While attending Slippery Rock University, a predominantly White institution in Pennsylvania, Justin L. Brown found that his peers displayed “micro-aggressive” behavior and didn’t know how to act toward people of color, since it was typically their first exposure to minority students.
“I started this program to give students the opportunity to engage in dynamic discussion through the facilitation of activities and games so we can all talk about different people’s backgrounds, races, religions, sexuality and cultures without feeling shameful or having a negative paradigm where individuals didn’t feel comfortable having these dynamic discussions,” says Brown, who created the Diversity Awareness Program (D.A.P.) as a sophomore in 2008.
The program’s mission statement is “to promote diversity and cultural awareness in all aspects of life to students, faculty and staff on the university campuses, through active engagements of discussions on social trends, issues and ideas.”
There are two different types of workshops that D.A.P. offers to colleges and universities: the program implementation workshop and the diversity training workshop. The program implementation workshop is three hours and 30 minutes long and focuses on creating a chapter of D.A.P. at a higher education institution or place of work. The diversity training workshop is a 90-minute session that addresses what it means to be culturally aware by allowing staff and students to participate in diversity activities, cultural unity scenarios and role playing.
Brown says the workshops are high-energy and dynamic. A typical diversity training workshop has students and staff participating in 10 to15 activities in small and large group settings. Each activity explores fundamental concepts related to diversity.
“The main thing that I think I emphasize [in the presentations] is that we’re all responsible for our own knowledge, meaning that there are two sides to every story,” he says. “I want everyone to be able to exercise those options, to be able to choose what’s the truth for them, but they need to be able to make sure they have all the options available and have truly explored all of the options.”
Randi N. Ferguson, assistant director of the Educational Opportunity Fund Program at Rutgers University–Camden, decided to host a D.A.P. presentation after enjoying a condensed version of Brown’s presentation at a National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) conference at Rowan University.
