Students will have foundational knowledge of what diversity is.
Students will become aware of the diversity that exists among their peers in this class.
Students will understand how their own backgrounds, identities, and unique perspectives contribute to the diversity of the group.
Students will become more familiar with their classmates through communication and collaboration.
Students will experience how diversity is important to collaborative work by producing more possible outcomes/solutions.
In the first few weeks of class, my instructor and I had noticed that our COR students had been relatively quiet before, during, and after class. They did not talk to each other much, and few participated in class discussions. From this, I theorized that the students could be having difficulties making friends and feeling connected to the college community.
I empathized with my COR students because as a freshman myself, I was very homesick. I only started to feel more comfortable at Cortland when I made lasting friendships with others. I recognized that for my COR students, making friends was even harder this semester because of additional restrictions on in-person learning, sports, and campus events. I wanted to design a lesson that gave students a chance to form connections that could blossom into valuable friendships at college at a time when these opportunities were severely limited.
I decided to take a diversity-centered approach to this goal because I realized how this lens would give more depth and purpose to both the ice-breaker and diversity aspects of the lesson. Students would be able to understand the concept of diversity more thoroughly by seeing how it exists among their peers. And, ice-breaker activities that focused on diversity would allow students to connect and relate to their peers on a deeper level, one that explores backgrounds and identities (rather than favorite foods or colors, as traditional ice-breaker activities often do).
Additionally, diversity and inclusion are topics that I am educated in and passionate about, so I felt like my COR students could benefit from sharing the knowledge I have acquired on the subject.
It is especially important for first-year students to understand the concept of diversity because these students come to SUNY Cortland from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Depending on where a student comes from, SUNY Cortland may be the most diverse place they have experienced, or the least. In any case, it is important for these students to have an accurate understanding of diversity in order to fully appreciate the value and benefits of a diverse space such as Cortland. At a campus like Cortland where the term "diversity" is commonplace, it is important for students to understand that it's not just a buzzword used to make Cortland sound better. Students must understand what diversity actually looks like and how they themselves contribute to the diversity of a space in order to internalize the value of a diverse student population.
The other component of the lesson focused on ice-breaker activities because is imperative for first-year students to establish a sense of belonging and community at college. It has been established that feeling a part of a community has a "significant positive influence" on first-year students' decisions to return to college (Jacobs and Archie). With restrictions on activities like clubs and sports (which help foster students' feelings of community in a normal semester), I hoped that giving my first-year students an opportunity to get to know their peers in COR would help cultivate a feeling of togetherness that would strengthen their desire to return to college next semester.