http://www.leealphadental.com

Brentwood Press - Index

Brentwood Press - AntiochPress_10.03.08 - Index

12A | BRENTWOODPRESS.COM EDUCATION OCTOBER 3, 2008
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Se Habla Español
Meet Dr. Paul Lee, who
earned his Doctor of Dental
Surgery Degree from
University of California,
San Francisco. His goal is
to maintain each patient’s
healthy smile. He is
“Committed to your dental
health… for a lifetime.”
Students improving Campus Climate
Diversity Coordinator Jesse Gossett was
hired four years ago to help develop the Diversity
Program at Liberty Union High School
District. Since that time, he has worked with
administrators, faculty, staff and students to
stimulate discussions about diversity and nurture
an environment of understanding at all
of the district’s schools.
“With the community and school populations
becoming more diverse every year, we
need to validate and appreciate people from all
cultures,” said Gossett. “Our world is shrinking
due to technology, and we must be able to
relate to individuals on a global basis.”
To that end, Gossett has formed Campus
Climate committees comprising student
representatives from various groups. Input
from these committee meetings is invaluable,
according to Gossett, because students speak
freely and describe what’s going on at school
from their special point of view.
“Oftentimes, groups such as students
with disabilities or students from an ethnic
minority feel left out,” Gossett said. “Diversity
awareness helps to build validation and
recognition of individuals from all groups,
and eventually every student will have a sense
of belonging. This is true for the school communities,
and for all communities.”
Gossett’s life mission is to bringing people
together. “We need to cross barriers and
create a community that learns about different
groups, and respects their backgrounds,”
he said. “Every group has overcome diffi culties
to get where they are, and we can learn
from these victories over whatever hardships
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they encountered. Students on campus soon
come to see the similarities among themselves,
and the walls that once separated them
into groups begin to come down.”
District schools have created a Diversity
Calendar as part of the program this
year. The calendar includes such activities
as celebrating other cultures’ foods, displaying
fl ags from around the world, exhibiting
cultural dance and song, and incorporating
daily announcements that highlight cultural
achievements.
To celebrate the National Hispanic Heritage
Month of September, Gossett assembled
students from Freedom, Heritage and Liberty
high schools to discuss what their cultures
meant to them, and how diversity awareness
is changing at school.
“I am Puerto Rican and Hawaiian, and
my family is very close and lots fun to be
around,” said Liberty student Marissa Gon-
Diversity
Coordinator
Jesse Gossett
and students
gather at
the LUHSD
offi ce to
celebrate
National
Hispanic
Heritage
Month.
Photo courtesy
of Sarah Singrin
zales. “We know how to celebrate! My family
reaches out to others, includes others. I didn’t
feel like I belonged in my old school, but it’s
much better at Liberty.”
Ethan Watts, whose background is Canadian
and Scottish, has been on the Heritage
Campus Climate Committee for three
years. “I’m not Hispanic, unfortunately,”
Ethan said, adding that he was raised to embrace
many world cultures, and that “optimism
and family ties” are the words he would
use to describe his Hispanic friends.
Freedom’s Dixie Morales said that
“family is one” in the Hispanic culture. She
believes that one needs to go “back to your
roots to fi nd out where you come from, and
fi nd out who you are. Mrs. Gonzalez-Ortega
(Freedom’s Latinos Unidos Club Advisor) is
an amazing teacher, and she really helps bring
students together at school.”
—Contributed by Sarah Singrin