#college #university #diversity #multicultural
I was speaking on diversity at a large college conference yesterday in San Diego. The NACURH had their annual national conference at the University of San Diego campus which is huge. The 2,100 students were all over the campus attending sessions. My Kick Down Diversity Barriers presentation which is my way of teaching diversity awareness to college students was very well received.
I gave the students valid benefits of embracing diversity for not only their campus life but also for their future careers after they graduate. This particular diversity awareness program is available to all colleges and universities.
Speaking at this conference was not my only reason for this trip here to southern California though. I’m also speaking tonight at a local Toastmasters club which will be hosting my motivational keynote and turning the evening into an open community event for the public. I will be doing a shorter version of my signature motivational keynote that I do for companies and professional associations.
I also brought my camcorder since I had intended to take advantage of the Pacific ocean scenery. I took some video footage yesterday at the beach and also in my hotel room. After editing everything on my laptop, I completed a full future episode of Clint Cora Motivational WebTV.
I will be touring a real aircraft carrier in San Diego so this will be quite exciting for me. I will try to shoot some more video on site too in order to use it for yet another episode of Motivational WebTV.
Since San Diego is so close to the Mexico border town of Tijuana, I’m going to spend tomorrow afternoon there just to look around. I heard that this town can be a bit dangerous at night so that’s why I’m going in the daytime instead. I’ll then drive back to LAX for the night before flying home on Friday.
I hope to hear from some of these US colleges and universities I presented to at the NACURH conference. Teaching diversity awareness to these students at that point in their lives will really give them a competitive edge for their future careers.
Teaching tolerance extends to disabled persons, ya know. See you tube video “Teaching Next Generation to Know Autism” An excellent example of how we can teach children how to embrace and help citizens among us who are vulnerable to discrimination, neglect or apathy. Keep in mind the disabled who are NON verbal, are one of the most vulnerable of special populations. They can’t speak for themselves. They can’t even tell us they’re bullied. At least a gay/muslim/chrisitan/mormom, etc.. (not all combined of course wow that would be a quandry…ha ha) person with a voice can speak up, if trained to defend himself/herself. So, let’s think about this. Let’s include the most fragile among us in the let’s tolerate and embrace differences group. Last week, the mother in this video was told by a woman in public that “you shouldn’t bring people like this out in public.” (I know this from private message to her on youtube). This is probably why she is so assertive in defending her son and bringing awareness to his cause. I can’t even imagine how many times she’s experienced this. It must be hard. Yet, in combing the tolerance and diverstiy sites I see little to NOTHING about disabled persons. And the need to speak up for their rights. Why aren’t colleges, high schools and universities including the disabled in teaching diversity and tolerance? Ironically, the disabled represent everyone across gender, religion, social class, color of skin, country of orgin, etc.. sexual preference (well who they will sleep with is NOT in mind of severely autistic or mentally retarded, they’re not even thinking about this stuff), but you know what I mean.
I include discussion of disabled individuals in my diversity talks.