Countywide : Student Conference Addresses Diversity

Hoping to foster greater understanding of ethnic diversity, more than 200 junior high school students and 60 teachers from across the county assembled Friday at UC Irvine.

The “Walk in My Shoes” conference, sponsored by the Orange County Human Relations Commission and Human Relations Council, focused on junior high students because they are at “a critical age when they are becoming aware of themselves culturally and addressing ethnic issues,” said Iliana Soto-Clemente, an event organizer.

Commission members, community leaders, educators and students participated in workshops on topics such as hate crimes, prejudice, alternatives to violence, stereotypes and bridging the gaps of intolerance.

In her workshop, Marie Morales, 17, a student at Estancia High in Costa Mesa, discussed her school’s ethnic forums, held so that students can voice concerns and address racial issues. She said the forums help to ease tensions and suggested that such sessions might be offered at other schools as a solution to cultural conflicts.

Other presentations included brief History lessons on the Holocaust, the plight of Native Americans and the struggle of the late Cesar Chavez, an activist who fought for the rights of migrant farm workers.

The message was clear for Vanessa Gabourel, an eighth-grader at A.G. Currie Middle School in Tustin. “We’re not all alike, but we are similar because we’re humans,” the 13-year-old girl said. “We need to learn to get along.”

Classmate Deborah Nuusolia, 13, agreed. She said she was going to take what she learned at the conference back to school to share with others.

“There’s a lot of racism at our school, and I think everybody should learn more about other people and get to know each other,” she said. “Racism is wrong.”