“The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) competency area includes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to create learning environments that are enriched with diverse views and people. It is also designed to create an institutional ethos that accepts and celebrates differences among people, helping to free them of any misconceptions and prejudices.”



Working with diverse groups of students as well as with my course work has provided me with opportunities to practice creating environments that are inclusive of diverse peoples and views. I have learned to engaged in dialogues that help others to celebrate and accept differences. I have learned to be more aware of my own identity and well as gain understanding of how differing identities develop differently.



Activity 1: Course Work
I gained a great deal of awareness, knowledge, and skills in the competency area of equity, diversity, and inclusion by successfully completing CSP 6035 Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs. This course is a required course in the CSP program at BGSU. This course enables students to become multiculturally-competent student affairs practitioners by providing them with an understanding of issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion. This understanding is important to for any professional in student affairs. This course has allowed me to  better serve students, particularly those who identify as belonging to non-dominant groups. I have also been able to raise awareness of issues of inclusion in student organizations and at meetings when voices are missing from the conversation.

Through course readings from Johnson, Pope, Steele, Wise, Hurtado, Obear, and many others, course discussions, and assignments I had the opportunity not only to learn about diverse perspectives but also provided me with the space to work through my own assumptions, biases, and awareness of how my personal identities inform my professional work as well as my relationships. Through the completion of three critical reflections about myself and my knowledge acquisition I was able to understand my own awareness of multicultural issues, how students’ identity may influence their development, and how this combined with my own identity influences my practice as a student affairs professional. 



Activity 2: Creating Multiculturally Competent Leaders Presentation
As a final project for CSP 6035 I worked with another CSP graduate student  to create a training for Resident Advisors (RAs) to become more inclusive and multiculturally aware leaders. Since this time the training has been conducted from RAs, hall council executive board members, and as part of a student leadership training. The training included a self-awareness activity where participants were able to assess their privilege, as well as learn about various types of privilege and how it shows up in a campus environment. The next activity of the training was a game we created to recognize the different “isms” that may play a role in working with others and being a leader on campus. We entitled the game, “Quickisms,” participants played a game similar to pictionary, the topics all represented different forms of isms, such as sexism, classism, ageism, religious oppression, and others. Participants were able to interact, learn, and have dialogues concerning the different forms of oppression.



After participants had gone through the first two activities participants were asked to discuss how they could apply their learning to create inclusive communities, programs, and work through difference. We pushed participants to go beyond inclusive language and consider all aspects of their programs, meetings, and environments. Teaching others about equity, diversity, and inclusion exemplifies my proficiency in this competency area.