Becoming Inclusive

Jenny Nixon Author

10/29/2024 Added

3 Plays

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Dr. Helen Fagan talks about how to create an inclusive community. Recorded 10/6/2021.

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[00:00:00.240]We have a couple of fellows up here this last summer and we know some of the other communities
[00:00:08.660]had the opportunity to do that so part of that training was inclusiveness and things
[00:00:15.560]so very impressive for all of Nebraska and we've been used to it I guess so I thought
[00:00:23.680]That's what it's about today. So that's me and Mark.
[00:00:29.100]Awesome. Marla, would you introduce yourself?
[00:00:33.960]Absolutely. I'm Marla Marks. Sorry, you can't see my picture, but I have low bandwidth at home.
[00:00:40.360]I work for USDA Rural Development and I work in the business programs, which means I work with banks and businesses.
[00:00:51.440]And then I also get to work with communities on economic development. So a very fun job.
[00:00:57.440]Very good. Jeremy.
[00:01:00.360]Hi, everybody. I'm Jeremy Lipschultz. I am with the UNO Social Media Lab for Research and Engagement.
[00:01:07.660]And I'm a professor in the School of Communication, which is in the College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media.
[00:01:14.840]Very cool. Stacy.
[00:01:17.980]I'm Stacy Pafford.
[00:01:21.060]I am Director of Administrative Services with Phelps County Development Corporation in South Central Nebraska.
[00:01:27.440]Jamie.
[00:01:29.640]You're on mute.
[00:01:37.840]You're on mute, Jamie.
[00:01:41.100]Okay, we'll try again.
[00:01:44.900]My computer is lagging, so I hit the button twice.
[00:01:48.400]I'm Jamie Bright.
[00:01:50.840]I'm with SourceLink Nebraska, and I am located in Kimball.
[00:01:54.500]Cool.
[00:01:55.840]Thank you.
[00:01:57.040]Shelby.
[00:01:57.540]Yeah, hi, good morning.
[00:02:01.180]My name is Shelby Reagan.
[00:02:02.120]I started this summer with Holt County Economic Development up here in O'Neill as the new executive director.
[00:02:07.020]Very nice.
[00:02:09.060]Ron.
[00:02:10.520]Good morning.
[00:02:12.840]I'm Ron Tillery.
[00:02:14.080]I'm the executive director for Phelps County Development Corporation.
[00:02:17.240]We're in Holdridge, Nebraska.
[00:02:20.620]So looking forward to your presentation.
[00:02:22.500]Thank you.
[00:02:23.760]Star.
[00:02:25.400]Hi, I'm Star Lael.
[00:02:30.740]I'm the economic development director for the city of Scotts Bluff.
[00:02:33.660]Also looking forward to the presentation.
[00:02:35.900]Hi, Star.
[00:02:37.540]How about Brianna?
[00:02:40.780]Good morning, everyone.
[00:02:46.340]I'm sorry my camera isn't on.
[00:02:48.100]I'm also traveling today.
[00:02:50.400]But my name is Brianna Wirth.
[00:02:51.280]I am the Valentine Economic Development Coordinator.
[00:02:53.520]I work alongside Mike Burge.
[00:02:55.620]And I am placed here on behalf of AmeriCorps and LEAD for Nebraska.
[00:03:00.800]I've had the chance to listen to Helen speak at our Nebraska Fellows Conference in early August.
[00:03:06.840]So I'm so excited to hear her again.
[00:03:08.580]Brianna, I'm so glad you're in Valentine.
[00:03:12.060]I'm looking forward to seeing all the great things you're going to do there.
[00:03:16.000]Thank you so much.
[00:03:17.940]So, Helen.
[00:03:20.340]That's our list.
[00:03:20.980]I want you to go ahead and take it away.
[00:03:23.080]All right.
[00:03:24.200]Sounds great.
[00:03:25.060]Well, I'm going to share a little bit about my background because it will help you to
[00:03:31.220]understand why this information or this content is so important to me and how I have taken
[00:03:37.700]my personal experience, my professional work, and woven it into my teaching and my research
[00:03:44.980]and now what I'm doing with engagement across Nebraska.
[00:03:48.320]So for those of you...
[00:03:50.280]For those of you who don't know me, I'm originally from Iran.
[00:03:53.260]I was born and raised in southwestern Iran and actually I come from a rural part of Iran
[00:04:00.280]in the southwest of Iran.
[00:04:01.640]Heavy oil and gas exploration and exportation.
[00:04:05.340]My father was in charge of export oil for the National Iranian Oil Company and so when
[00:04:11.240]I was 12 years old, my parents decided that my two brothers and I would move to England
[00:04:15.500]and that's when we began to learn to speak English.
[00:04:18.960]My parents' vision...
[00:04:20.220]My vision was that I would be educated in another country and then come back to Iran
[00:04:24.020]to be a leader like my father was, both my brothers and I.
[00:04:28.260]And so I had to learn English in one summer and it was a very difficult time because I
[00:04:34.160]was 12 years old and my parents' way of getting me to learn English was to put me in homes
[00:04:38.740]with different people.
[00:04:39.760]So not me, but me in one home, each one of my brothers in a different home.
[00:04:45.760]So during the summer for three months, I lived with a family and I didn't speak.
[00:04:50.160]English.
[00:04:50.700]I was learning it as I was going along.
[00:04:52.900]I would see my parents on the weekends and Monday through Friday.
[00:04:57.300]I lived with this, this British family and that's how I learned to speak English.
[00:05:01.260]And it was a really difficult time for me because not only was I away from my home country,
[00:05:06.940]what I knew to be normal, but I was also away from my parents.
[00:05:11.220]And so it began this process of, and that's when I began to feel like, oh, I'm an outsider.
[00:05:16.820]I don't fit in.
[00:05:17.820]I'm not like other people around here.
[00:05:20.140]Um, in 1979, because of immigration issues in England, my parents moved us to a boarding
[00:05:29.260]school in central Florida.
[00:05:30.840]That was September of 1979.
[00:05:33.220]And it was just north of Orlando, very rural community.
[00:05:38.180]You know, their claim to fame was the school building was originally a very private hotel
[00:05:44.740]for high profile guests.
[00:05:48.460]And Al Capone had stayed at that.
[00:05:50.120]And it had a private runway strip and all this stuff.
[00:05:53.500]And we knew the history of the school because it was on the school.
[00:05:57.000]The building was on the register in the county and all of that.
[00:06:01.020]And so it was a international boarding school, kids from all over the world.
[00:06:05.940]And this time, my parents had to drop us off in Florida.
[00:06:10.120]And then they had to go back to Iran because U.S. wouldn't give them visas to stay with us.
[00:06:15.060]Like my mom had stayed with us in England.
[00:06:17.380]So I was 15 and I was in this boarding school.
[00:06:20.100]And two months after I arrived, U.S. hostages were taken in Iran.
[00:06:25.420]If you're old enough to remember, a group of Iranian students attacked the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
[00:06:30.700]And they took 60-some Americans hostage for over 400 days.
[00:06:34.440]And so it was not a pretty time to be an Iranian.
[00:06:38.020]And I would say in many ways, it's still not a pretty time to be an Iranian in the United States.
[00:06:43.180]So for a long time, I wouldn't admit to where I was from.
[00:06:46.160]When people would ask me where I was from, I would always say, where do I look like I'm from?
[00:06:50.180]And people would guess Mexican, Greek, whatever it was, I was from there.
[00:06:54.300]That was my protection measure.
[00:06:56.420]And the dorm mom at that school felt bad for me because when the hostage crisis happened,
[00:07:05.260]all of the students, the Iranian students, were loaded up on a bus and we were taken to Orlando International Airport.
[00:07:11.700]And we had to report for immigration and we had to be interviewed.
[00:07:17.240]And then if everything was okay, then we could go.
[00:07:20.060]And then we got to come back.
[00:07:20.980]So again, it wasn't a pretty time and the Ku Klux Klan wanted us to know that we were not welcome in this country.
[00:07:28.880]And so that led to me hiding my identity even further.
[00:07:33.240]Which this is important because when we think of creating an inclusive community,
[00:07:38.680]if people have to hide a part of their identity in order to fit in,
[00:07:42.560]that influences their ability to feel like a member of a community.
[00:07:47.360]And so their opportunity to contribute.
[00:07:50.040]To helping the community thrive is limited.
[00:07:53.180]They're not able to contribute in that way.
[00:07:55.320]So long story short,
[00:07:57.300]I graduated from high school eight days after my 16th birthday.
[00:08:01.020]And oops, I missed a few pictures.
[00:08:04.360]I graduated from high school eight days after my 16th birthday.
[00:08:09.500]And I went actually to a community college.
[00:08:11.800]I think, who was it?
[00:08:13.780]That's from Marla.
[00:08:16.020]No, Paula.
[00:08:17.460]No, yes.
[00:08:20.020]Western Nebraska Community College, Paula.
[00:08:22.180]Yeah.
[00:08:23.040]So I went to a community college, was my first degree, and I got it by the time I was 18.
[00:08:27.960]Then I had no more money to go to school.
[00:08:30.520]And so I moved in with, I lived with the American family, my dorm mom and her family,
[00:08:37.100]while I was going to school, because I was a minor.
[00:08:39.700]My parents gave Louise Anderson the guardianship to help me.
[00:08:46.400]And so she recommended that I start working.
[00:08:50.000]And getting a job and start working and saving money for school.
[00:08:53.780]So I graduated from the community college.
[00:08:55.960]And then I was going to go to University of Central Florida in Orlando.
[00:08:58.720]And so I thought, OK, I'll get a job.
[00:09:01.180]So I started working at McDonald's.
[00:09:02.960]And I didn't know that it was against my visa to work there.
[00:09:07.320]And so a few months later, I got a letter from immigration that said I needed to come
[00:09:13.340]for a hearing.
[00:09:13.920]And so I had to report for hearing.
[00:09:17.040]And I was going to get deported because I was working.
[00:09:19.980]I was going to get deported because I was working.
[00:09:49.960]And so I had to report for hearing.
[00:09:50.080]And so I had to report for hearing.
[00:09:50.140]This guy I was dating, his name was Scott.
[00:09:52.500]I met him at McDonald's.
[00:09:53.700]He was working at McDonald's.
[00:09:54.680]I called him and I said, hey, Scott, I don't know what to do.
[00:09:59.600]I'm going to this immigration hearing.
[00:10:01.140]I said, my brother's told me I need to get married so I can stay in this
[00:10:05.400]country and I just have to pay an American.
[00:10:08.080]And Scott said, we don't have to pay me, but I'll marry you.
[00:10:11.360]And I started laughing because he was 17, I was 18.
[00:10:15.340]We worked at McDonald's.
[00:10:16.940]And I kept thinking in my mind, this isn't what my parents dreamt of with
[00:10:19.940]they brought me to this country.
[00:10:21.160]And so anyways, long story short, we got married.
[00:10:25.560]I became a Navy wife.
[00:10:27.280]We moved all over the country and eventually ended up in Lincoln, Nebraska.
[00:10:33.180]And I had no idea where Lincoln, Nebraska was.
[00:10:35.600]I was the head of, I worked in human resources for a company that owned 16 hospitals around
[00:10:42.760]the country.
[00:10:43.260]And I reported to the vice president of human resources who reported to the president of
[00:10:47.520]the company.
[00:10:48.020]And so.
[00:10:49.920]We had moved.
[00:10:51.120]Now, remember, we had moved lots of places.
[00:10:53.300]I'd lived in five different states around the country.
[00:10:55.880]So I'm just kind of speeding this up because I want to get to the core of what it is that
[00:11:01.120]inclusive community leaders do that's different.
[00:11:04.280]And so what I want to tell you is that two things happened that led me to want to do
[00:11:11.740]this work.
[00:11:12.280]First of all, was my father had a stroke, the worst kind of stroke you could possibly
[00:11:17.360]have that led to.
[00:11:19.900]His ability to comprehend any language other than Farsi.
[00:11:24.440]And when that happened, it was really devastating for our whole family.
[00:11:29.780]But I remember being in the hospital room with him one day and a nurse walked in and
[00:11:35.420]she's asking questions and I'm trying to understand and I'm interpreting for my father
[00:11:40.040]and then interpreting back to her what I thought I understood from my father that was going
[00:11:45.100]on with him.
[00:11:45.800]And she got so frustrated, she said under her breath, I wish they would learn to speak
[00:11:49.880]English, it would make our job so much easier.
[00:11:52.020]And when I heard that, it was like a dagger hit in my heart because this nurse had no
[00:11:57.440]idea that my father was multilingual before that, had no idea who he was or anything about
[00:12:03.720]him, but she was making an assumption based on just that little experience.
[00:12:07.880]And so I went back to work and I remember telling my boss, you know, this, why should
[00:12:15.540]this happen?
[00:12:16.080]This is terrible that this happened.
[00:12:17.640]If U.S. is the best healthcare.
[00:12:19.860]We can find in the world, this cannot happen here.
[00:12:22.720]And she said, Helen, do something about it.
[00:12:26.940]You're moving to Nebraska.
[00:12:28.420]You need to continue your education.
[00:12:30.320]You need to do something about this.
[00:12:31.980]And so I thought about it.
[00:12:34.960]And then three weeks after my father passed away, I became a citizen of the United States.
[00:12:40.160]And I remember the distinct freedom I felt in that because for the first time, since
[00:12:47.800]I was 12 years old, I no longer had.
[00:12:49.840]The anxiety and the worry that I was going to somehow get picked up by immigration and
[00:12:55.180]put in a prison or immigration jail and then sent back to Iran.
[00:13:00.260]So it was the first time since I was 12 years old that I felt this freedom.
[00:13:04.760]And with that freedom, I began to realize I can admit to being Iranian.
[00:13:08.440]So when we moved to Nebraska, I went back to school.
[00:13:11.900]I got another degree and I started the diversity and cultural competence programs at Bryan
[00:13:18.980]Health.
[00:13:19.820]And in that work, I helped with not only employment of diverse population, but also providing
[00:13:29.000]care to diverse populations, helped our organization, which was at that time more than 80 percent
[00:13:35.680]white.
[00:13:36.900]I mean, close to 90 percent, if I remember correctly, because this would have been early
[00:13:40.960]2000, 90 percent white.
[00:13:44.540]And and I remember thinking to myself, how do I tell?
[00:13:49.800]This population, that diversity is an important thing and get them to buy into this idea and
[00:13:55.300]that inclusion is an important part of our future and our organization and community's
[00:13:59.900]ability to succeed when that's what I am dealing with.
[00:14:03.320]But it was a really hard, hard job.
[00:14:06.260]And I did that for a number of years.
[00:14:08.620]And a situation happened that led me to want to research this.
[00:14:12.460]And this situation was such a powerful situation.
[00:14:15.900]We had a 12 year old boy that was hit by.
[00:14:19.780]A truck riding in his rural community.
[00:14:22.840]He was brought into Brian's trauma center.
[00:14:25.780]And when the family arrived after some, you know,
[00:14:30.460]doing everything they could to provide the best care to this poor child,
[00:14:35.220]the child was pronounced brain dead.
[00:14:37.260]And so the family, the chaplain that worked with this family.
[00:14:41.240]And you'll understand this here in just a minute.
[00:14:44.120]He was an adaptation. So remember the word adaptation.
[00:14:48.100]He was an adaptation. So.
[00:14:49.760]When, when the situation came up where we asked the family,
[00:14:53.320]if they would be willing to donate the organs of their son.
[00:14:56.200]He, because he was in adaptation,
[00:14:59.200]the way that he asked the question of this family shifted the direction of
[00:15:03.920]everything that happened with this situation.
[00:15:06.060]And you have to remember this is six years into me doing this work at
[00:15:10.400]Brian health. And so I had gone out around the city, around the state,
[00:15:14.640]and I'd worked with settling immigrants and refugees and getting them jobs
[00:15:18.260]and doing diversity.
[00:15:19.740]And so I had been working with people in our community as well as in our
[00:15:21.820]organization and whatever. And I had said, come to our hospital.
[00:15:25.780]We want to be the best care providers for you.
[00:15:28.120]And so when this request came in as a member of our ethics committee,
[00:15:33.920]I was involved in the decision-making around this.
[00:15:38.140]The family was asked if they would be willing to donate the organs of their
[00:15:42.100]son. And they said they would,
[00:15:44.100]if we would allow a family to member to be in the operating room at the time
[00:15:48.340]of the retrieval of the organs.
[00:15:49.720]And this was a huge no-no against our policy,
[00:15:54.540]but it wasn't against federal law and it wasn't against state law to allow a
[00:15:58.980]family member in the operating room. It was against organization policy.
[00:16:03.060]And our position had been,
[00:16:05.180]and me as a member of the ethics committee had been,
[00:16:07.820]if it's not against the law,
[00:16:09.600]we will do whatever we can to meet the cultural needs. Here's the thing.
[00:16:13.540]Our chaplain, because he was in adaptation, he said,
[00:16:17.480]help me understand what makes,
[00:16:19.700]what makes this important to you instead of saying,
[00:16:23.080]if he was in minimization where majority of people fall, instead of saying,
[00:16:27.280]I'm sorry, it's against hospital policy. And he would have been very polite.
[00:16:31.840]Either way, he would have been a kind, gentle man, wonderful,
[00:16:35.540]nothing about him,
[00:16:37.480]his demeanor would have shifted other than how he approached the situation
[00:16:42.600]and the problem solving the problem.
[00:16:44.500]He sought to understand before making them,
[00:16:49.680]understand. Does that make sense?
[00:16:51.640]And that's what inclusion where inclusion begins.
[00:16:54.540]We have the capacity as individuals to pause,
[00:16:58.060]to suspend our judgment of what we're hearing and to seek to understand the
[00:17:02.300]other person's perspective before we tell them what our perspective is.
[00:17:06.080]And so that's one of the core pieces that we see in inclusive leaders who make
[00:17:10.700]up inclusive communities.
[00:17:12.060]So when he asked that question, the family said, we're native Americans.
[00:17:17.680]We believe the spirit of our son,
[00:17:19.660]that's in his heart. We want his heart to stop beating.
[00:17:22.340]And when that happens, then you can,
[00:17:24.900]we can have uncle say prayers. He's going to be in the OR,
[00:17:30.140]have him say prayers. And then his spirit is set free.
[00:17:33.080]Then you can retrieve the organs.
[00:17:34.520]So when we found out that information,
[00:17:37.340]that was the reason they were asking for this. We,
[00:17:40.260]it was a really difficult decision.
[00:17:42.040]I don't want to make it seem like it was an easy thing. We said yes,
[00:17:45.640]right away. It was still difficult. It took a lot of disagreement and dialogue
[00:17:49.640]and addressing the issue and everybody, you know, eventually though,
[00:17:53.980]we said yes. And when we said yes,
[00:17:56.940]this is what led me to want to research this. When we said yes,
[00:18:01.020]we were told by Nebraska organ retrieval system that in the 25 year history of
[00:18:06.680]organ donation in the state of Nebraska. And at that time it was 25 years,
[00:18:11.100]probably over 30 years now that that was the first time a native American
[00:18:15.060]family had consented to donating the organs of a loved one. And for me,
[00:18:19.620]it was like, wow,
[00:18:20.820]how many lives were saved as a result of us really,
[00:18:25.620]you know,
[00:18:27.460]listening and understanding and being willing to change policy for the sake
[00:18:32.600]of this situation. And so for me,
[00:18:35.600]what that did was that led me to want to study and research this.
[00:18:39.840]I quit my full-time job. And before I left Bryan health,
[00:18:43.820]Bryan College of Health Sciences asked me if I would be willing to create a
[00:18:49.600]social competence course, which I did.
[00:18:51.300]And I taught it there and then helped them launch their diversity initiative.
[00:18:55.080]And one thing I will tell you that I'm really proud of,
[00:18:58.120]I've been on the periphery of watching what Bryan health and Bryan College of
[00:19:02.800]Health Sciences has been doing.
[00:19:04.060]But one thing I have seen is in the time that I've been working with them
[00:19:08.760]since 2008, now I,
[00:19:12.880]they went from 1% minority student population to this year in
[00:19:19.580]2021,
[00:19:19.980]they are now at 21% ethnic racial minority and even gender minority.
[00:19:27.140]So they now have more male nurses than they ever had as students before.
[00:19:31.140]So they have more diverse students that they've ever had before.
[00:19:35.520]And these students are graduating and these students are contributing to
[00:19:40.760]healthcare shortage. And so I think this is phenomenal.
[00:19:44.220]And so I'm excited that I've been able to be able to come alongside and
[00:19:49.560]help them.
[00:19:50.240]One of the things that we do in the rural fellows program is the leaders
[00:19:55.600]that sign up. We want you to grow and develop as an inclusive leader.
[00:19:59.380]We put you through the same type of training that we put our students
[00:20:05.480]through because our students ability to succeed in the environment is very
[00:20:11.640]much incumbent upon their relationship with you.
[00:20:14.320]They're trusting you and your ability to be able to manage and
[00:20:19.540]mentor and really attract these young people to your community,
[00:20:24.120]which by the way, I will tell you in the time that we've been doing this,
[00:20:28.920]we have had, I want to, I'm going to make sure I, we did a,
[00:20:33.180]we did a recent study,
[00:20:34.680]87 and a half percent of the students that have been rural fellows said
[00:20:39.880]they agree or strongly agree that the fellows program prepared them for
[00:20:46.080]where they are now in their career.
[00:20:49.520]54% of them now live in a rural community and work in a rural community.
[00:20:54.620]95% said that this experience helped them to grow as a professional and
[00:21:01.500]gain the confidence.
[00:21:03.930]half percent said this helped them to become a better community leader. And 71% said they are
[00:21:12.310]still using the content that they learned through this program. And so the impact is powerful. So
[00:21:21.210]when we think about inclusive community leader, when you as community leaders who are working
[00:21:28.590]alongside these students, you're getting an experience that is helping you to partner with
[00:21:34.390]other people in your community to say, what is great about our community and how do we create
[00:21:40.550]inclusiveness in our community? One of the assessments that you take at the beginning of
[00:21:45.350]our Brewer Fellows Program is what we call the Intercultural Development Inventory. And this
[00:21:50.230]assessment is intended to help you understand how you give meaning to differences. Remember I told
[00:21:55.530]you our chaplain was in adaptation?
[00:21:57.950]He wanted to bridge differences. Majority of the people who take this assessment fall in
[00:22:04.990]minimization. And here in minimization, there's nothing wrong with the person. Please know I'm
[00:22:10.790]not saying there's something wrong with you if you fall in this developmental level. But what
[00:22:14.730]you're doing is you're focusing on the similarities between human beings. Okay? You're not necessarily
[00:22:20.450]seeing how can I tap into the unique contributions that this particular person brings, their
[00:22:26.530]strengths, their personalities, and their abilities. And you're not necessarily seeing how can I tap
[00:22:27.930]into that and how can I take this diverse team of individuals who have very different perspectives,
[00:22:36.090]different backgrounds, and help them to come together and bridge those differences. How can
[00:22:41.190]I help them to do that? So part of what we do is to help you to grow no matter where you are
[00:22:46.610]to get to this acceptance and adaptation because we know inclusive communities are made up of
[00:22:52.630]inclusive community leaders who, and the birthplace of inclusion is this acceptance
[00:22:57.910]and adaptation. Here's what we see. When majority of the community leaders are in polarization or
[00:23:06.870]in denial, the community takes on an assimilationist approach. And this is where we see white flight.
[00:23:14.150]Are y'all familiar with that term white flight? As ethnic racial minorities increase in a community,
[00:23:22.210]white population decrease. That's because what's happening is we require people to assimilate
[00:23:27.890]to the way we do things here. And how easy is it to change people?
[00:23:34.290]Right? So I'm 20 years old. I'm 25 years old. I've lived my life a certain way.
[00:23:41.310]And now I'm moving to this community. And this community says you have to become this way
[00:23:45.790]and do it really quickly right now because we live in microwave society.
[00:23:49.930]You have to become this way in order to be a part of our community.
[00:23:53.890]Now, I'm not suggesting that the community has to totally change,
[00:23:57.870]but I'm suggesting that we are all adapting to each other all the time.
[00:24:04.210]If we are more open to that adaptation process and recognize and give it the time
[00:24:10.630]and come alongside people and help them acculturate rather than assimilate,
[00:24:15.650]we are much more likely to grow our communities,
[00:24:19.190]to help create this environment where people feel like they can contribute,
[00:24:23.770]even though they see things differently.
[00:24:25.990]When majority of us,
[00:24:27.850]are in this minimization,
[00:24:29.310]we create this universalist approach,
[00:24:31.530]which is everybody has to do it the same exact way in order for our community
[00:24:36.550]to succeed.
[00:24:37.250]So when someone does it a little bit differently,
[00:24:39.670]even though we want the same end results,
[00:24:41.670]our process is different.
[00:24:43.410]We want to control the process.
[00:24:46.190]When our process is different,
[00:24:48.590]that creates challenges for us.
[00:24:51.250]And so part of what we do in our program is to help you develop in this
[00:24:56.410]process of how do,
[00:24:57.830]do I allow people to be inclusive?
[00:25:00.910]How do I bridge differences?
[00:25:02.530]How do I understand and appreciate differences?
[00:25:04.870]And I will tell you the first time I took this assessment,
[00:25:07.970]I was in minimization.
[00:25:09.210]I was like,
[00:25:10.590]there's no way I'm in minimization.
[00:25:12.410]I'm the head of diversity and cultural competence programs.
[00:25:15.570]There's no way I'm here.
[00:25:16.930]And here is what I've learned.
[00:25:18.930]People who are of a non-dominant population living and working with the
[00:25:24.490]dominant population,
[00:25:24.930]we unconsciously,
[00:25:27.810]we unconsciously minimize the ways that we're different as a way to get
[00:25:33.230]along with the dominant population, because we don't,
[00:25:36.890]it feels uncomfortable to stand out.
[00:25:39.030]So remember me telling you, I would say where, where,
[00:25:41.870]when people would say, where are you from?
[00:25:43.670]My response was, where do I look like I'm from?
[00:25:46.310]Here's the other thing I did.
[00:25:48.010]I never taught my sons Farsi.
[00:25:50.390]I didn't name them Iranian names,
[00:25:52.690]all of those things because I didn't want those things to happen.
[00:25:55.670]I mean, things to happen to them.
[00:25:57.790]But I'll tell you what it took for me to get to this place.
[00:26:02.410]The reason, and each one of us has to ask ourselves,
[00:26:05.010]why do we do this work?
[00:26:06.570]Why does this matter?
[00:26:07.910]So one of the things I talk about,
[00:26:10.870]I use a four-layer model of diversity
[00:26:12.790]that really engages every human being in that model.
[00:26:16.390]Because I married a white man.
[00:26:18.830]By the way, that guy that Scott, that I married,
[00:26:22.130]that married to when he was going into the Navy,
[00:26:25.630]we celebrated 38 years.
[00:26:27.770]We celebrated 38 years of marriage this summer.
[00:26:28.770]So we were 17 and 18 and broke and had nothing.
[00:26:32.530]Thank you, Star.
[00:26:33.610]Had nothing and we made it.
[00:26:35.690]Thank you, Jerry.
[00:26:36.330]We had absolutely nothing.
[00:26:37.790]We packed up everything in our vehicle
[00:26:41.250]in the back of a 1969 Ford Galaxy
[00:26:44.190]and moved to Virginia from Florida.
[00:26:47.770]Everything in the world that we owned.
[00:26:50.130]And we had literally no money to where we are now.
[00:26:53.230]And it's been hard.
[00:26:54.290]But these two young men have taught me.
[00:26:57.750]My sons, it's 35, 31.
[00:27:00.190]And they have taught me more about inclusion and diversity
[00:27:05.270]by who they are than anything else.
[00:27:07.510]And the reason I do this work
[00:27:09.490]is these three little guys here.
[00:27:11.710]I speak only Farsi to them.
[00:27:14.050]I didn't have any say in their names,
[00:27:16.310]but I speak Farsi to them
[00:27:17.930]because I want them to know their Nana's heritage.
[00:27:20.270]I want them to understand that who they are
[00:27:23.370]is important and it matters.
[00:27:25.270]And our son is married to,
[00:27:27.730]a person from El Salvador.
[00:27:29.830]And this little guy here is growing up
[00:27:32.290]with the Salvadorian culture in LA.
[00:27:34.910]While these two little guys are growing up
[00:27:37.930]in rural Hickman, which is now where I live.
[00:27:41.110]And I love that there's this differences in my family
[00:27:44.510]and my sons are so close.
[00:27:46.530]And so, I mean, they're as different as night and day,
[00:27:49.690]but my husband and I didn't do a lot of things right
[00:27:53.070]when we were raising them.
[00:27:54.370]You know, if you're a parent, how many mistakes you make.
[00:27:56.630]But the one thing,
[00:27:57.710]what we did do right was to teach them that their differences are what makes
[00:28:01.330]them magnificent and to appreciate that about each other and about the people
[00:28:05.850]that they come into their lives. So that's why I do this work.
[00:28:09.350]And what I will tell you is what I've learned is that we can take.
[00:28:14.690]So I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and severe clinical
[00:28:19.690]depression in 2007, which is why I quit my full-time job.
[00:28:23.810]I took a year off to learn how to manage,
[00:28:27.690]and live with this.
[00:28:28.470]And I actually did a Ted talk called diagnosed with PTSD and MDD and
[00:28:33.970]managing to get a PhD.
[00:28:35.370]I thought the title was hilarious just because it was like so many
[00:28:41.530]acronyms, but here's the thing. What I learned,
[00:28:44.510]if we take individuals who have had a traumatic experience and even a
[00:28:51.970]seismic, it doesn't have to be trauma as a negative,
[00:28:54.390]but a seismic event like putting these students in a,
[00:28:57.670]a rural community for some of them is a seismic event. Okay.
[00:29:01.630]And for some of you working with a student who a young person from Oman or a
[00:29:06.970]young person from Rwanda or a young person from LA or Chicago or somewhere
[00:29:13.470]living in rural Nebraska is a seismic event.
[00:29:17.310]And when you sign up for this, this is going to challenge you.
[00:29:21.990]And what I tell my students and I,
[00:29:24.570]what I will tell community leaders is this will, if it doesn't,
[00:29:27.650]challenge you, it's not going to change you.
[00:29:29.510]And that's where growth happens.
[00:29:31.070]The challenge is the birthplace of growth for you.
[00:29:34.170]So what we do is we engage them, the students and you,
[00:29:38.470]in cognitively understanding, okay,
[00:29:41.630]how are you going to make sense of these things that are going on?
[00:29:44.750]How will you use these differences as a way to positively reconstruct
[00:29:48.910]your perspective and engaging with people?
[00:29:51.930]And what I will tell you is this is where growth happens.
[00:29:55.310]And we have seen students have,
[00:29:57.630]incredible growth.
[00:29:58.850]I've seen community leaders have incredible growth in this space.
[00:30:02.930]So this is why I do this work.
[00:30:05.990]I've linked our,
[00:30:07.870]I've linked the,
[00:30:10.750]I will send this to Jenny.
[00:30:12.610]So you all have access to this content,
[00:30:14.790]but I put the link here to our website.
[00:30:18.690]Any student from any campus,
[00:30:21.970]any university,
[00:30:22.630]any program can apply for this.
[00:30:25.250]The student will move to your community.
[00:30:27.610]Live there and work about 40 hours a week.
[00:30:31.510]And they're also asked to volunteer a minimum of one hour a week during that
[00:30:35.410]10 week period.
[00:30:36.330]And remember you all are going through this training.
[00:30:39.290]And as a person who does consulting in this space,
[00:30:42.570]when I'm asked to come alongside organizations and help them with creating
[00:30:47.630]these inclusive leaders,
[00:30:48.830]I'm charging around $4,000 a person to go through this process that we have
[00:30:55.410]now offered.
[00:30:56.390]So think of this as,
[00:30:57.590]this is training and development that you as a leader are getting for free as
[00:31:03.950]part of being a member of this process, part of this community program.
[00:31:08.570]So what I want to tell you is our goal,
[00:31:12.070]we know that in 10 weeks you all are going to be doing a lot of things and we
[00:31:19.890]want you to get off on the foot and move as quickly as you can,
[00:31:23.910]as positively as you can and have a great experience.
[00:31:27.570]That doesn't mean there's not going to be hiccups.
[00:31:29.350]There's not going to be roommate issues.
[00:31:30.850]There's not going to be issues that you're dealing with. That's not going to,
[00:31:33.990]that's not what I'm saying.
[00:31:35.150]What I'm saying is we will prepare you and we will be there to answer your
[00:31:41.630]questions because we want to give you the experience of working together.
[00:31:47.350]So you're going to go through an online training.
[00:31:50.150]Now that training is eight to 10 hours,
[00:31:52.590]but we give you a four week timeframe to complete that.
[00:31:56.690]So you,
[00:31:57.550]you get to do these modules on your own as it fits into your schedule.
[00:32:02.310]Then we're going to bring you together with your students and other community
[00:32:07.070]leaders that have signed up.
[00:32:08.270]And we're going to do an interactive team building activity together.
[00:32:12.230]We also offer executive coaching to you for free.
[00:32:16.510]The students are required to take it.
[00:32:18.770]The community leaders aren't required,
[00:32:20.270]but highly encouraged because it'll help you to do these things.
[00:32:23.710]And then you're,
[00:32:24.650]I'm going to come into your community.
[00:32:26.430]I say,
[00:32:27.170]spend,
[00:32:27.530]a half a day,
[00:32:28.150]but sometimes it's just a couple of hours.
[00:32:30.190]It depends,
[00:32:31.230]but I'm going to help answer questions,
[00:32:33.330]help you connect the dots between what you learned,
[00:32:35.770]what you're experiencing.
[00:32:36.730]And I'm available to answer your questions.
[00:32:39.910]Now,
[00:32:40.450]the kind of projects that the students work on totally up to you.
[00:32:44.670]What is it that you want to accomplish?
[00:32:46.710]What vision do you see for the future of your community?
[00:32:49.250]What is your dream?
[00:32:50.550]What do you want to see happen that you're like,
[00:32:53.110]man,
[00:32:53.410]if I only,
[00:32:54.030]I had two additional people for three months,
[00:32:57.630]I could make this happen,
[00:32:58.810]put some things in motion.
[00:33:00.370]That is up to you.
[00:33:02.210]You get to do that.
[00:33:03.330]And I already shared some of,
[00:33:04.970]some of this data with you.
[00:33:07.110]But what I want to tell you is this is our team that is working on this.
[00:33:13.010]And we also have all extension educators and rural prosperity,
[00:33:20.090]Nebraska educators,
[00:33:21.110]which I'm excited that we have two of our participants on here,
[00:33:24.870]Jenny,
[00:33:25.170]brilliant and amazing.
[00:33:26.930]Two of,
[00:33:27.530]the brilliant and amazing Jenny and Sean are totally incredible.
[00:33:32.410]RPN educators,
[00:33:34.070]extension educators that will come alongside and help you.
[00:33:37.710]My hope for this year is to be able to bring in high school students
[00:33:42.750]too.
[00:33:43.050]I'd love to bring in two high school students.
[00:33:45.710]So identify two high school students in your community who would want to
[00:33:50.210]participate.
[00:33:50.730]And the high school students don't have to work 400 hours.
[00:33:53.930]They work about 10 hours a week.
[00:33:55.810]So during that 10,
[00:33:57.470]20 weeks they're working a hundred hours and they're getting a scholarship
[00:34:00.350]to university of Nebraska for, for that.
[00:34:03.410]And so we want to be able to bring in because after the college students
[00:34:07.930]are gone, after the, the high school students remain,
[00:34:12.130]the extension educators,
[00:34:13.130]our PN educators remain in your community to support you and the
[00:34:18.710]resources that the knowledge that you have gained is the gift that you can
[00:34:23.630]continue to give.
[00:34:24.730]So I went over by,
[00:34:27.450]by seven minutes, my apologies,
[00:34:30.350]just wanted to answer any questions that you have now.
[00:34:35.490]And I'll stop sharing my screen. If anybody has any questions,
[00:34:40.110]let me know. I talked really fast. I know.
[00:34:45.870]I have a question about, you know,
[00:34:55.270]getting the outcomes that you want to,
[00:34:57.430]have it seems to me that in my experience over the years,
[00:35:02.590]working with students,
[00:35:04.090]that diversity is an asset that is often overlooked in terms of identifying
[00:35:10.790]fresh perspectives coming up with outcomes that you didn't even imagine
[00:35:16.750]before.
[00:35:17.310]Do you have examples where diversity really, you know,
[00:35:23.410]helped create a new kind of innovative environment?
[00:35:27.410]Absolutely. Well, I'll be going to use Shadron for an example.
[00:35:32.530]That's a really, really great question. High school,
[00:35:36.470]in Shadron they have been with us for three years now in the rural fellows
[00:35:41.910]program. They got an aware grant.
[00:35:44.650]And so we came in with, there was three students,
[00:35:49.230]two students who were pre-med students,
[00:35:52.370]neuroscience majors at not university of Nebraska students.
[00:35:56.870]One was a professor at the University of Nebraska.
[00:35:57.390]One was Wash U, Washburn University.
[00:36:02.810]And then the other one was from George something university in St.
[00:36:06.790]Louis. So these two students from, one of them was from rural Nebraska.
[00:36:10.950]The other one was from rural New Jersey. Okay.
[00:36:13.210]They applied for this program.
[00:36:16.270]They came into Shadron to do this aware grant, which was an,
[00:36:19.670]and seeing what are the available mental health resources to K through 12.
[00:36:25.490]And what are the mental health issues?
[00:36:27.370]Going on these two students.
[00:36:30.850]Incredible.
[00:36:32.790]What they did, because not only were they able to get that done,
[00:36:37.490]but then they created these public service announcements that were used at
[00:36:43.770]the movie theater to help people, to help these.
[00:36:46.290]Destigmatize some of the mental health issues that people were experiencing.
[00:36:51.630]So that's what happened in the community and outcome of, you know,
[00:36:57.950]an outcome that was not expected for these two students.
[00:37:00.890]They got accepted at UNMC and one of them got accepted to Harvard medical
[00:37:07.170]school, full ride.
[00:37:09.830]And the example he used was when,
[00:37:15.390]during his interview was I lived in a community that I'm from New Jersey.
[00:37:20.790]I lived in a community. I had no idea anything.
[00:37:24.050]I engaged at this community level in, in,
[00:37:27.330]in mental health issues. And these are the things that I did.
[00:37:29.650]And as a physician,
[00:37:31.070]what it taught me was health begins at the community level.
[00:37:36.670]And so if we,
[00:37:39.030]as a community are not providing resources for health for people,
[00:37:42.910]I, as a physician and limited in what I can do to help patients.
[00:37:47.370]And the, and he,
[00:37:49.650]I know this because he wrote me and said, I want to tell you, thank you.
[00:37:53.690]I wanted you to be the first person to know, thank you for helping me because,
[00:37:57.310]I wouldn't have been able to do this. So those are some of the unexpected.
[00:38:00.290]And I will tell you, Jeremy, that wouldn't have happened.
[00:38:03.950]If the,
[00:38:07.390]if the community leaders didn't say we're willing to take a risk,
[00:38:12.550]we're willing, we're open to learning from these students.
[00:38:15.850]We're willing to engage with them and understand their perspectives.
[00:38:19.590]Thank you.
[00:38:23.110]Absolutely. Ron has a question of, can you address the challenge?
[00:38:27.290]And value of generational diversity? Absolutely.
[00:38:30.330]Generational diversity is one of those things that a lot of times gets looked
[00:38:35.250]overlooked in diversity. What are our, because generation,
[00:38:39.130]growing up in generation that you grow up,
[00:38:42.430]the experiences you have shape your idea of work.
[00:38:45.750]So one of the challenges I see right now is as a baby boomer,
[00:38:50.950]my, I,
[00:38:52.750]my definition of work is very different than this millennial generation.
[00:38:57.270]That I'm working with their definition of work, how we get work done,
[00:39:01.470]where we get work done.
[00:39:02.550]And this is one of the bigger issues right now in organizations,
[00:39:05.270]the issue of work from home, or are you working with when you're,
[00:39:09.350]I can see that you're in your office, that approach.
[00:39:12.270]And so one of the things Ron, that, that we talk about,
[00:39:16.690]not so much generational differences,
[00:39:18.270]but the idea that differences exist,
[00:39:22.510]how will you learn to manage them?
[00:39:24.930]And then we have people come up with their,
[00:39:27.250]own what are the challenges that I think I will face?
[00:39:30.990]How will we address this as a team?
[00:39:33.170]And so the team gets to talk about their differences,
[00:39:38.090]their perspective and connect as a team.
[00:39:41.170]That's the purpose behind that two days of coming together,
[00:39:44.710]spending time so that you can,
[00:39:46.910]you can better understand each other's perspective,
[00:39:50.450]even across those generational differences.
[00:39:54.190]But I could teach a semester long class on,
[00:39:57.230]on that.
[00:39:57.430]Okay.
[00:39:58.410]Ron,
[00:39:58.910]just FYI.
[00:40:00.150]So hope that answers the question.
[00:40:04.970]Well,
[00:40:12.770]thank you for your time.
[00:40:13.970]I wrote a book called becoming inclusive,
[00:40:17.010]a worthy pursuit in leadership.
[00:40:19.770]I use my own story.
[00:40:21.450]And what,
[00:40:22.090]what the reason I wrote that book was for the people that were in
[00:40:25.210]minimization.
[00:40:27.210]So that they could get to adaptation.
[00:40:29.150]It took me a long time to get to adaptation,
[00:40:31.610]but it was a lot of internal work on my part,
[00:40:35.450]intentional internal work,
[00:40:37.370]creating an inclusive community doesn't happen.
[00:40:40.250]Overnight.
[00:40:41.770]It's a long-term commitment.
[00:40:43.310]And at the end of each of one of those chapters,
[00:40:45.850]I have questions to help you to think through and dialogue with.
[00:40:50.330]And there are different organizations,
[00:40:53.030]different communities that are using this as a one book,
[00:40:56.370]one community,
[00:40:57.190]to talk about how do we become inclusive.
[00:41:00.770]And so if you have questions,
[00:41:03.710]feel free to reach out to me.
[00:41:05.190]I'm happy to help you.
[00:41:07.410]And I sure hope you choose to participate in our rural fellows program.
[00:41:11.670]And if you have questions,
[00:41:13.350]I'm happy to answer them.
[00:41:14.990]I will share my PowerPoint presentation with Jenny so that she can send
[00:41:20.350]out out to you.
[00:41:21.270]Thank you for the invitation to share with you.
[00:41:23.550]And thank you for everything that you're doing in your communities.
[00:41:27.170]Have a great day.
[00:41:29.250]I'm going to go ahead and put her contact here in the.
[00:41:32.810]See if I got it here.
[00:41:35.030]And if you have a link to your book, that would be awesome.
[00:41:38.870]But contact information.
[00:41:40.370]You can get it on Amazon.
[00:41:41.970]Just Google becoming inclusive.
[00:41:44.870]Okay.
[00:41:45.850]And you'll see it's, it's got my name on it.
[00:41:49.730]So.
[00:41:50.450]Thank you all have a great day.
[00:41:55.050]Yep.
[00:41:55.870]We'll meet again in.
[00:41:57.150]Two weeks.
[00:41:58.430]And so we'll look forward to seeing you then.
[00:42:00.910]Thank you everybody.
[00:42:01.690]Thank you.
[00:42:04.790]everybody.
[00:42:05.190]- Thank you.
[00:42:06.030]Okay.

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