Adventures in Admission

Diversity Summit on Inclusive Excellence

Last week the University of Denver hosted hte 11th Annual Diversity Summit on Inclusive Excellence. It was a packed event featuring keynote speaker Jeff Johnson, workshops around the theory and practice of inclusive excellence, a TEDxDU salon luncheon, roundtable discussions and a chocolate fountain networking event!

I've attended for several years now and have been impressed with the quality speakers and the challenge to the community to truly think about how the concepts of diversity and inclusion can be embedded in our daily lives. The Chancellor kicked off the event this year with an analogy from the world of chemistry (he began his career at DU as a chemistry professor and is still very much an academic!) about the type of energetic reaction that occurs when you mix hydrogen and oxygen. If we have hydrogen and oxygen on our campus, but they do not mix, there will never be a reaction. And if they only intersect along the fringes there will only be small reactiosn. However, if they mix completely there will be a huge reaction that will propel us all even further. So the challenge to the community is to not just have representation of diverse groups, but to have a truly inclusive community that values and honors the various perspectives and backgrounds in a way that takes us all to the next level.

Jeff Johnson, our keynote speaker, was not out to make people feel good. He told us up front that he wanted the audience to leave the day and actually make changes, not just feel good about participating in a one day event. He shared inspring stories and brought in recent examples from our own campus community. There was a buzz in the air as people left his session and went off to a variety of workshops around campus.

Our office was particularly excited about the TEDxDU salon during lunch as our own admission counselor Claudia Hernandez-Ponce spoke about her journey of bringing together two worlds. Dr. Gregory Anderson, dean of the Morgridge College of Education, spoke about being challenged more by a question from his 5-year-old son than anything he's ever faced in life. We also have a speaker who introduced himself only as "Mega Man" to get people thinking about the judgments they make before ever getting to know someone. All in all it was a powerful session and each speaker honed in on particularly challenging situations in relation to this idea of inclusive action.

While I always enjoy my time at the Diversity Summit, I am even more encouraged by the fact that it is not just a one day event at DU. It truly is being embedded into the fabric of who we are. We are quick to acknoweldge that we still have a long way to go in creating a truly inclusive community, but we are committed to moving forward and making this an excellent place to live and learn and grow.

Emily Forbes

Director of Communication

And the Oscar goes to...

Khubaib Latif, a DU alum and former admission fellow in our office, worked on the film Saving Face, which received the Oscar for best documentary last night. During his time at the University of Denver Khubaib studied biochemistry to prepare for medical school in the future, but also pursued a minor in the department of Film, Media and Journalism Studies and an MBA from the Daniels College of Business. Khubaib is truly a well-rounded individual! In respect to the accolades for the work on Saving Face, here are his words:

It's a little hard to believe but a very pleasant surprise. I started receiving phone calls and messages last night as soon as it was announced and I was pretty much speechless for the first few minutes. 

For the project, I did translations for them and assisted in editing. My "title" was translator and assistant editor. I put in the subtitles and made sequences for them. Sequences are individual scenes that are cut, formatted properly in a timeline, and labeled. It provided the ground work for the main editor of the film to come and pick up the bits he liked so that he didn't have to go through all the raw media to search for clips, and wait for it to be formatted first. In general terms, I basically organized the clips for them, and added subtitles, so that the editor and the director could pick the visuals they liked, know what the person was talking about, and hence edit it accordingly. 

It's very satisfying that I was part of a project that received such accolades. The film's only 40 minutes in length, but it's a culmination of 2 years of shooting and numerous hours of raw footage.

Congratulations Khubaib!

Emily Forbes
Director of Communication 

Snow!

We had our first real snow fall of the year yesterday and campus looked beautiful. As I was walking to the light rail to catch a ride home (even though I've lived in Colorado for 10 years I still don't like driving in the snow) I saw students outside making snowmen, having snowball fights and even playing a little snow football. In fact, the fraternities along the main stretch of campus were even playing "Frosty the Snowman" and drinking hot cocoa out on their porch. What fun! Here are a few pictures from my phone:

The view from my office.

Humanities Gardens. The statue looks like the two women need to huddle together because of the cold!

Football out on the lawn.

Now what I love most about Colorado is the fact that it can snow one day and then be absolutely beautiful the next day. These are photos that I took this morning as I was walking to my office. I love Colorado sunshine!

Mary Reed building.

The same view from my office - 16 hours later!

Emily Forbes

Director of Communication

Festival of Nations

Whether it is through our study abroad opportunities, our more than 800 international students or a number of campus events, DU is proud of the international atmosphere on our campus!

 

One such annual tradition is the Festival of Nations, the largest student-led event of the year. The free event on April 17^th marked the 27th anniversary of this tradition which gives our students from around the world the opportunity to share their cultures with the DU campus and the Denver community. This year’s festival boasted 24 booths, all with an international theme, that represented various student cultural groups as well as student organizations and those from throughout the Denver community. These booths showcased students in traditional clothing as well as products and crafts from around the world. Many student groups, including the Chinese Student and Scholar Association, the Thai Student Organization and the Korean Student Association, also featured samplings of food that represented their countries.

 

Stephanie Dybsky, a graduate student at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, helped represent her group, Students for Africa, at a booth at Festival of Nations. The group sold re-useable metal water bottles to support two grassroots, non-profit organizations, Support Africa Foundation International (SAFI) and Leadership Institute of New Sudan (LIONS), both of which are Denver and Africa-based empowerment organizations. Stephanie said she was “proud to represent an African presence at the festival.”

This year’s Festival of Nations featured a number of wonderful performances including Mexican dancing, a Kung Fu demonstration and an electrifying rendtion of Pakistani dancing.

This year’s Festival of Nations was an overwhelming success for the clubs and and organizations that planned and participated in the event and for those from DU and the Denver community who attended! 

Already looking forward to next year's Festival of Nations! 

Snow day!

PhotosbyLawlor.com

Does it look like a winter wonderland?  Don’t be fooled, it’s actually March 24^th and Colorado is the on the brink of spring.  However, spring snow is not a rare event.  We get a fair amount of our annual snow fall in the months of March and April.  That’s why spring skiing is amazing!  There’s a lot of fresh powder but the temperature is warmer making for more enjoyable days on the mountain!

PhotosbyLawlor.com

Yesterday, the front range region received anywhere between 10 to 20 inches of snow, giving many of us a snow day – including DU!  I’m sure some of students chose to use this time to hit the mountains and enjoy the fresh power, while some others may have chosen to snuggle up in doors with a movie and some hot chocolate.  Either way, there probably weren’t very many students working on homework as this was the first week of the third quarter after the spring break.

PhotosbyLawlor.com

 I hope they enjoy their unexpected day off because we will surely be back in session tomorrow.  The sun is already out, busy melting the snowfall from the previous night.  That’s the beauty of spring snow storms in Colorado.  We may get a lot of snow one day, but usually by the next, the sun’s back, the temperature warms up and everything is melted and gone within a few days.  So to everyone in Colorado – enjoy the day off and for those of you out-of-state, I hope you got a kick out of the quirkiness of our weather!

Nashwa Bolling, Assistant Director of Budget and Analysis

Hockey playoffs and spring break begin

As students are finishing up their finals this week and getting ready for spring break plans, our hockey team is gearing up for the first playoff game tonight against Michigan Tech.  We are currently ranked #1 in the country and plan to prove that in every game along our way to the championship!  Check their site for all the latest stats.

Senior hockey player Tyler Ruegsegger spoke with DU Today last week and answered questions submitted on Facebook and Twitter - check it out here.

Go Pioneers!

Emily Forbes, Director of Communication

DU's Haiti Relief Efforts

After the devasting news about the earthquake in Haiti, the University of Denver quickly began organizing campus-wide efforts designed to raise money for relief efforts as well as educate the community about the country's history and present day challenges.  DU PhD candidate Figaro Joseph, a native of Haiti, has shared knowledge about his country to help give context to the devasting effects from the earthquake. 

Students Jess Hunter and Jason Lundberg helped unite many clubs in their efforts to rally together to raise funds - you can check out the progress here.

 

 

As a campus community we continue to engage with the progress in Haiti and will keep finding ways to use our position as an institution of higher education to bring about lasting change in this country.

Reading Season

As we're all in our offices, busy reading files, we have to occasionally take a break and laugh at some good YouTube videos.  We all joke that our admission office really should have our own mini-series that is a cross between Glee, Brothers and Sisters, and Heroes..so maybe this video could be our intro.  Enjoy!

 

 

Emily Forbes, Assistant Director of Admission

~Diversity Summit, keeping DU headed in the right direction~

As I am sitting down after DU’s 8^th annual Diversity Summit, something hits me…

 

 The fact that there has been a steady gradual  increase in participants (50% increase from last year) is very promising. But more so is the responsibilities that our current students have assumed in helping organize, facilitate and in a lot of cases taking initiative in the various different breakout sessions we had a pleasure of choosing from. I have always been a firm believer in a couple of things. 1) actions speak louder than words and 2) you should always leave a place better off than when you found it. From recruiting these kids to now seeing them as presenters and co-facilitators in creating awareness of the importance of treating everyone as equals while embracing other peoples' differences, cultures, viewpoints and respecting that in the form of inclusive excellence is quite refreshing!

 

Mamta Motwani, the keynote speaker to kick-off The Diversity Summit, did a masterful job in defining the differences in polyculturalism and multiculturalism stating that “Multiculturalism implies that societies exist and develop in relation to one another, but not with one another. Polyculturalism rejects ideas that cultures are fixed and exist simply side-by-side, to embrace the overlap between”.  Simply put, we have to learn to co-exist with one another and respect one another and realize that in many different ways somehow, someway we are inter-related, interconnected. I always tell people that there really is only one race, the human race! Dr. Motwani also made reference to diversity being a bowl of fruit. Within the bowl lies different fruits and we each have a responsibility to examine how you take care of the fruits, i.e. how you would treat bananas, grapes, pears, etc… Social justice is essentially how you treat these things equally but differently based on what they need.  Blueberries need to go in the fridge and bananas can stay out on the counter. Same with students.

 

In shaping and understanding our enrollment goals we consider many things, but the most important aspect is to create and cultivate an environment in the classroom where students are learning from one another.  This is a particularly rich experience when interacting with others who have differenent religious points of views, political views, upbringing, perspectives, ethnicity, etc. We welcome that and feel that the whole DU community benefits at the end because of this inclusive and welcoming environment.

 

So overall the 8^th Annual Diversity Summit was definitely beneficial for the whole DU community and I look forward to next year with the excitement of seeing how much progress we will make for next year.

 

Wahhab Carter

University of Denver

Associate Director for Multicultural Recruitment

Festival of Nations

One of our favorite annual campus events, the Festival of Nations, took place on Saturday, April 11^th… and it was a huge success! The festival, first launched over 25 years ago as a way to celebrate the diversity of our campus, is one of the largest events on campus. It is also completely organized by students who partner with the International Student Organization. This year, participants representing DU students from over 90 countries took over the Driscoll Center for an afternoon of food, fun and entertainment.  Lidia Zurek, president of the International Student Organization said “The food was delicious, the arts, crafts, and jewelry for sale was stunning, and the performances were unbelievable!”

 

At least 2,000 people attended and took part in sampling exotic food and drink from over 25 booths staffed by students and non-profit groups from all over the world. This year’s festival also left little to be desired in the realm of entertainment – more than 10 different groups put on amazing performances for the festival-goers. Associate Dean Marjorie Smith said “The audience was treated to many instrumental and vocal performances, as well as a Chinese dragon dance!”

 

From Indian dances to Korean bulgogi to Indonesian Batik textiles, the Festival of Nations was a stellar success for all involved. Make sure to attend next year if you missed it this time around!

Office of International Admission