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As someone passionate about diversity, equity, & inclusion, I care a lot about making sure students understand their positionality and privilege when working with marginalized groups that do not reflect their lived experience. I developed a new workshop for a cohort and facilitated it virtually for a group of 20 students.
Cohort of 20-25 undergraduate university students.
Program Manager, GU Impacts Fellowship and a Student Analyst.
As program manager, I set a personal goal to develop this workshop, directed a brainstorming session, conducted research, and facilitated a 90-minute workshop.
Facilitation, DEI, Research, Guided Reflection
The GU Impacts Program is a 7-month fellowship to expose undergrad students to community-based social impact work. A cohort of ~25 students go through onboarding in order to develop a further grasp of social impact and the skills they will need to work with community partner organizations over the summer.
After managing the program for two years, I wanted to redesign a workshop on working in communities to be more self-reflective and intersectional. The current structure did not offer enough group time to discuss the importance of mindfully entering communities that are not their own.
Along with my current student analyst, a former GU Impacts fellow, we discussed and wrote out what aspects of community mindfulness were most important for our demographic of university students. We agreed upon three themes to focus on:
While we liked the breakout sessions, but also wanted to have more reflection on similar topics as well. From the previous readings and feedback of cohorts, we agreed there was one article we wanted to ensure every member read. We integrated an icebreaker to practice self-reflection and vulnerability with the cohort and extended time to ensure we weren't rushing important conversation.
I facilitated a 90-minute workshop titled "Working in Communities: Positionality and Service" virtually for a cohort of 20 students. The workshop began with an ice-breaker focused on our individual identities, zoomed out to discuss a shared article on positionality, and then broke out into smaller groups to explore other topics of importance (listed above). Our cohort reflected as a whole and documented lessons learned as well as questions we still had and wanted to explore.
At the end of the fellowship, I conduct exit interviews with each student. Several expressed how helpful the articles were and how they often found themselves thinking about and reflecting on their positionality in service during their summer work. I invite you to review and even utilize the outlined workshop for your own groups. If so, please let me know how it goes!
