Well, this marks the end of midterms week. It's funny because I did my share of complaining about midterms when I actually had one midterm. I guess going with the flow is the way to do it, right? Sure.
During the week I attended a Diversity Event put on by CIC-SHRM, the Central Illinois Chapter - Society for Human Resource Management. I'm taking Human Resource Management right now and we are required to go to at least one event CIC-SHRM puts on. I decided to go to their diversity event. They had a keynote speaker and a panel to field questions or expand on what the keynote speaker said.
Here's a picture of the event:
The quality of the presentation really surprised me. I assumed that because the event revolved around diversity, that nothing new would be surfaced. I've heard similar thing at workshops I've had to attend and it seems like people just kept inventing new ways to say the same thing. The keynote speaker effectively communicated what diversity is and what is not. The keynote speaker, Dr. Wesley McNeese, defined diversity as any mixture of things that is characterized by it's differences and similarities. He said it's not affirmative action, a variety of people in the workplace, or about a minority group. He related the things that make us different to silos. The silos can overlap and it's not only about the individual silos, but they can work together. You can come back to the different silos to fill our "oneness." I'm sure I'm not doing a great job of communicating his message, but I'm doing my best! I think one thing that one of the panelist said that really hit me is that she thinks it's offensive when someone approaches diversity as everyone being alike because differences are a reality and make us unique. It's interesting because it seems like that's what I've been taught in the past, to NOT see the differences. To see everyone as the same. But here it seemed like you should be able to acknowledge differences, but still realize we're all one.
To my friends who've just been waiting for some goofy post...they will come. I just figure that I need to put some substance in posts for the incoming freshman...mmmhmmm.
Peace easy, internet world. (Man, I think I use too many commas.)
Labels: development, events, school
