Personal Narrative: A Career As A Diversity Officer

Yantee Slobert, Director, Office of Multicultural Affairs and Diversity Programs, St. John Fisher College came to class to talk about is job and how he got there. We as a class talk about what is diversity and what means to be respectful to the other. Yantee first began with the name game. This was interesting because most people when doing a typical ice breaker, have no purpose besides “breaking the ice”. Yantee did this ice breaker to show the commonality within each other and build a foundation on that commonality. This is key for a diversity officer because if you cannot establish common ground, you cannot have any conversation. Conversation is a step in the right direction. A conversation can lead to tolerance. Tolerance though is the bare minimum, Yantee explained. Yantee said what would it be like if people just tolerated you. The class responded, “The bare minimum”. Yantee said that his goal was to plant the seed of tolerance and cultivate it so that it turns into empathy and respect for the …show more content…
He is driven and wants to make a real difference in the world, as do I. The past two presentations from Dr. Holmes and Yantee have shown me that Higher Education is not for those who do not have thick skin. Sometimes, you will sometimes have to face great adversity when trying to implement programs or trying to be a part of the community. The biggest challenge I foresee in this chosen career path of becoming a diversity officer is that I am a white cisgendered male. My identity will affect how I am perceived in the student body, especially minority groups. What I have learned though from Yantee’s presentation is that I must show that I truly care about everyone in the community and that I want to help the community in the right way rather than giving things that the community does not need. I know this path I have chosen will be a hard one, but this does not discourage, instead it drives