Outreach Efforts – Unity Welcome & Latino Bienvenida

We’re so excited to begin this research project, and others are too! We began in mid September to get the word out about the research project with two main events in the multicultural community. One, the Unity Welcome held on Friday, September 13, 2013 from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). The Unity Welcome is hosted every year by the Office of Multi-ethnic Student Education (OMSE), and in partnership this year with the Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy unit.  This event provides an opportunity to welcome the campus' more than 8000 multi-ethnic students back to school in a fun way. Students get a glimpse of the many programs and services on campus, that support their personal and academic development.  We were there representing the College of Education and introducing students and staff to the research study.  We also wanted to gauge the interest of the community, as well as get key student organizations’ on board for participating in the study when we launch the survey on-line in the coming months.  The students from various multi-ethnic and multi-racial organizations were intrigued by the research study, wanted to know more about it, and of course wanted to know when and where the survey was in order for them to take it.  While we didn’t have the survey available then, it was good to see students’ eagerness to participate—a good sign for when we launch the survey.   

 

 

The other event we attended was the Latina/o Bienvenida hosted by Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc. on September 16, 2013 in the student union building.  This event was similar to the Unity Welcome, but it featured most of the Latina/o based student organizations on the UMCP campus. Each organization had a table set up with information about their organization.   

Pamela, the Research Grad Assistant
at the Unity Welcome

A member of the research team, the graduate student, attended the event, talked to various students and all of the organizations to inform them of the research study. They already had heard about the study from friends, which was encouraging because that meant that the word was getting out.  After a long night, and a couple of these outreach efforts, we were on the right track to launching the survey and gaining participation interest.