was accompanied by a student flutist and pianist. A lot of time was spent with the flutist and pianist playing a part of a piece, and him teaching and demonstrating on how to improve a piece and explaining the fundamentals of the music. It was a very informative event/class.

Although Meteorology has a variety of interesting subjects, there is one specific event that I would like to focus on for analysis, lightning. Lightning does not receive as much attention because it doesn’t cause as much destruction as hail, tornado, or hurricane. However, it is just as deadly. Lightning is intense, short, and a massive spark of electricity that is usually found in a thunderstorm. For these reasons, I would like to focus on this event at two locations. One is the “lightning capital of the United States,” Florida, and the other location is in Venezuela, which is known as “the everlasting storm.” I would like to compare how often stores occur in these areas, how many lightning strikes occur in each area on average

Through my leadership experiences at SCSU, I have grown into a strong, independent, and courage woman. This past spring semester, I took the opportunity to apply and be accepted to present at M.E.Ch.A.’s national conference about my independent studies course that I developed. I never imagined to share my cultural experiences on that level and have professors comment afterward about how they enjoy my presentation. There have been opportunities where I was able to discuss with administrators among other students and our concerns on campus issues facing students of color directly to them. I have met strong, academic leaders and students at conferences that have exposed me to love and embrace my cultural identity, indigenous roots, femininity, strength, and personal struggles. The education program gave me the opportunity to continue learning in another location for student teaching, which again has exposed me to new experiences, people, environments, and academic challenges. I no longer view challenges as obstacles, rather I view them as tests to help me remember how worth it, the path I am on and pursing, is to me. When I first started my freshman year in fall 2012, I could have never imagined that I would do and come as far as I have. I remember when I began this journey, I said to myself that I would graduate

Upon meeting my color group I was overwhelmed with the amount of positive vibes that radiated off of them. Our faculty advisor , Caitlin Wall she works in environmental politics concerning the conservation of the potomac river, greeted us and made us do these ridiculous ice breakers yet it made us really comfortable with each other. All my feelings and insecurity of not being good enough to fit in with these intellectuals went away when I delved deeper into chatting with them. Walking to the dining hall with them we were seated at the front left corner, right in front of the stage. I took a seat right in front of the microphone and looked around, there were at least 10 other color groups and the all were staring towards me. Deep down I knew they were looking towards the stage but I felt as if every eye was on me. I saw how different I was to everyone else and it made me a bit confident in being so different from everyone but in my gut I could feel insecurity brewing; yet when I heard the speaker start to talk it went away. There was educated discussions on the environment and how to get involved happening and I was so enthralled by

Each of our special guest will have flights and hotels pre-booked for them as well as a private waiting area and gift basket courtesy of the event. There will be many special guests that will be attending and it is a high priority that they do enjoy themselves as they are the reason many of the normal guest at these types of conventions will come and participate.