The Center for Student Leadership hosted a Finding Leadership in Yourself workshop, centered on diversity, Wednesday, Feb. 24.
Titled “Challenging the Way You See Things,” the workshop was given by graduate coach Yen Rodriguez. The overall goal of his workshop was to emphasize the importance of diversity in the present and in the future. He collaborated with the audience to see how each person defined the term diversity and constructed activities that challenged the way people view other cultures.
Some students attended as a requirement for a specific class while others were genuinely curious about the experience.
“It was an illuminating experience on the benefits of diversity,” said Ian Farrh, a second-year student.
The activities consisted of a U.N. cocktail party, a diversity circle and a few video clips. In the U.N. cocktail party, the students were split into groups and were given a role to play that represented a different culture.
“It’s an exercise designed to focus on cultural differences,” Rodriguez said. “There are different perspectives to the same approach and no one’s perspective is more correct than the other.”
Rodriguez explained that the purpose of his lecture is to bring awareness to the benefits of diversity.
“We need to accept diversity and embrace diversity because its the right thing to do,” he said. “This world is filled with different people that all have different ideas and attributes. Instead of shunning them away and compressing them, let’s allow them to flourish.”
Rodriguez had initially been working with the Center for Student Leadership, but he recently became a graduate coach for Latino Recruitment, Retention, Progression and Graduation. Latino RRPG is a pilot program for Latino and Hispanic students.
“Challenging the Way You See Things” is one of the multiple FLY workshops that is hosted by the Center for Student Leadership. There are three more workshops remaining for the semester: “Building a Team” on March 10, “Getting Engaged in Our Community” on March 22, and “Topic presented by Owl Leadership Fellows” on April 13. Visit the center’s website for more information.
