The Vice President's Grant for Diversity & Community Initiatives (DCI)
DCI: 2006 - 2007 Awards
The President's Grant for Diversity and Community Initiatives
2006-2007 Grant Recipients
The Committee for Community and Diversity is pleased to announce the recipients of The President's Community and Diversity Grant Fund. The grant fund provides financial support to projects that foster interactive, inter-group communication, collaboration and educational programming with an emphasis on diversity and/or community. Nineteen proposals were timely submitted and the following twelve were selected for funding:
(1) TC DocNet
Sirene Lim
Linda Choi
Current doctoral students formed the group TC DocNet to respond to collective needs and requests of fellow doctoral students to network academically outside of their departments. TC DocNet aims to facilitate interdisciplinary academic conversations so as to build an enriched learning community among part-time and full-time doctoral students, faculty, and alums across TC programs and departments. Online forum and friendly in-person meetings are designed to promote networking among doctoral students across disciplines; share scholarly interests in a range of educational issues, as well as research experience in different contexts using a spectrum of theories and methodologies.
(2) Voices of Youth: Community Scholars Group
Professor Edmund Gordon
Veronica Holly
(3) Voices of Diversity
Professor Edmund Gordon
Veronica Holly
Voices of Diversity is an initiative to bring faculty, staff, and students of color together to develop a system of mentorship and support, and create a space to share insights into successes and obstacles faced on a predominately white campus. The product of this meeting will be put in a historical narrative and featured on the IUME website.
(4) Who Decides? Choosing Films with Youth and Teachers for Schools
Elisabeth Johnson
Stavroula Kontovourki
PiCS, the Pedagogy in Cinema Society is interested in broadening the scope of its mission. They are interested in increasing the size and breadth of their dialogic community by reaching out to other student organizations interested in film and critical issues. The reasons are to better understand the impact of film and media as a tool to instigate critical dialogue on social action; and to reinforce the mission to utilize media as a pedagogical tool to stimulate conversation and action, by extending the organization's impact beyond the TC community and using these conversations to develop collaborative relationships with area high school students and teachers -- some of the people at the heart of their mission.
(5) Anthropology at Teachers College: Applications across the Disciplines
Ruth Kennedy-Mountjoy
Ariel Zycherman
Yan-di Chang
Kathryn Becker
Co-Sponsor: Professor Lambros Comitas: Applied Anthropology and Anthropology in Education Programs
An eight week initiative composed of a lecture series and a film series dedicated to demonstrating the relevance of anthropological theory and methods to the Teachers College community and in furthering the mission of the Office for Diversity and Community. They will be showcasing the relevance of anthropological knowledge to the TC community through a four part lecture series engaging the TC anthropology faculty and students with the faculty and students from other departments. They will also be showcasing a two-part film series that depict anthropology's involvement in current issues affecting the
(6) Building Bridges: Creating a Healthy, Supportive, and Diverse Community
Minkyung Kim
Building a diverse community by evaluating and establishing a sense of rapport within Teachers College community using three events: Involvement of facilities, security staff, students and faculty to mix and mingle; for the community to engage in discussion on issues and themes of concern throughout the TC community; and students and faculty to have an opportunity to voice opinions and discuss them at an informal setting. This project builds upon last year's successful smaller Building Bridges program that focused on Whittier and Lowell Residents.
(7) American Indian/Native American Perspective on Leadership Attributes: with a Discussion about the History, Culture and Effects of Forced Assimilation a Century Later
Dr. Elvira Largie -- Minority Post-Doc Fellow
Co-sponsor: Dr. Carolyn Riehl, Associate Professor -- Department of Organization Leadership
Dr. Craig Richards, Professor -- Department of Organization Leadership
American Indian/Native American (AI/NA) traditionalist/practitioners present on AI/NA history, culture and leadership attributes (live oral traditional story tellers) who will provide greater insight into a "Life" that is ignored or lost, or even misunderstood in academia. An opportunity to have interactions with AI/NA from the Navajo, Hope, and Cheyenne-Arapaho Indian Reservation, to increase understandings and hopefully spark interest in students to become active leaders and participants in understanding the unique relationship that the US government has with AI/NA Nations.
(8) State Asian IdentitY (SAY)
Ji Kyung Lee
Yoon Lee
Seungho Moon
Young Jung Suh
An all day forum for Asian students and the entire TC community to: recognize and understand the distinct culture and customs that Asian students bring to the TC community; to challenge misconceptions on Asian student image in the U.S.; and to increase awareness of the struggles Asian students face in school. The program will include a panel presentation: A Self Portrait of Asian Students; traditional Asian food lunch; traditional Asian activities including: Shu-Yeh (calligraphy), Talchum (Korean traditional mask dance); Yut Nori (Korean Traditional Games); and Sa-Mul-No-Ri (instrument/percussion); conversational dialogues and Korean film and discussions.
(9) Self-Care Workshops: How to Manage Stress, Time and Personal Needs
Dr. Dinelia Rosa -- Director, Center for Psychological Services
Gregory Payton
Sponsored by the Psychological Emergency Response Team (PERT) of TC promotes (educates) mental health wellness within its campus community through discussion of topics related to mental health well-being and to offer services in the form of didactics, experiential exercises, consultations and support groups.
(10) African Culture Night
Joy Spencer
Co-sponsor: SIPA's Pan African Network
A Columbia University campus-wide African Culture Night to introduce students to African culture where students have an opportunity to partake in various African dishes, dance and drumming workshop and a fashion show. Student interest in African continues to grow despite the closing of the Institute for African studies at SIPA.
(11) Working Towards Peace with Body and Spirit: A Women's
Sponsored by The Peace Education Center at TC in collaboration with Ruckus Safety Awareness, a self-defense and safety awareness organization based in NYC will teach one self-defense workshop with the emphasis on the TC women's community. They will provide safety skills, discuss the issues of violence and peace, and build a sense of community for the diverse female population (faculty, student, staff) at TC.
(12) Second Annual Health Disparities Conference: March 9 - 10, 2007
Dr. Barbara C. Wallace -- Associate Professor of Health and Education
The two day conference goals are consistent with TC's mission to close the disparities and inequities gaps, with a focus on health, while fostering collaborations between health disparities, researchers, practitioners, and community members, as well as between academic, community-based, and faith-based organizations. This year, the conference has a special tract: the Health Care Disparity Reduction Certificate Tract. The grant will provide scholarships for TC community attendance and participation.