Inclusion event brings campus community together
Robeson Community College is one of the most diverse community colleges in North Carolina. To celebrate the different aspects of the diversity of its student body, and all the ways that its campus community is different, RCC hosted an Accessibility and Inclusion event.
“Accessibility and inclusion are to help people see that we are all diverse and unique in our own ways, but we can be united too, even with our diversities,” stated Susan Moore, a counselor at RCC who organized the event.
Students, faculty, and staff at Robeson Community College come from all walks of life, with different backgrounds and experiences, each with unique talents and gifts, making each person exceptional.
“I wanted it to highlight our differences and all that we are as a student body but show that with each and every one of us, we are different, but we work together as a team, and that’s what makes us come together and helps us to succeed,” Moore said. “Even though I have students with accessibility issues, we all come together and can make a significant contribution to society.”
Moore says that it’s also important to have a good life-work balance.
“With our success, academic, and life goals, it is important to know how to balance life with work, with school, with family,” Moore said. “I just thought this was a good time to be able to do that for our students, while also highlighting the different areas in the college and the different programs. It shows us how we can work together.”
Some of the activities from the event included chalk art created by medical sonography and academic success students; sign language being taught to education students; a relay race with nursing students; free hand dips from cosmetology; and a ‘Color Me Calm’ session where students could paint, which was sponsored by the Counseling and Career Center. The day also featured food trucks and one coffee truck.
“With the chalk art, they did great, both groups came out with a different theme,” Moore said. “And everyone enjoyed the free hand dips immensely, and the color me calm was a big draw for students, it is an activity that can help relax them as they prepared for finals… overall, we had a great response from students”
The day celebration encouraged the wearing of hats, because according to Moore, “Everyone wears different hats, and it shows how we are all unique with our different hats.”
“It was a really great day for us to be cohesive yet different,” Moore said. “I think we need to accentuate that more, because we can have our differences and have students that need accommodations, but yet everyone can feel a sense of belonging and contribute in their own unique way.”
