ISCORE

Today I had the opportunity to go to ISCORE, the Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity.  I honestly had never heard of this before seeing it in the syllabus and if I had clearly I wasn't paying attention because I don’t think I’ll be able to forget this experience.  I went to the opening message and a session right after.  I liked the beginning because we got to see and hear others experiences of NCORE which is the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity.  The video shared people’s experiences and what they had learned almost each day they were at the conference.  We also got to hear from President Leath (I spelled it wrong on twitter earlier, my bad!), and from Mary Jo Gonzales, whom has a PhD and was named as a Women Impacting ISU for her role in mentoring students and was honored for “cultivating a community focused on student success.”  She talked about how she grew up and how that has impacted her life, and how she got to where she is now.  One thing she brought up was an item of food and she said how when she sees it, has it, whatever it takes her back to her childhood and all the memories that came along with it.  She then had the people at the tables discuss what they’re favorite food from their childhood was and why.  In the end the connection wasn't necessarily the food item but the fact that your family was most likely together and happy during the time you were having said food item and that you cherish those memories of being together; that is what I got out of it anyway.  Those items obviously change being from different races and ethnicities.

After the morning address I went to the session Open Discussion on How A Central, Well-Funded Diversity Focused Office May Help ISU.  The majority of the people there were faculty and staff, very few students so part of me felt out of place.  However, our input was very important in the discussion because they wanted student’s views on some things.  We talked about how we could get the university together as a whole understand different cultures and how to go about teaching them and help them understand.  My group talked about having more activity fairs about diversity so others would be able to go and learn more about them and not just stick to judging and assuming things about people when in reality just because one person does it doesn't mean everyone does it.  I like to relate this back to how Europeans see Americans.  They think we all talk with a southern accent and talk about getting cheeseburgers and french-fries all the time.  We can’t just label people on what we see and hear from others necessarily, but actually take the time to get to know them and accept them for who they are.