Members of the current class of the Cultural Competency Institute.
Fredonia’s Cultural Competency Institute began its second year with the first of six sessions on Oct. 3, with 23 members of the greater campus community, including 13 faculty/staff, a member of the local community and nine students, who were selected through a competitive application process.
The remaining five sessions will occur throughout the fall and spring terms and end with presentations of participant projects and an award ceremony in April 2019. Student participants represent a range of majors, student organizations and departments on campus.
The mission of the Cultural Competency Institute is to engage leaders in creating a more inclusive campus atmosphere. Fredonia is dedicated to fostering a learning environment that cultivates respect for differences and prepares students to live and work productively in a culturally diverse and globalized society.
The Cultural Competency Institute is a cohort-based, year-long series with a goal to cultivate an inclusive mindset and positive impact on participants' communities. In 2018-2019, the cohort will focus on the learning outcomes of the institute, including to gain an understanding and appreciation of other cultures, beliefs, and experiences; identify societal inequities and the impacts of privilege, marginalization and bias; recognize social identities of self and others and the intersectionalities; develop communication strategies to address inequities and support diversity; and apply an inclusive lens to effectively interact with individuals from diverse backgrounds
Participants not only are encouraged to engage in a deeper understanding of the issues during the workshops, they are challenged as a group to identify a social inequity on campus and/or in the community, research the concern, and propose a feasible and practical solution.
The Cultural Competency Institute is a joint initiative of the Office of International Education, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Professional Development Center. It is also being funded by the Carnahan Jackson Fund for the Humanities of the Fredonia College Foundation and the Faculty Student Association.
