It is with great pleasure the Office of Fraternity & Sorority Affairs would like to re-introduce the community to the newly revamped Courageous Conversations program! Interested groups can now fill out the google form to apply for the experience. Facilitators will be matched, and curriculum will be developed, as availability allows. But first, check out the facts:
What Is It?
Courageous Conversations is a multi-faceted program which aims to provide participants with the awareness, knowledge, and skills necessary to address challenging circumstances in an increasingly diversifying community.
Groups can engage with the program by applying to take part in a workshop, which will be specifically developed to suit their collective needs. Your workshop will include an introduction and explanation of the Courageous Conversations framework, in addition to time spent exploring the participants’ identities experiences in relation to each other, the Lehigh community, and the greater society. Beyond this, topics addressed and conversations experienced will be based upon the goals crafted by the organizing parties.
What Can I Expect To From This Experience?
Each workshop looks different because the curriculum is individually tailored to meet your goals/needs. However, you can expect a few things:
- Participants will not be shamed for gaps in awareness and knowledge of diverse issues and experiences in our world today
- Your conversation will provide you with a space to learn how to better contribute to the fostering of an affirming, inclusive, and equitable community at Lehigh
- Nitty-gritty structural stuff: the workshop will last approximately 3 hours and will be facilitated by a pair of faculty/staff members from the Lehigh community
How Can I Connect This To Other Opportunities at Lehigh?
Courageous Conversations is one of many programmatic options available to the community, as a part of the initiative to improve Lehigh's campus climate. The program was re-developed to reflect bLUeprint’s 5 Foundations for Student Success, which can help facilitate connections to the many opportunities for engagement on Lehigh’s campus and in the community:
- Creative Curiosity: Participants will learn a powerful tool for engaging in conversations and furthering their own consciousness of a socially-constructed world.
- Identity Development: Participants will be able to explore their multiple socially-constructed identities and develop a greater understanding of how those identities intersect with the world around them.
- Collaborative Connections: Participants will build relationships with others by exploring connections on deeper identity-based levels.
- Inclusive Leadership: Participants will begin to understand the impact of their own identities as they impact those around them, and will learn how to engage with others in mutually beneficial endeavors by modeling inclusivity in their own leadership positions.
- Professional Growth & Success: Participants will learn a tool which can be utilized to help them achieve success in the face of challenging conversations and situations related to diversity, inclusion, and the pursuit of social justice.