During Welcome Week, on Monday, August 31, the Stockton freshman and transfer students attended the Diversity Presentation event held by Sam Offer, a member of the Washington Consulting Group. The main aim of the event was to address the importance of diversity and acceptance of one another.

The first thing Offer asked the students to do was to form groups of threes and discuss whether their high schools had a diverse community and what they thought about it. Then he asked a couple of students to share these experiences with everyone in the room. After that, he told us to describe what it feels like to be in a diverse community.

Before asking further questions, Offer shared his own experience about how he was different and what struggles he faced. He told us that he is African American, Christian, and gay, and when he came out to his family, they immediately cut ties with him. Even though he hasn’t seen them in years, he still didn’t give up on them and did what he could do to reunite with them.

After sharing his experience, Offer asked the students questions about their differences such as religion, race, sexual orientation, economic class, family history, struggles, illnesses and etc. He told the students to answer by either standing up or raising hands and to look around for others similar to them. However, if anyone felt uncomfortable answering a certain question, they didn’t have to answer. Offer then asked the students to describe how they felt in one word after answering these questions. A few answers were  relaxed, accepted, and empowered.

I personally believe that this event was mandatory for a reason. Diversity is not only present at Stockton but around the globe. I believe that by learning about diversity and to accept each other, regardless everyone’s differences, during college years is a perfect way to prepare for life after graduation.

Tasbeeh Muhamed