Students return from a weekend of change

Cal State Long Beach students attended the ninth annual Human Relations Summit to learn about justice by sharing their cultural experiences with others and becoming part of a diverse group seeking to improve race relations.

After nine months of planning, the summit, hosted by Cal State Long Beach’s Upward Bound program, took place at Camp Cedar Lake in Big Bear on May 1 and concluded on May 3.

Mary Trout, 20, a business major, is a returning student who went to the summit last year.

“I came last year and found it to be one of my best experiences in college,” Trout said. “I just wanted to come back and enjoy it once more.”

Phillip Humphreys, director of the Upward Bound Program, has co-directed the Human Relations Summit for eight years.

“This weekend is all about focusing on feelings, not academics,” Humphreys said. “The retreat is a life-changing experience but it all depends on how much of a risk you are willing to take.”

The first day was dedicated to introductions of the co-directors, the 12 staff members and the 37 students in attendance. The communication guidelines were presented, along with the goal for the first day, which was “to create safety, establish our guidelines for communication and begin to explore our identity,” according to Humphreys.

Students were then split into five “dialogue” groups. These groups consisted of about six or more students of different ethnic backgrounds and their purpose was for students to get to know each other better in a small group rather than in the larger group—called the Community Group—and to become more comfortable with each other.

In the dialogue groups, personal topics were discussed with the goal of being honest, respecting each other and having a mutual trust among each other.

Humphreys said he was surprised to see how fast students became comfortable with each other and how honest they became as they expressed their feelings regarding issues such as stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination.

The goal for the second day was “to explore our identities as members of different cultural groups, and how being members of these groups affect our values, who we are and how we communicate,” Humphreys said.

Students were split into four different ethnic groups: African-American, Latino/a, Asian and White.

The purpose of this division was for students to be more comfortable around people of the same ethnic background and to talk about stereotypes of other ethnic groups and how those stereotypes affect their communication.

“In my ethnic group I realized how different our culture can be, but our beliefs and values are very similar,” said Luis Garcia, 20, a Latino and criminal justice major.

Culture, education, spirituality, family, friends and religion were a few of the many traits that applied to students’ lives, but another trait that was discussed was sexual orientation and how people view it.

Guided Imagery was the name of one the sessions in the community group. In this session, a story was told of a world where 10 people are heterosexual and the rest are homosexuals.

The roles were switched here, where a straight person had to hide his or her partner and not able to express any feelings in public, while billboards, television shows, commercials and other media outlets all promoted and talked about homosexuality.

Christopher Gonzalez, 20, a mechanical engineering major, considers this moment one of the most memorable moments in the summit because he became open to talk about himself.

“I just felt that it was so true … we have to hide who we are just so that we ‘fit in’ to what is ‘normal’ in society,” Gonzales said. “We can’t be who we are because we feel that it is not accepted to be gay and we don’t want others to feel uncomfortable in public.”

Students were not always in their groups discussing topics. They had the opportunity to explore and get to know each other while hiking or playing card games.

Jamie Johnson, one of the facilitators and academic coordinator of Upward Bound, said he enjoyed the night hike and the snowball fights with the students.

After a long day of discussions, students had the opportunity to have one-on-one time to talk to each other about how they felt and to discuss any questions they had.

Diane Hayashina, a facilitator last year who returned as co-director, is a psychologist for Counseling and Psychological Services. She concluded the day by saying that students got to know each other more and challenged each other as they talk about themselves.

“They expressed their feelings of stereotypes, engaged in dialogue, and promoted values and respect,” Hayashina said.

Students were able to express and identify themselves in their ethnic groups. They shared positive qualities of their culture in front of the other ethnic groups.

Humphreys concluded by saying that everyone has received new insight on identities of people and that it did not have to end here.

“Its time to break barriers and make impact of what we have learned,” Humphreys said.

Claudia Miranda, 21, a spanish & chicano studies major said the summit was an amazing experience.

“I have gained a broader perspective in issues dealing with diversity,” Miranda said.

The Human Relations Summit is put on once a year and anyone is welcome to apply.