Breaking Barriers

 

 

Photo courtesty of Mathew Santos. More than 40 Whatcom students and staff attended the 24th annual Students of Color Conference held in Yakima from April 17 to 20. The annual conference draws students from area colleges.
Photo courtesty of Mathew Santos. More than 40 Whatcom students and staff attended the 24th annual Students of Color Conference held in Yakima from April 17 to 20. The annual conference draws students from area colleges.

 By: Dylan Nelson

 Dozens of Whatcom Community College students recently attended the 24th annual Students of Color Conference in Yakima.

Led by a nine advisers, including two peer advisors, 38 Whatcom students attended the conference held from April 17-20 .

The conference, hosted each year by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, was attended by many community and technical colleges including Whatcom and Bellingham Technical College.

This year’s official agenda for the conference said that it aimed to help students become more aware of their own and others’ racial, ethnic and cultural identities and increase “diversity awareness and cultural sensitivity” while providing a safe platform for students to do so. Students took part in a variety workshops and facilitated discussions, and keynote speakers and other presentations were given.

The three-day conference started out with two identity development workshops. Dong Dinh, a 21-year-old Whatcom student who attended the conference for the first time this year, said that in these workshops students met with groups that they identified most with in an effort to build community within the conference.

“You get to be in a place where students of color, people who look like me get to be in this position

said. “We can all be ourselves around each other. That was pretty powerful.”

Jaswant Patara, a sophomore at Whatcom who also attended the conference, said that the identification workshops were helpful because she could relate to other students in her group. “I kind of [got] to know them well and I understand their situation. I knew that I had the same issues,” she said.

According to the event’s agenda, the rest of the conference focused on increasing students’ knowledge and understanding in relation to race and ethnicity, developing skills to be used in achieving their full potential and increasing students’ understanding of the importance of social change.

“The workshop I liked the most was the ‘Chip on your Shoulder Workshop,’” which focused on dealing with being racially misidentified, Patara said, adding that the workshop helped her understand that misidentification should not be offensive. “It’s not bad because those people from that culture are nice,” she said.

Reid Kerr, an English teacher at Whatcom who also attended the conference, said it was important that the conference provided students with an open and inviting environment in which they can freely discuss issues they struggle with at their respective colleges.

“As far as students go, I think it’s important to just have the opportunity to talk about some of this stuff, things that don’t get talked about or things that don’t get voiced at all,” he said. “It was a very emotional thing but in a very valuable way.”

Kerr said that some of these issues may not be voiced by students outside of the conference because they feel uncomfortable bringing attention to themselves or may have a hard time getting the courage to do so.

“It’s making waves. Or fear of saying ‘I feel underrepresented’ or ‘marginalized’ or ‘intimidated’ on campus,” Kerr said. “It’s hard to say that and it’s hard to recognize that it’s felt.”

“I really appreciate hearing from international students,” Kerr said. “A couple of [international students] communicated to me the isolation that happens on campus where they want to have friends that are outside the international kids and just how hard it is to connect with people in a deeper way,” he said.

Kerr added that some of this isolation comes from a disconnection between students.

“In class is just like ‘hey how are you what did you do for the homework,’” Kerr said, “but we need to get beyond to that deeper level. Maybe everyone needs to do that.”

One of the most important things that one could take from the event was the need to keep the conversation going outside of the conference, Kerr said.

“I think it’s all well and good to go to these things and talk about them, but how are you going to make a

difference on our campus? In our classrooms? Keep these conversations going,” he said. “Don’t be afraid of them. It’s not easy work but it’s important and beneficial.”

With 38 students in attendance this year, it was Whatcom’s biggest showing at the Students of Color Conference said Betsey Hasegawa, interim director of Multicultural Academic Support Services at Whatcom.

 

 

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