Office of Diversity and Inclusion hosts #Leaders4Diversity conference
By Ivette Gallegos—
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion hosted a leadership conference April 11.
#Leaders4Diversity is the first conference of its kind and focused on helping students to broaden their horizons culturally, and to facilitate the development of their leadership skills.
The current director of Student Life at Richland College, Carter Bedford, started the conference off with discussions about inclusive leadership. Bedford took participants through a personality assessment and talked about some dimensions of diversity and personality profile.
“A lot of it was about discovering the inner you, and then being able to recognize somebody else’s inner person so that you can be your most authentic self,” Bedford said.
Graduate student Garrett Hughes said he thought the conference was helpful.
“I got a good aspect of how different people can connect on different levels, not like with race, age, or religion, two people may bond on religion, but not race,” he said.
Dr. Gary Peer spoke about the diversity of ideas and gave the audience food for thought by saying that ideas are the cauldron from which individuals emerge. Peer spoke about engagement and connection with others, and advised to pay attention to the ideas in your head.
“The secret to living a relatively stress-free life is that you need to engage in something you love doing,” he said.
The event continued into three workshop sessions, each with three different sessions in between.
The first session led students toward a comprehensive understanding of their financial futures, talked about self-education about gender roles within the workplace and explored diversity in leadership within organizational structures.
The second workshop session helped students think about effectively setting, planning and achieving their goals. It considered the changing face of diversity in our society and involved the mindset of how to use strengths and strong skills to be change agents in the workforce.
The third workshop session helped students understand the true impact of phrases commonly used to describe various ethnic groups. It explored Tarleton State University’s core values based on integrity, leadership, tradition, civility, excellence and service, and included an interactive interview exercise to help participants become more effective campus leaders.
One presentation included in the third workshop was “Words: Bandit of black identity.” Four black men presented words commonly used in today’s society that actually create a negative impact on the African-American culture. The presentation posited that someone’s ability to be a leader should not be discredited by his or her appearance.
