♦ Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge and Skills ♦
Graduates should possess the attitudes, beliefs, values, and self-awareness necessary to serve students who are culturally different from themselves. Specifically, students should be able to demonstrate:
- that they have carefully examined and, when necessary, challenged their own values, world view, assumptions, and biases;
- that they possess specific knowledge about how gender, class, race and ethnicity, language, nationality, sexual orientation, age, religion or spirituality, disability, ability and institutional power affect individuals and their experiences;
- and have the ability to effectively challenge and support individuals and systems around diversity issues.
Until this midlife adventure in Graduate School, I was unaware of my own ‘white’ privilege. Because I was blessed with an upbringing in a multicultural and spiritually diverse neighborhood that valued all people, I did not realize the breadth and depth of the social capital that enriched, and cushioned, my life. I thought that all kids went to the library every two weeks, visited museums, enrolled in summer music, art and science classes, heard current events discussed at the dinner table and were nurtured and respected as individuals. My multicultural peers were engaging in those pursuits with me, but I have only recently realized the uniqueness of my upbringing. I was raised with the understanding that it was my duty, and privilege, to be an activist and an advocate for humanitarian causes and issues of equality and social justice, and to respect all others in the manner that I myself wished to be respected.
- Addressing the Unique Needs of Latino American Students is a multi-author view of the individual, and varied, heritage and hurdles that the Hispanic American population currently needs to reconcile in order to successfully navigate Higher Education in the United States. This book review offers wonderful insight for working with this underserved population.
Serving a Rich and Diverse Culture - One person can make a difference. Heroes walk among us; they are our neighbors and strangers we hardly notice on the street. Our visit to the Museum of Tolerance and meeting with Matilda reminded me of that the power of forgiveness can overwhelm the oppression of evil.
Tolerance - A conflict between academic structure and spiritual devotion motivated me to help a student identify an institution, other than UCSB, where he could complete his engineering degree.
Mohammed - I stumbled onto the topic for my CSA 567 ‘Diversity Workshop’ while attending a campus presentation and film screening about gender identity in the Latino/Latina culture. Because of my experiences at Azusa Pacific University, I had realized that my comfort with homosexuality (and belief that gender identity is decided by genetics, not choice) was not a view shared by all Christians. “La Vita Jota” extended my respect and admiration for everyone struggling to be ‘themselves’ in communities unready to welcome them as they are.
La Vida Jota