Social Justice Ambassador Program
The Intercultural Center sponsors a social justice education training program. In its third year, the Social Justice Ambassador program is a nine session program in the fall and three in the spring that invites participants from different backgrounds and experiences to come together to explore issues of social justice. The Social Justice Ambassador Program aims to assess some of the ways societal structures perpetuates privilege and oppression through institutions and individuals. The format of the program will be weekly meetings and consist of group discussions, interactive activities, presentations, and reflections. At the end of the program, ambassadors will be required to present in groups at the Social Justice Talk Back under Day of S.O.L.E on what they have learned and their project from the Social Justice Ambassador program.
Program Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of the Social Justice Ambassador program, Social Justice Ambassadors will be able to:
- Demonstrate a basic understanding of social injustices and inequities;
- Raise awareness of and have the ability to explore aspects of their own identity, culture, biases, etc.;
- Develop skills to respond to statements or acts of bias in a way that invites dialogue rather than debate or arguments; and
- Start to develop common concepts and language to meaningfully participate in conversations around identity and justice.
Social Justice Talk Back
Students will be provided a social justice journal at the beginning of the program. This journal will be used for students to complete their weekly prompt and is meant to support their journey through the program. After fall sessions, social justice ambassadors will lead a Social Justice Talk Back and share with the MMC community some take-aways from the program so far as well as introduce their intended service project for the spring. Social Justice Ambassadors will also contribute to the Humanities and Social Sciences blogpost about their experience in the program.
End of Year Service Project
In the End of Year Service Project, students are to find a real-world social justice issue that interests them, develop and complete a project that will aid in addressing that issue. Students will use and apply the lenses gained during the fall semester to develop their semester long projects. Capstone will be presented at Day of S.O.L.E.
Day of S.O.L.E. (Sharing Our Learned Experiences)
In tandem with other IC Programs, the Social Justice Ambassadors will lead a presentation on their End of the Year Service Project. This formal presentation will be open to the MMC community who will hear about how participants took what they learned in the program and applied it to better the MMC community with a social justice lens.