A long day, but it's all good

Today, at work, we had a leadership retreat for student leaders on campus.  It was kind of a continuation of a retreat we do with this same group of student leaders in September.  We had about 90 students - Resident Assistants, student interns in my office, multicultural affairs, career services, health services, student government officers, and others from other student organizations.

Our focus for the day was diversity and acceptance.  We did an activity called Boxes and Walls, where students acted out different situations in rooms for the participants that depicted a variety of situations that portrayed privilege, language barriers, disabilities, LGBTQ issues, etc.  After participants went through the rooms, we had some time debriefing them in small groups and in the large group.  Then, they got into their working groups and came up with actions steps that will allow them to take what they have seen today and influence others on campus.  

The theme we had been using in Sept. was a quote from Robert Kennedy: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope..." I was on deck for closing the day and trying to tie everything together and I was able to use this quote, as well as some more from the same speech that this one came from.  I think it turned out pretty well and students afterward were saying that they thought it was really good.  

We had a few glitches in the morning that were small organizational types of things, but overall things went very well.  I'm super exhausted, but it was a good day.