The Educating Students of Color Summit (ECOC) was a virtual event hosted on January 15th, 2022. Colorado College hosted the event. Local Colorado students of color helped to host the event. The mission of the nonprofit is “to dismantle the cradle-to-prison pipeline for children of color and children in poverty through education.” The summit was a day-long event that offered an array of workshops. I participated in three-hour-long breakout sessions: The Science of Happiness with Dr. Kimberly Dickman, Let Your Dreams Lead with Rick Reese, and Financial Literacy with Tyryn Rushrod. Before the breakout rooms, the president of Colorado College spoke and introduced Timothy Henderson who spoke about the intentions of the summit and about leading with purpose. He spoke about being a leader within any realm that you are in and focused on how to remove your emotions from important decisions for yourself and others. In watching his presentation, I thought about purposeful leadership from a global perspective. I concluded that purposeful global leadership is a powerful tool in the world.
My first breakout session was the science of happiness. This was my favorite session. The presenter was very knowledgeable and catered to the audience of high school students. She explained the science behind gratitude, materialism, and savoring. What was new to my knowledge was that by savoring experiences as little as eating food, or breathing fresh air, your brain is able to wire itself to appreciate other things in your life such as relationships, classes, and perspectives. Towards the end of the presentation, Dickman connected her research to a global approach. She advocated for the science of happiness to be taught on a global scale because this increase in knowledge of happiness will and can promote happiness.
My second breakout room was with Rick Reese who outlined the equation for success as dreams plus hard work. He promoted the use of unknown resources to aid in accomplishing your dreams.
My last breakout room was with Tyryn Rushrod. I was looking forward to learning about financial literacy, however, Rushrod focused on financial capability. She described the importance of unlearning any possible misconceptions that surrounded your personal financial perspective. Although the presentation was not what I expected, Rushrod made a few good points about the risks that came with investments.
The summit ended with an award ceremony where I was awarded a $16,000 scholarship that I had applied for previously through the ECOC. The day itself was informative and exciting. I appreciated the diversity of the sessions and the different speakers.