ALICIA YOUNG
Staff Writer
This weekend Pepperdine will take one more step toward increasing diversity education at the annual Student Leaders Summit on Diversity workshop. This conference will take place Friday, Jan. 19 at 4 p.m. until Jan. 20 at 5 p.m. at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel.
“(The conference) gives students a chance to discuss issues that might not be brought up on campus,” workshop and conference manager Nikhil Jacob said.
As one of 11 interns at Pepperdine’s Intercultural Programs office, Jacob is responsible for the logistics of preparing for the event as well as running a few of the workshops that will take place during the weekend.
Students in attendance will undergo training involving a wide variety of activities ranging from meditation to movies, all with the prospective result of better defining the attendees’ views on controversial subjects. Issues dealing with sexuality, race, ecology, faith, gender and disability will be interactively explored to reach an understanding of the plight of groups faced at odds. “Open mindedness” by means of education is the ultimate goal of the program, Jacob said.
The workshop environment is one such that the participants are encouraged to share personal experiences while maintaining respect for opposing viewpoints.
“We do not advocate heated debate,” Jacob said. “Both sides are always addressed and handled with respect.”
Because the event will take at an off campus venue, organizers say they hope it will further enhance the opportunity for revealing issues experienced at the Pepperdine campus. With a strict code of confidentiality, the summit hopes to create an environment in which students will feel free to discuss hard topics that exist at Pepperdine.
The Summit on Diversity is entering its eighth year with little changes to the basic concepts and presentation.
Jesse Calvillo, Latino Education Intern at the Intercultural Programs office, said that there is more to the Pepperdine bubble.
“We live next to a large metropolitan area that is very colorful, so it is important to see different sides of culture,” he said.
As vice president of the Latino Student Association, Calvillo has discussed racial issues in various educational settings.
The Summit on Diversity takes place each year during the weekend following the Week of Peace, Hope, and Justice. In light of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the inspiration for the conference comes from the need to “get people to catch themselves before they let prejudices define things for them,” Calvillo said.
Intercultural Programs offered invitations to RAs, SLAs, SGA, students enrolled in SAGE courses, NSO counselors and leaders of Greek sororities and fraternities. Further invites were given to any interested students who might have heard of the event by word of mouth.
Student leaders from Pepperdine were specifically targeted because “we want to create a ripple effect,” Calvillo said.
The intention of this educational program is to pass down the lessons learned throughout the student population and to “create a ripple effect,” Calvillo said.
01-19-2006