{"id":1264,"date":"2013-03-11T18:21:22","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T18:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theaccent.org\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2013-03-11T18:21:22","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T18:21:22","slug":"news-brief-diversity-symposium-encourages-pride-and-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/news-brief-diversity-symposium-encourages-pride-and-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"News Brief: Diversity Symposium Encourages Pride and Confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Story by Shireen Fatehi-Sedeh<br \/>\nPhoto by Michael Marionneaux<strong><!--more--><\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Student Life (SL) held it\u2019s annual Diversity Symposium \u00a0March 1 at the Highland Business Center. Activities ranging from interactive seminars to contests and games engaged symposium attendees.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">SL Coordinator John Jacobs said he wanted to put on this event because he had similar experiences in college that were beneficial.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe bottom line of diversity is that students can express themselves and engage in a non-threatening environment,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n<p>During the \u201cJust because I\u2019m&#8230; doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m&#8230;\u201d seminar, participants pushed comfort levels by sharing personal statements about topics often considered taboo.<\/p>\n<p>Statements included:<b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cJust because I\u2019m Mexican\u2026 doesn\u2019t mean I speak Spanish.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cJust because I\u2019m from the Middle East\u2026 doesn\u2019t mean I&#8217;m a terrorist.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cJust because I\u2019m a young minority\u2026 doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t vote.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cJust because I\u2019m gay\u2026 doesn\u2019t mean I will be an inferior parent.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cJust because I look normal\u2026 doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t have a disability.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Emily Cook, a student who attended the session \u00a0said she loved the experience.<b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s okay to be open and express yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cIn there I felt more comfortable to speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Keynote speaker Stan Pearson said it was about opening up and moving through discomfort.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe more uncomfortable someone is with what they are, the more uncomfortable they\u2019ll try to make you feel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Pearson said ACC\u2019s Diversity Symposium was the first time participants in his seminar turned the tables and asked him to share personal statements of his own.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cEvery time I do this program I pick up something I didn\u2019t know before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>ACC student Nikera Hyder said she is comfortable with diversity, and thinks the lesson to take away from the day is not to make assumptions.<b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cJust because you come from somewhere where other people aren\u2019t, just because you have differences, doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t have a purpose or importance or uniqueness about you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Story by Shireen Fatehi-Sedeh Photo by Michael Marionneaux<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4015,"featured_media":1398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[213,214,236,335,446,545,558,571],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-diversity","tag-diversity-symposium","tag-emily-cook","tag-john-jacobs","tag-nikera-hyder","tag-shireen-fatehi-sedeh","tag-stan-pearson","tag-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/accent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}