Presenters: Nasistu Bedada, Symone Cole, Damaris Garcia-Rios, Donyé Green, Ben Her, Courtney Holman, Raquell Johnson-Mendoza, Joey Lim, Juan Mancillas, Natalie Perez, Jaden Salama, Katrina Villacarlos
Faculty Mentor: Jeanne Nagayama Hall
ARC Session 4C
Research Area: Education
Community For Multicultural Scholars Academic Residential Community
Funding: Undergraduate Studies, University Housing, Student Life, Equity & Inclusion, College of Education, Academic Affairs
The cultural assets and identities of underrepresented university students are not always valued or understood, especially in predominantly White institutions. Although the student of color enrollment numbers has slightly increased over the last ten years at the University of Oregon these numbers are still below the national percentage of underrepresented groups. Numerical underrepresentation can increase belonging uncertainty, especially for students who value their racial identities in a dominant culture group setting. Therefore, it is important to hear the cultural identity stories of UO students of color. In the Fall 2017, the Community of Multicultural Scholars academic residential community focused on supporting and developing each other’s racial and other identities and identifying one’s own cultural assets that support one’s thriving through adverse circumstances, such as discrimination and campus climate issues The Winter 2018 discussions developed each other’s scholarly identity as students of color, and the Spring 2018 now provides opportunities for each student to advocate for equity in the face of stereotype threat and micro-aggressions. Based on the inspiration of Christensen’s (2015) activist approach to poetry, and in collaboration with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, each student will present and advocate for their cultural assets and stories through the presentation of their identity poem and artistic expression.