The student news site of Bellarmine Preparatory School

The Bellarmine Prep Lion

The student news site of Bellarmine Preparatory School

The Bellarmine Prep Lion

The student news site of Bellarmine Preparatory School

The Bellarmine Prep Lion

Students converge at Seattle Prep for the 2nd Annual West Coast Diversity Conference

From Nov. 9 -11, five Bellarmine students traveled to Seattle to be a part of the 2nd Annual West Coast Diversity Leadership Conference.  Schools that participated included Seattle Preparatory (the hosts), Blanchet, Jesuit, Bellarmine of San Jose and Bellarmine Prep of Tacoma. All of the students who attended were assembled into six separate color groups. The groups focused on the themes of the conference: unity and the color of unity.

Various speakers were involved in the conference discussing the importance of diversity today. Mark Wheeler, attorney and City Manager for the City of Seattle, stated that “Diversity is peace, democracy, justice, fairness, development and respect of identity of different cultures. It is the act of thinking independently.”  More topics of the injustice in stereotypes were addressed in the conference.

“We can’t be content with injustices acted upon others because if we stand around and watch it happen, we are also contributing to the injustice,” stated Holly Ferraro, a faculty of the Albers School for Business and Economics at Seattle University.

Tim Wilson, the Assistant to the Vice President for Student Development, discussed the complexity of stereotypes and identity.  “We don’t wake up to say, ‘Hey, I only want to be Catholic today’ and the next day say, ‘Hmm, I think I want to be man today,’  We are the whole package.  If you can’t accept part of me, I’d rather you not accept me at all.”

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Toward the end of the leadership conference, the students split into grade groups to discuss diversity at their schools. The freshmen showed enthusiasm, yet they did not know completely how to contribute it to the community. The sophomores gained a sense of diversity, but they still have a way to go. The juniors are more aware of their surroundings and are almost ready to step to become role models in their communities. The seniors were fully knowledgeable and accepting of diversity, regarding where it comes from, where it took them, and how they will carry it into their lives beyond high school.

Society today shutters at the word “diversity.” Diversity is not something we should be scared of, but rather accepting of in our schools. Diversity is not only celebrating the differences in everybody, but rather celebrating the similarities of each other. When we work to promote, it takes only one person to make a change. People have this false notion believing that diversity is limited to race and ethnicity, when, in reality, diversity encompasses various ideas, beliefs and values that strengthens the bond within the community. Our mission is to take the knowledge from the conference that has been given to us from to educate those around us. We are the future leaders of the country. In order to accept change and diversity around us, we must not only develop our minds but also develop our hearts.