Initiative 7 - Educating for Diversity

This is a college-wide initiative that awards mini-grants to support a variety of activities that engage students and the collegewide community in discussing issues of social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, such as the Veladas Hostosianas/Hostos Culture Talks, Black at Hostos series, lectures, symposia, and forums.

Grant awards range from $1,000 - $2,000 and requests for funding can address any of the following:

• Integration of events/activities to support course/curriculum enhancement in any major/discipline.
• Activities/events that support all forms of diversity, equity, and inclusion such as race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith, disability, and any others proposed by the college community.
• Veladas Hostosianas/Hostos Culture Talks.
• Black at Hostos series.
• Activities celebrating our different world cultures and heritage months.

• The first Hostos Interfaith Symposium and Luncheon featured several interfaith leaders who shed light on the core principles that resonate across different faiths, and who also discussed how their communities have come together to address community needs. A wonderful group of students also participated in our interfaith panel and shared their diverse faith experiences and how they have sought to grow in their understanding of others’ faith experiences.
• A three-part workshop series facilitated by the authors of the book “Silent Agreements,” Linda D. Anderson, Ph.D., Sonia R. Banks, Ph.D., and Michele L. Owens, Ph.D., focused on strengthening our community’s relationship-building practices. Participants examined the values, beliefs, biases, and unspoken expectations (“silent agreements”) that underly interactions with others, and learned strategies to improve self-awareness, communication of our intersectional identities, and healthy approaches to strengthen relationships in our work teams. 
• The Office of the President in collaboration with the Accessibility Resource Center, and Office of Educational Technology hosted a special training event to promote different practices and resources in support of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA). Faculty and staff were invited to learn more about accessible teaching strategies and tools that they can incorporate in their course materials to increase learning accessibility for all students. The event featured presentations by faculty and staff that addressed the benefits of applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) concepts to promote higher student engagement and positive learning outcomes.
• The Black at Hostos Town Hall series, a signature Hostos initiative born in response to student calls for social justice after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, held two forums that focused on the theme, Black Resistance in the Courts, in the Workplace, and in the Classroom. The first forum featured a special presentation by Mark Joseph Stern, a senior writer for Slate Magazine, that provided a critical analysis of key Supreme Court decisions and their impact on racial progress. The second forum featured the Amazon Labor Union co-founders Jordan Flowers and Gerald Bryson who discussed their work in forming the ALU, the resistance strategies they used to promote worker advocacy, and the vital importance of civic engagement in and out of the workplace.