Going into convocation, I did not really know what to expect. The whole freshman class had just completed reading Whistling Vivaldi by Claude Steele. The point of the book was to have people understand stereotype threat and how society could help diminish these stereotypes. A majority of the freshmen class piled into the PAC thinking they were just going to hear the same boring lecture we always have at these types of gatherings. Valerie Purdie-Vaughns walked out and immediately brought us into the conversation by having us talk. She included us into the conversation instead of just lecturing us.

She proceeded to talk about her research with Claude Steele and the experiments she had done. The conclusions that she came to were quite interesting to hear about and related much to the information that Whistling Vivaldi included. Valerie Purdie-Vaughns was very inspiring and strongly believed in what she was saying. She connected to her own life and her own college experiences to relate to us while teaching us how to reduce stereotype threat.

Convocation was a very memorable experience and I am grateful that the freshmen class was given an opportunity to have someone related to our common reading come and speak to us. Stereotype threat is a huge issue in our society and I think everyone should read Whistling Vivaldi and listen to the research by psychologists like Valerie Purdie-Vaughns.