The University of Iowa Division of Student Life

The University of Iowa has recently established an Affiliate of the National Coalition Building Institute, a non-profit group that works through a coalition-building model to provide leadership training for inclusion and equity, with the goal of eliminating prejudice throughout the world. One of the most visible and well-known programs that NCBI has created is the one-day “Welcoming Diversity and Prejudice Reduction” workshop. This is a highly interactive one-day workshop in which participants work on developing pride in their own identities, explore their “records” about other groups as well as about their own identities, listen to stories and experiences of other groups, and practice engaging hurtful comments, jokes, or slurs. UI now has 32 trained facilitators who can come in to groups, offices, or departments (at no cost)  to lead participants through the experience, in a way that will meet the group’s individual needs. If you have a group or organization that might be interested in bringing the workshop in, or if you’d like to have your name added to a list of people interested in future “open sessions”, please contact Lindsay Jarratt, Diversity Resources Coordinator in the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, at Lindsay-jarratt@uiowa.edu or by calling (319)335-0705.

When: Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. 3:30-5:00p.m., S401 Pappajohn Business Bldg.

Sponsored by The University of Iowa Chief Diversity Office, the Disability Awareness Celebration includes the presentation of the Braverman Award, Above and Beyond Award, and celebrates Disability-related accomplishments.

The Council on Disability Awareness will host a writing contest and reception from 5:15-6:15, immediately following the Disability Celebration. Judges will share a few words about the winners and winners will be able to read their pieces.

The 13th annual Iowa Latino Conference will be held October 28-29 at Muscatine High School in Muscatine, Iowa.

The Strengthening and Valuing Latino/a Communities in Iowa Conference began on the University of Iowa campus in 1998 as a joint effort of the UI School of Social Work’s Institute for the Support of Latino/a Families and Communities and the National Resource Center for Family Center Practice. What began as a small event has grown into a conference involving the Division of Latino Affairs, Iowa Workforce Development and representatives from many community organizations.

For more details on presenters and to view the conference schedule, visit the Iowa Latino Conference web site.

Improve Your Intercultural Training through Transformative Learning Share
When: Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 2:00-3:30p.m. CT in the International Commons (1117 UCC).

This webinar is directed toward professionals who provide intercultural training to both incoming and outgoing students, including: study abroad professionals and faculty who organize, design or teach in education abroad programs; international student professionals; student service professionals; and others. This webinar provides content that assumes a basic prior knowledge of intercultural training techniques.

As a trainer focused on intercultural development for your students, you know that international and education abroad students speak most often of the transformation they have gone through as a result of their intercultural experience. You may also know that your effort to engage real transformative learning falls far below expectations. Experience without support does not render the intercultural competence that we strive for in our intercultural training. Instead, it requires a rich integration of the right training and support.

In a rare opportunity, you will have access to four intercultural training experts who will share their own key strategies for transformative learning and provide you with insights into how to move toward intercultural training excellence fostering real transformative learning. In this webinar:

• Mick Vande Berg asks you to resist the status quo if you seek transformative learning and tells you why.
• R. Michael Paige describes why learners need intervention in order to transform.
• Janet Bennett speaks to the many-layered process of training design.
• Bruce La Brack shares his principles for selecting content for intercultural training.

Presenters:

Janet Bennet, PhD, is executive director of the Intercultural Communication Institute and chair of the ICI/University of the Pacific Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations program. For 12 years, she was chair of the Liberal Arts Division at Marylhurst College, developing innovative academic programs for adult degree students. As a trainer and consultant, she designs and conducts intercultural and diversity training and teaches courses in the training and development program at Portland State University. Janet has published on developmental “layered” intercultural training and adjustment processes, authored the chapter “Cultivating Intercultural Competence: A Process Perspective” from The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence, and is coediting The Handbook of Intercultural Training, 3rd edition.

Bruce La Brack, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and International Studies, University of the Pacific, Stockton, California. For over three decades he headed Pacific’s innovative and integrated orientation and reentry programs for study abroad. He has published extensively on culture adjustment issues and consults and trains regularly on cultural competency issues related to international educational exchange and cross-cultural training for study abroad. He is a senior faculty at the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication and is the primary author and editor of the widely used web-based site, “What’s Up With Culture?,” a free internet resource for preparing U.S. American study abroad students going to and returning from an international educational experience.

Michael Paige, PhD, is a professor of international and intercultural education in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota. An intercultural and international educator for over 40 years, he has been honored with the Peter A. Wollitzer Advocacy Award by the Forum on Education Abroad (2007), and as Senior Interculturalist by SIETAR Japan (2003). He serves on the faculty of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication and has been a visiting scholar at Kenyatta University, Nagoya University, and the University of South Australia. Paige has authored numerous intercultural texts including the Maximizing Study Abroad guides and Education for the Intercultural Experience. He has been a NAFSA member since 1977.

Michael Vande Berg, PhD, comparative literature, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is vice president for academic affairs at CIEE. He earlier held international education leadership positions at Georgetown University, SIT, Michigan State University, Kalamazoo College, and Madrid’s Instituto International. A founding board member of the Forum on Education Abroad, he has authored a wide range of publications on international education topics and has directed several study abroad research projects. A member of the faculty of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, he frequently speaks about education abroad topics and leads teaching/learning workshops in the United States and abroad.