Conference presentations were core to the collaborative event and these were conducted within four areas of concentration (strands) i.e. research, intervention, pedagogy and cultural competence. Each strand consisted of at least six presentations of the two-day experience and each contained a major plenary session. The conference keynote address featured Tim Wise, an internationally known writer and educator on diversity efforts on campuses and in corporate America. Other notable addresses were made by Honorable Judge Jimmie Edwards (22^nd Circuit Court, St. Louis), Mayor Melodee Colbert-Kean of Joplin, Brian Fogle (Community Foundation of the Ozarks), and Valerie Patton (St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative).

A list of conference take-a-ways are provided below:

• 56 organizations represented at the inaugural conference – 21 outside of Springfield.
• MSU faculty exposed to diversity research from various industries.
• MSU now positioned for recognition of statewide leadership in diversity education.
• City of Springfield benefits from influx of visitors to its businesses.
• Recognition of new and/or elevated relationships between eleven sponsoring corporations in greater Springfield.
• MSU staff equipped with supervisory and co-worker diversity skill sets.
• CDC is point of origin for exponential statewide networks and development groups.
• MSU students gain direct knowledge of 21^st century workplace interpersonal demands.
• Community can better envision MSU as a diversity retooling station on an annual basis.

The Second Annual Collaborative Diversity Conference is scheduled for April 24-25, 2014.

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

The City of Springfield-Greene County Park Board, Missouri State University, Division for Diversity & Inclusion and the NAACP invite you to celebrate and share what freedom means to you!

If you are interested in contributing via spoken word, singing, musical performances or by hosting a booth, please contact Francine Pratt at 916-541-1675.

Who: Springfield-Greene County community members and visitors
What: Juneteenth, a celebration of freedom
When: Saturday, June 15, 2013, Noon-5:00pm
Where: Silver Springs Park, 1300 N. National Ave., Springfield, MO

For more information, contact Francine Pratt at fpratt@missouristate.edu

Juneteenth Booth Application

2013 Award for Excellence in Cultural Competence in Study Away Programming

A long-time Missouri State University faculty member in the Modern and Classical Languages Department, Dr. D. Roger Dowdy consistently delivers cultural competence in the preparation and delivery of his many short-term, faculty-led, study away programs, but most especially for his Intensive Spanish Study Program to Salamanca, Spain, held during the summer of 2012.

Roger led twenty-four students through a rigorous language and cultural study, ensuring language immersion through both home-stay arrangements with Spanish families and local language instruction, and the on-site instructors were duly impressed by the classroom performance of his students. He also taught these students cultural awareness of self and others by shepherding them to and instructing them about several unique historical sites throughout Spain, and he encouraged them to examine and articulate both differences and similarities among their native cultural norms and host site cultural norms.  Dr. Dowdy consistently modeled respectful consideration of both individual and community-based belief systems. He successfully negotiated not only academic issues, but also hundreds of logistical decisions that often needed to be made at a moment’s notice. His Dean in the College of Arts and Letters, Dr. Gloria Galanes, took particular note of how the diverse elements of Roger’s program fit together to form a coherent whole that provided exceptional support towards the goals of the affiliated credit-bearing course.

Roger is described by his colleagues as manifesting an exceptional amount of passion and commitment to the Missouri State student body, and his students unfailingly report that traveling with Dr. Dowdy gave them the perfect combination of formal education, enlightening and often humbling experiences, and excitement.

2013 Award for Excellence in Community Engagement in Study Away Programming

A faculty member in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Dr. Letitia White works tirelessly to integrate her academic and professional knowledge into the needs of her short-term, faculty-led, study away program host community in Nicaragua.

Dr. White guided a group of seventeen Missouri State students to several sites in rural Nicaragua, including schools, an orphanage, and churches, with the end results of administration of hearing and speech evaluations to more than 200 children and adults, delivery and fitting of hearing aids, and the execution of a workshop for host community parents on speech and language development during childhood. Both graduate and undergraduate students in audiology, speech-language pathology, and education of the deaf or hard of hearing participated in this program, ensuring cross-disciplinary learning experiences and outcomes. Dr. White taught her students about the customs of rural Nicaraguan populations, demonstrated how to build mutually beneficial relationships between American universities and host community elementary schools, fostered an appreciation of the educational challenges facing both socioeconomically-disadvantaged and physically disabled populations, and modeled best practices of speech and hearing assessment of individuals with different primary languages than those of the assessor(s).

Dr. White is lauded by students for her attention to the needs of rural Nicaragua, her nuanced attitudes towards different belief systems encountered during the program, and her attention to the educational and personal needs of Missouri State students and faculty. Her colleague both at Missouri State and during the Nicaragua program, Dr. Lisa A. Proctor, says that Dr. White “continually attended to the learning needs of the students . . . [while] simultaneously consider[ing] the needs of the Nicaraguan people, all while exhibiting a calm and encouraging demeanor.”

For this pilot year, funds will be available to students who are first-generation college students, disabled, or a member of a historically excluded group. Students with disabilities and/or from ethnic backgrounds such as Hispanic, African American, Native American, or Pacific Islander are encouraged to apply.

Awards for 2013-2014

• Up to 15 scholarships will be awarded, with up to 5 of these reserved for eligible graduate students pursuing degrees/certificates in teacher education.
• Awards will be $1000 per semester, renewable for up to 4 semesters if in a degree program, or 2 semesters if in a certificate program.
• Scholarships can be used in Fall, Spring, or Summer semesters.
• Recipients must maintain a 3.25 GPA in graduate classes for renewal.
• Recipients can be student employees on campus, but can not hold a graduate assistantship or full-time position.

Eligibility

1. Be a first-generation student, disabled, or a member of a nationally-recognized “historically excluded group”.
2. Be admitted into a graduate program (degree or certificate, but not an undergraduate student in an accelerated program) by the application date, and enrolled in courses for this program by the start of classes.
3. Have an undergraduate GPA (total or last 60 credits), or a graduate GPA (at least 9 credits) of 3.00.
4. Take at least 6 credits / semester (except final semester if fewer are needed).

Application

Application must include the following:

• The Graduate Student Scholarships for Enhancing Diversity application form and associated documentation as applicable
• Current Resume
• Two letters of recommendation
• Statement of career goal and relevant experience to date (1 page limit)
• Cover letter of interest, highlighting significant achievements or unusual academic experiences (2 page limit).

Completed applications must be received in the Graduate College by May 9, 2013.  All materials (except letters of recommendation) should be received at the same time. These can be submitted by email attachment sent to GraduateCollege@MissouriState.edu (preferred), or in hardcopy.

The Graduate Council Scholarship Committee will review applicants and recommend recipients to the Graduate Dean.  Scholarship winners will be announced approximately May 31, 2013.

The Office of the Co-Curricular Student Ombudsperson has been established. This office is designed to assist students with campus navigation, informal dispute resolution, administration of key recruitment programs, and to increase support of our Student Support Services program. The office is located in Freudenberger (Freddy) Hall, room 19 and staffed by Mr. Robert Kincaid.

Offices of the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion and Multicultural Services within the Division for Diversity and Inclusion will temporarily relocate from Carrington Hall, Suite 302 to Pummill Hall, Suite 400, on April 23, 2013 until approximately July 19, 2013. Telephone and fax numbers for all units will remain the same during this period.

In July, 2013, staff within our Disability Resource Center will relocate to Carrington Hall. All persons taking advantage of DRC services should continue to work with the staff in their current location until a future notice about relocation has been announced.

We look forward to starting fall, 2013 with a fresh look and a rejuvenated more efficient service capacity for our campus diversity initiatives.

Reframing the “talented tenth” ideal: Nannie Helen Burroughs and the remodeling of black womanhood at the National Training School for Woman and Girls

CHPA Research Forum – April 30, 2013
Dr. Angela Hornsby-Gutting, Associate Professor
History Department
12:15pm – 1:15pm, Strong 250

For more than 5 decades, Nannie Helen Burroughs ran the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. In that pursuit, she revised existing race ideologies that sought to propel African Americans forward. One of these dictates, the “talented tenth” ideal as first articulated by W.E.B. DuBois, stressed higher education as necessary to develop the leadership capacity among the most able 10 percent of black Americans. Burroughs, who never achieved a college education, marshaled her intellect and personal history to fashion a unique pedagogy designed to produce a “womanhood glorified.” This pedagogy recast contemporary ideas about African-American education by stressing both classical and industrial training.

Many Missouri State University students belong to a very broad base of what international educators consider “underrepresented groups” in study abroad programs – for example, first generation students, racial minorities, and/or socio-economically-disadvantaged groups.  As part of Study Away Programs’ efforts to meet the goals of its entire student population, it will be holding a workshop targeted to students (and their faculty advisors) who are unsure as to how studying away can and will help them secure a job post-graduation. Jack Hunter, Director of the Missouri State University Career Center, will guide participants in highlighting their study away experience in their cover letters, resume, and interviews.  Jack is an engaging and informative speaker, and Study Away is pleased to be able to offer his expertise to our students. Light refreshments will be provided.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Open to students of African American, Asian/Pacific Islander or Hispanic descent.
• Must show proof of U.S. citizenship or legal permanent residency with a permanent resident card or passport stamped I-551 (not expired).
• Have a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
• Plan to attend a degree-seeking program, full-time at a U.S. accredited institution in the U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands or Guam during the 2013-2014 academic year.
• Will be entering sophomore, junior, senior or 5th-year senior year in pursuit of an undergraduate degree at an accredited college or university.
• Students of all majors will be considered.
• Preference will be given to students who demonstrate:
  • An interest in pursuing a career in the insurance and financial services industry.
  • Leadership an participation in extracurricular activities.
• Must apply for federal financial aid by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
• Selected students attending accredited 2 year and 4 year colleges/universities will be awarded $2,500 or $5,000 respectively.
• A total of $150,000 in scholarships will be awarded for the 2013-14 school year.

MassMutual is focused on expanding access and opportunity of higher education and employment to students who reflect the rich cultural diversity of our nation. We seek to increase the number of minority students completing college nationally, raise awareness of careers in financial services, and recruit and retain the top talent touched by our programs.

Application open on January 3, 2013 at www.act.org/massmutual

Application Deadline:
May 3, 2013
5:00pm Central Time

Hello! My name is Vinai Thomas Uthipratuma, and I am a senior in the Global Studies/Spanish programs. Currently, I am studying abroad in Córdoba, Argentina where I am observing sociological, political and cultural difference and similarities of South and North American cultures. One of my main reasons for choosing Argentina as a site to study abroad was, of course, the chance for language-immersion. I realized even after the second month of my stay, I could already express myself fluently and understand everyone who spoke to me in Spanish. One thing I am really enjoying right now about Argentine culture relates to the election of Buenos Aires’ archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now called Francisco I, as the Pope of the Catholic Church. We are experiencing a surge of religious activity and nationalism that Argentina has supposedly not seen in quite a while. Merchandise, football games, and even currently lottery winners claim divine support from the new “Argentine” Pope. Indeed, being in this country at this moment is something I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.