{"id":5456,"date":"2016-12-06T13:19:02","date_gmt":"2016-12-06T18:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/news\/?p=5456"},"modified":"2016-12-06T13:27:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-06T18:27:23","slug":"inclusion-that-transforms-our-learning-for-the-better-guides-campus-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2016\/12\/06\/inclusion-that-transforms-our-learning-for-the-better-guides-campus-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Inclusion that transforms our learning for the better\u2019 guides campus initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"6-word2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Richard Newton, assistant professor of Religious Studies at Elizabethtown College, looks at conversations on race, diversity and differences as ways to \u2018pay forward\u2019 inspiration.<\/p>\n

In 2015 the professor introduced six-word stories after being motivated by the Race Card Project, an endeavor of NPR\u2019s Michelle Norris. The E-town version of these stories created an on-campus venue to honestly express thoughts, concerns and experiences about race and diversity.<\/p>\n

Last spring, dry-erase boards were set up across campus to record personal stories, and paper submissions were requested. The stories were short. Six-words, to be exact. In the end, Newton and students in his Religion 101: Signifying Religion: An African American Worldview class gathered more than 500 narratives and created a fair where the thoughts could be shared.<\/p>\n

But, at Elizabethtown College discussions of diversity are not simply projects that are pushed through and then discarded, said Newton. They are a movement to push the campus community toward an genuine understanding of our differences. So he asked, \u201cwhat should the next six words on race be at the college?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Our generation is one that is going to make a difference.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This semester his Religion 101 students took six-word stories to the next level by interviewing others on camera. They set up outside the Jay\u2019s Nest and asked fellow Blue Jays to participate. \u201cIt helped them work on their ethnography skills,\u201d Newton said. \u201cWhy do people feel uncomfortable when their faces are associated with their words?”<\/p>\n

And, he said, it helped the College learn what needs to be done to help make campus inclusive for everyone.<\/p>\n

Miriam Balasundram said she wishes all students would take Religion 101 so they are forced to look at diversity. \u201cMinimally we learn of other races and cultures in elementary school,\u201d but there is little shared knowledge after that.<\/p>\n

The senior biology pre-med student said experiences like these help start a dialogue with her peers. \u201cOur generation is one that is going to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the interviews Balasundram said, some students \u201cwere raw with their answers, very unabated about what they felt about race.\u201d<\/p>\n

This honesty, however, has helped Balasundram live her life more consciously, more inclusively, she said. It will help her after graduation, also, as she becomes a doctor in rural areas of the United States where people can\u2019t be easily reached.<\/p>\n

The College\u2019s motto depends on open discussions such as these, said Newton \u201cIt\u2019s not easy, but it\u2019s especially necessary. We can\u2019t censor these stories.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Newton, assistant professor of Religious Studies at Elizabethtown College, looks at conversations on race, diversity and differences as ways to \u2018pay forward\u2019 inspiration. In 2015 the professor introduced six-word stories after being motivated by the Race Card Project, an endeavor of NPR\u2019s Michelle Norris. The E-town version of these stories created an on-campus venue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[178,7,8],"tags":[490,1128,209],"class_list":["post-5456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-achievements","category-campus-community","category-features","tag-achievements-2","tag-feature","tag-religious-studies","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5456"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5470,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5456\/revisions\/5470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}