On Saturday, April 18 students from SLUH, Villa Duchesne, Visitation Academy and St. Joe joined the Multicultural Awareness Club for the first Diversity Summit. About 25 students and diversity club moderators attended, causing the summit to be small but more effective.

The three and a half hour event started with free pizza and drinks, since majority of the students had just taken the ACT. Mr. Joseph Wotawa, the summit organizer then organized guests into small groups. The next hour featured five activities where the groups discussed respect, positive and negative stereotypes, understanding identity and the causes of Ferguson.

“The summit helped me to understand how things like the Ferguson moment happened and just because a person is from a certain place that does not define who they are”, said MAC board member Tahj Williams.

Dr. Sandavol, a professor Sociology from St. Louis University gave a 30 minute presentation on housing segregation in St. Louis City.  The presentation included the legal causes of the Ferguson moment and ways historical civil rights cases like the Dredd Scott case contributed to what’s happening in the city today. After the presentation ended, guests asked questions and discussed the information presented. A copy of the presentation is available with Mr. Wotawa.