Hardin-Simmons Tackles Diversity During the Month of February

Students of HSU will have many opportunities to participate in discussions about diversity during the month of February, thanks to a student/faculty group whose primary goal is to create a culture of diversity on campus. Each event will build up to the final talk given by Erin Gaddis, state president of the Texas Youth and College Division of the NAACP, from Baylor University on February 19.

On Tuesday, February 10, 2015, Travis Craver, head of youth ministries at Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, and Hardin-Simmons graduate, spoke to students during weekly chapel about how we are all children of God and what that means. His sermon based off of 1 John 3 explained, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are” said Craver!

The following Tuesday, February 17, 2015, Luis Juarez, mission and spiritual life director at the Baptist University of the Americas, will preach on his own experiences with diversity.

To further the conversation on both February 11 and 18, HSU students will have the opportunity to engage in and “Open Dialogue on Diversity: A Look Back at Events During the Civil Rights Era” at 11:45 a.m. in Moody Center dining hall with Dr. Kelvin Kelley.  Dr. Kelley, professor of theology and coordinator of HSU diversity programs is excited to engage with students on race-relations, “The questions needs to be asked, even though we are ‘modern’ now do we still think like [they did back then]?”

The final event for this series will be a breakfast on Feb. 19 in Connally Mission Center, where Erin Gaddis, state president of the Texas Youth and College Division of the NAACP from Baylor University, will discuss the idea that learning is a communal – rather than an individual – experience; therefore, lack of community can cause a hindrance.

Ultimately, the goal is to create a dialog with students of HSU about embracing people who are different, whether those differences are because of color, background, economic status, or social circles, and to build meaningful relationships. “Different does not mean dangerous,” Kelley said.