Diversity Leadership Conference
11/4/2014
This past Saturday Indiana University hosted a Diversity Leadership Conference in Bloomington. The conference was a wonderful opportunity for all attendees to learn about how they can make changes in our communities for the better. Dr. Marc Lamont Hill was the keynote speaker and he inspired the hundreds who sat before him. I was surprised to look at the schedule to find that he would be speaking for an hour. The thought of having to create an hour speech was daunting to me, but he did it and it was powerful. He made a many powerful points and I will share my favorites:- People need to join together to become a united front. We need to stay connected with groups outside of the ones we are directly connected to. Because if we unite with other groups we can do more good. This specific point hit home with me. I am president of the Criminal Justice Club on campus and we are working on coming up with opportunities for the members to volunteer in our community. If CJ Club works with the Psychology club or a few other clubs then we can make a bigger impact than if we were to do it on our own.
- Sometimes you have to whiten the face of poverty to make it real. I found this passage very powerful. I was an elementary education major for two and a half years and I did an Urban Immersion in Over-the-Rhine (a very poor community with the highest homicide rate in the United States). This immersion was not through IUE but an outreach program. I spent a few days getting to know members of the community and the struggles that they had to go through. It was a very poor community with a large African American population and the people living in Over-the-Rhine were being treated as if they were less than the surrounding communities.
- Dr. Marc Lamont Hill ended his speech with stating that the biggest problem in the world today is that there are too many people who don't do anything.
The conference had many concurrent sessions to choose from. The conference was set up for you to attend two sessions. I chose to attend one about Criminal Justice and another about Purposeful Leading. I was encouraged to attend the conference by Sociology Club and I'm so glad I was able to make it. Oh and the conference was free and breakfast and lunch was provided (this was a college budget friendly conference). I encourage everyone to find ways to better themselves and their communities!
