Actual NCORE, Part 2

So here we are. Part two of my NCORE experience. This starts on the Friday of the conference week. The keynote speaker of the morning was a wonderful lady by the name of Joy Harjo. She is a Mvskok/Creek tribal member who has made a living with poetry and jazz. She talked about how New Orleans was once home to Native-Americans, and she played a fantastic song with other musicians on stage. It was wonderful. It has also contributed to my knowledge and awareness of Native-American affairs which, if you recall my previous entries, I am very passionate about. Another session I attended that day was an interactive session where we were able to write poetry that related to our social identities. I may not have said this before, but I really like poetry. This session taught me about a new way of writing poetry in addition to allowing me to think more critically about my identity.

Saturday was much of the same except the presenters kept thanking us for coming despite the fact that it was Saturday, and we could have partied hard the night before. I ended up learning about the history of Asian-Americans in the United States which happens to cross over with the history of Hispanics and African-Americans. Did you know that Jay-Z has Asian heritage? Later on Saturday I decided to attend a session about African-Americans because I had not gone to one since the conference started. I ended up learning about HBCUs (Historically black colleges and universities), and how they help students of color better than Ivy league schools. The session taught me a good deal of information and let me know more about diversity. I was happy by Saturday night.

Along with attending sessions, our college’s NCORE team had discussion sessions after each day. Our discussions ranged from undocumented immigrants to the appropriate usage of the “N-Word” and everywhere in between. All of our discussions divided the group, but it was interesting to listen to everyone’s opinions. However, listening to everyone really drained a lot out of me. Our group was incredibly diverse, so to listen to how racial issues affected their life really caused me to change the way I think about the world. I will talk more about that on Friday though.

The point here is that NCORE taught me a lot.