on names: post-MLI musings from an SRP perspective

"כל זמן שאדם מרבה במצות הוא קונה שם טוב לעצמו, את מוצא שלשה

שמות נקראו לו לאדם, אחד מה שקוראים לו אביו ואמו, ואחד מה שקוראין

לו בני אדם ואחד מה שקונה הוא לעצמו, טוב מכולן מה שקונה הוא לעצמו"

"Every time a person increases zhirs good deeds, zhir earns zhirselves a new name. There are three names by which a person is called: one which zhirs parents call zhir, one which people call zhir, and one which zhee earn for zheeself. The last is the best one of all" (Midrash Tanhuma, Parshat Vayakhel 1; from http://on1foot.org/, Jewish texts for social justice; edited for gender neutrality).

This immediately begs the question, what do we call ourselves? We spent a lot of time at MLI discussing naming. Even before the program started, we went through a few abrupt name-shifts before finally deciding on the Multicultural Leadership Institute. From a leadership perspective, the name MLI only came to signify something for me when it was endowed with life when all of the students arrived and we build the community that MLI would eventually become for all of us. At first, the acronym MLI suggested to me the "my life is average" website where anonymous contributors submit few-sentence-fables about their foibles and mishaps, or purely mundane experiences, that result in what they consider "average." It raised the question for me, and perhaps for many of us, what my life is.

Of course, the first thing we did was introduce ourselves. We proceeded to have in-depth diatic encounters where we discussed the history and meaning of our name as it relates to our personal histories and family heritages. Using storytelling as a way to foster dialogue was a major part of MLI. The next step was engaging in discussions about issues of multiculturalism-- some of us, for the first time. If we didn't discover anything new about ourselves, we certainly did about our community; both the intimate MLI community and the new, larger "microcosm" of the Haverford student body. What can we do with this information?

We will immediately sort it under somewhat arbitrary categories... titles... naming. It is nearly impossible for me to separate my identity as white Jew from my identity as a woman who benefits from a specific set of privileges, but still, we will try. One of the threads we were trying to weave through MLI programming was the overlapping and intersecting nature of multiple identities. These names are never conclusive. There are no easy conclusions to draw... except, perhaps that continuing these discussions is the best way to process our identities, histories and influences.

We printed tshirts saying "my life is" with blank lines. The intention was that over the course of MLI, each participant could recognize different parts of zhir identity and ultimately be able to fill in some of these blanks. Certainly, none of these students are average. They brought, as Dean Tensuan of the OMA would say, "a specific set of extraordinary capabilities." What do we call these traits?

I can only speak for myself when I draw these conclusions.

My life is full of wonderfully rich communities.

My life is connected to the Earth and the wonderful vegetables and grains that grow from it.

My life has taken me to unbelievable opportunities.

My life is learning what it means to be a feminist.
My life is being silly and ridiculous; and also being taken seriously.
My life is adventurous, inward and outward.

My [adult] life has only just begun.

Filling in these blanks is the process of coming into ourselves, continually renaming ourselves, and getting our footing in our new college selves. Welcome to Haverford, one last time, dazzling freshpeople.

MLI scenes

pictures taken by MLI student Alex Love

Day 2 of MLI

Well technically, it's the morning of Day 3 but I am already awake with excitement after yesterday.

I heard Sunday night there was a lot of consumption of communal food and playing of board games in Diversity House. Luckily, it seems like people still got time to sleep.

We kicked off the day with our Class Workshop; not an easy way to start. SRPs read aloud 8 narratives I had gathered from Haverford students throughout the 3 years I have been here. Each was a story that addressed an experience a student had with socioeconomic class on Haverford's campus. MLI students then talked about these stories and even thought of ways they themselves could be more aware of socioeconomic class. With this workshop, we have begun the emotional bag packing and unpacking. I know personally I see all feelings associated with this topic: anger, shame, guilt, confusion... But these feelings all had two sides and it was interesting to see those angry at others or angry at themselves. Guilty of their wealth instead of shameful for lack of wealth. These were important cross sections to building our MLI community.

We then moved into MLI's third workshop: privilege. A lot of what we dealt with in class came into play here and students got to experience a great, but sometimes rather difficult, exercise called "Crossing the Line." Students were read statements about privilege and got to physically process these by moving away from the initial line they started at. Almost all students were surprised by things they did not know were privileges or at how their privilege is relative.

After a nice lunch of grilled cheese courtesy of our amazing Dining Center staff, we had our last workshop of the day which regarded race, heritage, culture and ethnicity. Students explored these definitions and what their own ethnic groups meant to them. Haverford is a rather diverse school and it was important to have a difficult conversation like this before the entire community moves in. It was enriching to hear students own stories about their heritage and also eye opening to hear about student's own ethnic communities.

I look forward to our topics today: Gender, Sexuality and Leadership. I was a Gender Studies major and always enjoy this topic as most students have had little experience with talking about precarious subjects like gender and sexual orientation. Leadership is our last workshop as it answers the question "now what?" Students get to think about what they will do with all this knowledge and shared experience and how this will translate to the burgeoning leadership opportunities at Haverford.

-Julia

Leaning into MLI...

The night before the opening of Multicultural Leadership Institute, I was in a black box studio on the third floor of the Plays and Players theater for a showcase of performances of work by playwrights who had taken part in the Philadelphia Theater Workshop's year-long residency.  Two of resident fellows presented outtakes from their plays-in-progress;  the third wanted us to share in his creative process by engaging in a group activity that started with us sitting in a circle, holding up objects that we had with us that had great personal significance, and ended with groups of audience members giving three minute performances in which we were supposed to use our objects as the only props, and for which we could only use words that were from random pages of a script that the playwright had worked on throughout the year. Oh, and we had seven minutes to get our act together.

I am someone who as, an audience member, absolutely hates having the fourth wall broken, and found myself oscillating between fear and resentment at being coerced into having to take part in the activity, even as I discovered that the process created a good sense of community in an audience of complete strangers, and that the performances themselves had many moments of humor, pathos, and grace.  Still, I had to complain to someone about it during the reception afterwards, and I told one of my new friends that I was hoping to have a spot of time to unwind after several weeks of preparation for this upcoming week of new student orientations, and hey, this is the kind of thing I do at work.

Then I had to laugh at myself, because I realized that just about twelve hours later I would be asking people whom I had never met before to engage in a series of activities and processes that would ask them to speak openly about their values, identities, and visions to a group of total strangers....and to make a visual representation of aforesaid identities using, among other things, styrofoam plates.

And I am amazed and humbled by how openly people were speaking about their histories, convictions, families, communities, desires, obsessions, talents, struggles, hopes, faith, and dreams.  It gave me an incredible charge to look around the room and see an extraordinary group of people who could, among other things, form an exceptional marching band, do an installation at Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery using things found in a wastebasket, create a collective summer internship in Appalachia through the CPGC, choreograph a dance to the theme music from Beverly Hills 90201, and walk into complete new and strange situations with openness, insight, and spirit. 

And, perhaps most importantly, I found someone that I might actually be able to beat one-on-one on the basketball court.

Theresa Tensuan
Dean of Multicultural Affairs/Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs

Day 1 of MLI from a Co-Head Perspective

Hi all,

Wanted to kick off this blog officially. I am hoping students, faculty and Student Resource People (SRPs) will post as well. Pictures are encouraged!

As the Co-Head of our first Multicultural Leadership Institute (MLI) it has been more than fun preparing for the program. However, not as fun as watching all the students move in today. I am finally sitting at home after a long day but my cheeks hurt from smiling so much! It is great to see 30 freshmen come together to discuss issues of multiculturalism and at the end of to program, bring what they have learned to the rest of the Haverford community. The energy is palpable, the passion is electrifying, and the bond is being built.

After move in and maybe some tearful goodbyes to family, we launched the program with our first workshop of many: Multiple Identities, Capacities and Intelligences. Students shared through writing, speaking and even creating art the parts of themselves that make up their identities. I was struck by the way people were so open to new ideas and to one another. Some of the comments, written words and artwork wowed me in their depth as well as their message. There are so many strong and captivating characteristics that this group holds. I can already tell that this well be a really meaningful experience to all involved.

The students are now finishing dinner and unpacking. Diversity House, a new community house at Haverford, is having students over to hang out and eat some snacks. While I hope they have fun, I also hope they will be ready for all our workshops tomorrow which discuss class, race and privilege!

Please keep reading about this amazing program and how amazing the students are that make up our newest leaders at Haverford!

-Julia Esquivel
Assistant Director of Admission