By Lindsay Haislip
News Editor
Washington College will have the opportunity to go “Around the World in Seven Days” during this year’s week, which will take place next week from Nov. 14-19. The SGA’s Diversity Committee has been hard at work, planning different events to “emphasize the importance of diversity in Washington’s campus and community,” said Junior committee member Carolyn Bevens. Each day will hold a different event, beginning with “WACky Talents”, followed by “Washington College: The Inconvenient Truth”, “Culture Pride Day”, “Salsa Dancing”, and finally, the feature headline “Culture Night” presenting The Rachel Feinstein Comedy Show.
“All of these events have been carefully coordinated and should be a lot of fun,” said Bevens.
Building off of last year’s events, Diversity Week 2011 involved “collaborating with other clubs to make the week much longer, and include new events,” said Senior SGA Secretary of Diversity Larissa Check.
Senior Committee member Bernice Frimpong said, “The increase in club involvement will definitely increase the awareness of the events and student participation.”
Diversity Week is an important time to reflect on the diverse community that represents WC and have fun at the same time.
“We are really hoping that we can show that WC is in fact a diverse community, and encourage our students to carry out that same respect for every single individual through out the entire school year,” said Check.
Educating students and the greater community on the importance of diversity, individuality, and acceptance, and the instances of culture around us are the committee’s main goals; Diversity Week provides one opportunity to carry out these goals.
“Shedding light on our differences and embracing each other for who we are is key to making us a community,” said Bevens.
Looking beyond next week, one committee member indicated that she would like to see a program that exposed WC students to cultures outside of the US through travel, bringing their experiences back and educating students on campus.
“I think it’s a great idea because many students study abroad but rarely share their experience publically with students outside their circle of friends,” said Frimpong.
The committee also plans to work more with International Students to ease their transition and make them feel as welcome as possible in the WC community.
Community members will have a great chance next week to participate in events that will helps us all to become better aware and more appreciative of our diverse cultural and ethnic surroundings.
“The idea of Diversity Week is to not only celebrate and recognize the rich tapestry of diverse students at Washington College,” said Check, “but also to understand the issues that may come about as a result of diversity. This will enable us to weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each WC individual will find a fitting place,” she said.