LeadStrong Diversity Leadership Retreat – Student Reflections
What have you learned about yourself or others as a result of this experience?
 Many organized behavior
 Not take things for granted
 Our differences, but yet how similar we all are
 I’ve learned that others are open minded
 Where I stand I relation to others
 I definitely appreciate what I have now and I want to thank my parents
 Don’t judge people and just be aware of everyone around you
 I learned how it feels to be someone else
 Not to be judgmental, accept others as they are
 That I should work more on school because I am only 1% of the world
 I learned and saw proof of the people with different backgrounds
 We are who we are. Whether we are poor, rich, lower in status, etc. we should
appreciate ourselves
 There is so much diversity even among my close friends that isn’t apparent on the
outside
 How different our backgrounds are
 I made new relationships with people I hadn’t really interacted with before
 My ignorance is not a good thing. Awareness fixes things
 I realized that no matter how underprivileged I may feel, there’s others worse off
than myself
 There are so many unique people in this group and we all come from different
backgrounds
 I’ve learned a lot, actually, especially to understand that people are diverse and
that you should realize and embrace these differences
 I learned that I’m not the only one who feels that diversity is important
 How naïve I am
 People in leadership positions are all of different backgrounds
 I have learned I want to be more diverse in my knowledge about cultures
 We have a lot of similarities as well as differences
 That I can help our campus grow in many ways
 Be open and listen
 That I’m pretty lucky to be where I am at today
 Nothing I didn’t learn in elementary school
 We have a variety of differences…you have o admit biases and prejudices of our
own
 I’m lucky and blessed I am and how you can not judge a book by its cover
 That I am not proactive enough- not confident
 Cross cultural communication
 Even if it doesn’t change in one day, it’s worth it, some people do try to embrace
diversity
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That so many people at school come from different places and surroundings that
come to such a small school
I made more friends and in turn became open
That I am really open minded for the other cultures beliefs
Everyone is different and comes from various backgrounds, perspective
determines how and where you put yourself and shapes your attitude
We are all different but shave so much
Diversity is beautiful
That a lot of people are interested in getting diversity to our campus
I learned that our campus is a lot more diverse than I thought and that we all have
many talents and abilities to share with one another
Everyone is open and wants to help diversity
That there are more people at CLU who care about this (diversity) than I thought
I have learned about leadership traits and how to be a leader, respect
Many different backgrounds compose CLU
I am discriminated for my gender, I don’t really feel it but lots of other girls do
I learned a lot about the various backgrounds of students at CLU
I learned a lot but it wasn’t “painful” in a lecture style but I learned things in the
scenarios without realizing it
I am very hesitant to voice my opinion when I am not confident of my knowledge
on the subject at hand
I’ve learned that even though I consider myself open-minded I still have
prejudices of my own
We are all loving people, just need to check in sometimes
Uneasy about speaking in large groups
That I have some work to do on expecting other people to understand where I’m
coming from before telling them about myself- people aren’t mind readers
Even though we have different backgrounds we all need an equal opportunity of
excelling and achieving the best in life
I’ve learned that some issues relating to diversity make me uncomfortable
because I’m not very knowledgeable about many issues- but I’ve learned ways to
improve that and I’m looking forward to expecting that
There’s both more and less diversity than we think. I am more aware than I
thought and more educated than others
That everyone is different and we need to come together
There are many people on this campus as concerned about improving diversity on
our campus as I am
Not much. Most of the information was not new. It was nice to have discussions
with other participants and know they face the same frustrations that I do at CLU
I’ve become culturally aware, and also aware of issues that need to be addressed
on campus
I learned that I have more prejudices then I had originally believed
I’ve learned that everybody no matter what race has struggle in their life
The value of tolerance and acceptance
Myself and others have many biases
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‘To be more respectful toward others and realized that if a would be that I could
learn a lot about myself and we would accomplish more as a group
 We are all alike and different in so many ways, which makes us all wonderful
 I learned that there are others in my situation that are not of my race
 I learned how privileged and somewhat biased I am. I learned a lot of people feel
the same as me.
 I learned that we are all the same no matter what background we come from
 How to include diversity through programming
 That those who actually prosper are those of the powerful families but know your
sources
 Problems can be solved without violence
 Many white students fear interacting with those who are different than them, and
visa verse
 I learned to be more acceptable to others’ views and really take into consideration
their story
 Being open-minded and aware is key
 There are many differences among similar people
 Be open to others’ ideas and beliefs that are around me
 That we do have a problem on this campus
How will this retreat enhance your ability to lead on a diverse campus?
 Take risks and step out
 Hope to work with other organizations like the RA’s to put together great
functions
 Will be able to bring diversity into my leadership skills
 Know others perspectives
 Definitely be more aware of my language and others
 Can accept others better without judging
 I’m more aware so I can make more change
 To be more proactive
 It will help a lot in the future to become a strong leader
 Have everything we learned in mind and share it with others
 It taught me a lot bring into certain situations on campus
 Be more open to interacting with others
 The skills I learned here withhold and carry over to school
 Make me think more about my actions
 It will help me approach students and get out of my comfort zone
 More diverse programs
 I will definitely remember the things I learned today
 I can share with various people
 It really opened my eyes to the uniqueness of the school and how different people
are
 I’ll be more aware
 Make me feel much more at ease in knowing that others want diversity as well
 I will have more allies to help me spread today’s messages
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It will help me spread what I learned today to the people who couldn’t be here
I met a lot of people that I am now more comfortable talking too
It will help me focus on ethnicity more
Encourage diversity on this more than usual
It won’t, don’t make it mandatory, it just makes us resent coming!
It has motivated me further to step outside my comfort zone and maybe go to
some club meetings like BSU, LASO, etc.
To appreciate others differences and to make an effort to connect
Meet new diverse people and connections were made
Stronger, more proactive person/leader
Ability to interact freely
Don’t know
It will help me to continue my efforts in improving diversity coming together and
making others welcome
Be more open minded and excited to spread the word
I will be more comfortable and I will be able to take charge on leadership
Understanding of others thoughts and opinions
About the same as before, because I already do
Understanding and addressing sensitivities of different cultures
By having more confidence to lead people towards diversity
The retreat helped me to see the importance of being aware of others. I will take
greater responsibility to more inclusive
Welcome more people and talk to those I meet today
It had refreshed my perspectives
It will help me to reach out to other students, know how to create activities on
campus that can make our campus more diverse
It gave me some good ideas about programming
Be aware of others thoughts
It has made me aware of the seriousness of the lack of integration at CLU
Make me more aware, more desire to take chances
I will more aware of the thoughts and perspectives of minority students
I think I’ll be better able to address issues as I them arise
I am not alone, I have a different perspective that is much needed at CLU
It helps me to remember that diversity is not just by race or ethnicity
Know how to approach people in a less offensive manner, know how to embrace
diversity
It has made me so much more aware that I’m not the only one who things a
certain way and that so many others on this campus are as excited as I am to learn
about differences, than we can all learn from each other
Not too much, it was like an intro course when many of us could have facilitated
such a retreat. To be effective for the self selecting attendees of such trainings, we
need to go more in depth and be give realistic applications and examples of how
to implement them
It will make it better to enhance experience on campus
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Knowing more people and knowing more about people can help me network
This retreat has encouraged me to be a stronger leader and to speak up about
issues I have with diversity and the awareness of it.
I will be more willing to step out of my comfort zone even if it is a smile towards
a stranger
I will try to sit with someone outside my race
Made me more aware, more familiar
Give me a broader perspective on different people’s lives and how to react
towards them
Maybe make me step out from my safety box
Break down barriers
By learning to take others opinion into consideration when talking about issues
This will help me cross cultural barriers
It introduced me to other people on campus; this would be a good program for all
freshmen to participate in before school begins.
Gave me insight and great ideas on how to include diversity in my activities
Learn to keep quiet be careful what you say
In unwritten ways
I will be more open
It made me not just think of what I can do but want to take action
Connects me to others that are interested in taking diversity awareness back to
campus
Opened my eyes and shown ways to connect
Make a better person
I don’t think it will, just made me more aware