CLAIRE
HOOVER
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
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 misconceptionsand prejudices.
CSP 6020: Theory and Assessment of College Student Development,
CSP 6030: Theory and Assessment of Educational Environments ,
CSP 6035: Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs,
COUN 6760: Counseling in the Culturally Diverse,
REHB 6750: Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counseling.
Associated
Coursework
My coursework in CSP 6035: Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs has facilitated growth in my awareness, knowledge, and skills This awareness, knowledge, and skills help me to be a multiculturally competent student affairs practitioner. In CSP 6035: Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs, I engaged in three critical reflections that helped me to understand my awareness, knowledge, and skills through the lens of multicultural competence. These critical reflections “provided opportunities for self-reflection and self evaluation in issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion,” ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 11) and encouraged me to critically process the readings and discussions we were engaging in during class. In CSP 6035 I also wrote two issue papers that helped me to “integrate cultural knowledge with specific and relevant cultural issues on campus” ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 11). The first paper I wrote addressed remedial education and how it is a multicultural cultural issue. The second paper addressed the need for gender-neutral bathrooms on college campuses. These papers helped me to gain knowledge of specific areas of multiculturalism that were of interest to me, and helped me articulate what I learned from researching these papers to my co-workers and supervisor at my internship site. These papers and critical reflections have helped me to “apply advocacy skills to assist in the development of a more mutually sensitive institution and profession” while also helping me to “identify systemic barriers to equality and inclusiveness, and then advocate for and implement means of dismantling them” (ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 11).
Through my coursework in COUN 6760: Counseling in the Culturally Diverse I have gained the tools needed to effectively communicate with people from different cultural groups. In this course we visited the Toledo Islamic Center, which inspired my cultural immersion experience in which I publicly wore a hijab for a day. This experience demonstrated my ability to assess my awareness and articulate my differences and similarities with others through participating in activities that challenged my beliefs (ACPA & NASPA, 2010). In this course I also focused on the older adult population in which I researched and presented on ways to counsel this population, recognize biases about this population, diminish stereotypes, and understand theories that related to the older adult population. My presentation demonstrated my ability to “develop effective multicultural training that expands the cultural knowledge of one’s staff” and “facilitate others’ learning and practice of social justice concepts” (ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 11).
Through my coursework in CSP 6020: Theory and Assessment of College Student Development and CSP 6030: Theory and Assessment of Educational Environments I gained awareness, knowledge, and skills about working with diverse populations through my Voice Project, and Immersion Project. My Voice Project focused non-traditional transgender students, and my Immersion Project focused on students with physical, mental, and learning disabilities. These blogs provided me with “opportunities for self-reflection and self-evaluation on issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion” while also helped me to “identify systemic barriers to equality and inclusiveness” (ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 11).
The awareness, knowledge, and skills I gained through my coursework in the College Student Personnel program have helped to facilitate educational conversations with co-workers at Subway who might not use inclusive language, create handouts for students who may not be as familiar with how to use computers, and effectively advise and work with students with various disabilities. My new awareness, knowledge, and skills also led to the development of my Impact of College Paper and its focus on how college affects students with disabilities. By understanding how college affects (or doesn't affect) students with disabilities, I am able to “apply advocacy skills to assist in the development of a more multiculturally sensitive institution and profession: (ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 11)
