The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Hudson Valley Community College recently offered 10 weeks of training to promote diversity and inclusion on campus.
Ten employees — volunteers including administrators, faculty and staff — volunteered to participate in the training provided by the McLean Consulting Group. Kathleen McLean, CEO, and Markeia Robinson, director of operations, led the workshops.
The “Embracing Diversity Group” seeks to promote awareness, respect and foster opportunities to advance inclusion and engagement of a diverse community at the college. The group plans to work collaboratively with various departments, faculty, staff and students to offer training sessions on diversity in the near future.
Personal thoughts shared by the participants:
“A most enlightening experience”
“A way to reconnect with the mission of HVCC”
“Reinvigorating”
“This process has planted the seeds of change here at HVCC… Now it’s up to us to share with others in fostering the growth of these seeds.”
“Change your thoughts, change your mind.”
“This training has been a great opportunity to develop new capacities to make the EOC a better place for staff and students.”
“This has been an amazing experience for me! It has opened my eyes to so many injustices in this world that I was never aware of. It’s helped me learn more about myself and grow as a person. I’m so grateful that I was afforded the opportunity to work with such an amazing group of people!”
“While this is a difficult topic, it has benefits for everyone in the institution and can ultimately make us a much better institution.”
The following employees participated in the training:
Ainsley Thomas – Chief Diversity Officer
Karen Paquette – HR Director
Zoë O’Brey – Assistant to the CDO
Carol Meyer, Ph.D. – EOC – Coordinator of Instructional Services
Brian Vlieg – Department Chair, Individual Studies
Andrew Roberts – Coordinator of Center for Academic Engagement
Kailey Loucks – Coordinator of Testing, Advisement, Academics
Paul Calarco, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, Sociology
Christine Smith – Advising Specialist, Individual Studies
Margaret Ewart-Zapp – Department Chair, Medical Imaging
Published: Wed, 14 Nov 2018 12:55:30 +0000 by z.obrey