MPE : Multicultural Peer Education Program

First-year students attending Fall Orientation are being exposed to something a little different, a diversity-awareness program titled, Common Ground. Multicultural Peer Educators (MPEs), in concert with Fall Orientation Leaders (OLs), encouraged first-year students to share their personal stories, in listening partnerships, about the first time they experienced differences in others and in themselves.

These students were then given opportunities to talk to each other about how they are, or are not, able to make genuine relationships. Finally, MPEs invited their group members to continue these dialogues throughout the school year to provide a forum for talking about, and listening to, what really matters in their lives.

The inauguration of this Multicultural Peer Education program lends reality and vitality to a vision that dates back to the Spring of 1998. At that time the College applied for and received monies from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Pluralism and Unity Grant Program.

Titled, Conscience for Tomorrow, the program targets "a carefully selected group of Holy Cross students who, after significant training as peer educators, will influence the student culture of the College." An endeavor planned in two-year cycles, Conscience for Tomorrow is a program designed "to transform the opinions, attitudes and behaviors of first-year students regarding issues of unity and diversity and to foster their development as leaders in a pluralistic society."

Holy Cross is one of a number of institutions of higher education in the region who are currently implementing a Hewlett Pluralism and Unity Grant program. Each institution has designed their program to address the need for positive changes in campus culture on their respective campuses. At Holy Cross, a decision was made to center this work around student conversations with thoughtful listening at the center.

The MPE work is based on the idea that effective change occurs most consistently when people have opportunities to develop respectful relationships. MPEs hope to:

T.S. Eliot once said:

"If a man has one person, just one is his life, to whom he is willing to confess everything - and that includes, mind you, not only things criminal, not only turpitude, meanness and cowardice, but also situations which are simply ridiculous when he has played the fool (as who has not?) - then he loves that person, and his love will save him."

Meet the MPEs

Multicultural Peer Educators believe that through providing forums for honest dialogue, they will help provide an atmosphere where people will be more open to the love inside themselves and in others.

If you would like to learn more about this program, or would like to participate, contact Boyd M. Servio-Mariano, Associate Director, Office of Multicultural Education at 508.793.2414 or bservio@holycross.edu