By Megan Carradine/south news editor
People can be enriched if they diversify their lives, an education instructor said last week.
Altheria Gaston, education department chair, presented Enrich Your Life: Diversify, a WINR seminar, March 2 on South Campus.
Women seemed eager to discuss ways to diversify their lives as Gaston started the seminar with an experiment, “How Colorful Is Your Life?”
Each person was given string and different colored beads. The colors represented different nationalities. Gaston asked a series of questions that pertained to each individual.
“What nationality am I?” she asked first.
Students answered by taking the color bead that represented their nationality and placing it onto their string.
“What nationality is my significant other?” Gaston asked.
Students answered this question in the same manner.
Gaston then asked a few more similar questions.
“Now, look at your beads,” she said. “Does you necklace surprise you?”
Sophomore Portia Williams-Duncan said, “I am shocked at my beads. I didn’t notice that I did not interact with Native American people.”
Other students in the seminar believed their beads read the way they did because humans tend to gravitate to people like themselves.
Gaston said the experiment was designed to help people notice who they gravitate to, so that they can become more diverse.
Gaston explained the importance of being diverse.
“In the professional world, people need to be able to interact with all types of people, not just your own,” she said. “Diversifying your life will help you gain respect for others. It will expand your thinking … and eliminate ignorance.”
Freshman Armie Snarley agreed.
“The things we learned in this seminar can be helpful to those who are closed-minded,” she said.
“I hope everyone now understands becoming diverse is educational, and it is needed in order to get an understanding of who everyone is,” Gaston said. “I think this seminar went well, and I pray everyone will consider expanding their experiences with different people.”
