#college #university #diversity #diversitytraining — It was interesting to present my college diversity speaking program to the group of RA students at Daemen College just north of Buffalo, New York this week.
RA stands for Residence Assistant and they are usually senior college students. This group of RAs were back on campus after a camping trip to bond and my diversity talk was part of a multi-day training program that they go through before the school year starts up.
I asked the Director of Residence what a typical RA does and she told me that the RAs would organize activities at their residence as well as to help sort out any problems or issues from college students staying on residence that might pop up during the year. The RAs are pretty well representing their residence floors or units.
This is probably not an easy job especially when things can get busy since these RAs have their own college studies as well. But I think it sounds like a great experience and will certainly look really good on a resume.
Given that college students can come from all parts of the country as well as the world now, exposure to diversity training is a smart idea for the RA groups at colleges. We are seeing increasingly diverse student bodies on campuses and knowing how to deal with such diversity can only benefit not only the entire campus, but help prepare college students for the real working world.
In many cases, the real working environments out there are even more diverse than on college campuses. As bonus tips, I gave this group of RA students some valuable information with respect to future job interviews and diversity which will come in handy when they graduate.
More information about my college speaking programs including diversity are available at my website. I am available to speak at any college in the United States and Canada.
photo credit: pit-yacker
