On February 22 and March 22, the Diversity and Inclusion Sub-Committee on Programs and Events sponsored a Community Book Read,which featured the text, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. Dr. Clotile Galbraith, Professor of Education, attended with four Education majors and officers of Kappa Delta Pi (Gretchen Blackiston, Rowan Gilbert, Imani Kassembe, and Shannen O’Connell).
At the end of the first session, each attendee was asked to give one word that described their reaction to the conversation that evening. Gretchen offered “enlightened” and Shannen “informed,” while Imani felt “empowered” and Rowen “optimistic.” Dr. Galbraith added “inspired.”
Dr. Galbraith commented, “I was in awe of the intelligent and introspective sharings of our students. The other faculty and staff in our group were so impressed by our student’s comments, and quite honestly, so was I! They were simply magnificent and most of their comments reflected back to how the issues would impact them as future teachers.”
Overall, students thought the Community Reads program was an amazing experience. They intend to use the book as a resource to support their future teaching.