Brandeis hosted the Diversity Conference on Saturday Feb. 27, featuring presentations, workshops and performances from students, faculty and others outside the Brandeis community. The conference ran throughout the day with events occurring in various locations on campus. According to the Brandeis Diversity Conference website, the conference aims to “help students recognize the complex problems of today, empower them with knowledge to instill a sense of importance in these issues, and motivate them to be the wave of change as they are leaders in their respective communities.”
This year the Brandeis Diversity Conference featured keynote speaker Justin Kang. Kang is the Executive Director of a nonprofit organization called City Awake which focuses on building an ecosystem of civic engagement and social innovation throughout the Boston area. The conference also featured speakers such as Jamele Adams, the Dean of Student Life, Bronte Velez ’16, Student Union President Nyah Macklin ’16 and Ricky Orng, spoken word poet and Communications Director at EMW Bookstore.
Santiago Montoya ’19, a student involved with running the conference, told The Brandeis Hoot via email that he chose to be involved with the conference because “I think it serves as a platform to encourage inclusion and unity in our community” and “in the year that I have been [at Brandeis], I believe the student body works extremely hard to bring another side of the diverse student body.” Montoya said he did not feel that the conference had one particular highlight because “the conference went great from the very beginning.”
Montoya told The Hoot that the Diversity Conference brought people from “varied places, such as Tufts, Trinity College, Harvard, etc.,” and that the conference “made me feel very proud of Brandeis for their great efforts to change the rules of the game and for being so welcoming.”