My experience within the I-LEAD program has allowed me to create a sense of intercultural celebration as I strive to achieve my own personal goals. As a proud Latina coming from Los Angeles, I knew that transitioning to small-town central Minnesota would be very difficult, but through the I-LEAD program I was able to find women who come from different backgrounds but share a common goal.

I wish for nothing more than to see my Latino community push forward and break stereotypes as well as the barriers that keep it so oppressed. I have found that my counterparts, like myself, are working eagerly to finish school in order to fully represent their communities. Through them I have learned about Hmong culture, been warmly accepted into a Somali household, and found close friends within the African American community. I have had the opportunity to interact with women across cultures, but more importantly, I have strengthened my Latina identity within the process.

Over the last two years, I have been able to rely on and find strength within my I-LEAD women to motivate me within my personal endeavors. Because of these women, I have been able to learn a lot about myself and my own culture.

Mary Deputie

Mary Deputie:

Multicultural alliance building occurs when a group of diverse individuals comes together in unity for the purpose of better understanding--not for themselves, but to bring forth change in response to a greater issue. That issue may be war, discrimination, harassment, racism, or any matter that puts one group of people down. Forming an alliance makes one voice into many and empowers people to effect social change.

Alliances among women are great because they allow our counterparts to see us as more than “the lesser sex.” The alliances of women also empower us and enable us to be supportive of one another. The I-LEAD Program has created such a support system among its fellows. We see ourselves as a family, and like family, we inspire each other to go into classrooms and make our voices heard.

Many times I have found myself (a minority student) and fellow minorities to be the only ones to speak for our cultures in class discussions. Sometimes we are ashamed that we are not members of the majority group on campus. As we reflect on the diverseness of the I-LEAD fellowship and its leadership goals for students such as ourselves, we feel empowered to better educate our peers. Education is the key to changing people’s perspectives. It is the best way for people to understand others across cultural differences.

Tiffany De Leon

Tiffany De Leon:

As a Latina going to a school where I am a minority student, any group project or presentation seems to require me to form alliances with women from other cultures. Through class projects I have become acquainted with women of many different backgrounds, usually Caucasian females or occasionally one of the few international, Asian, or African American women on campus. I must give credit to the I-LEAD program for preparing me to deal with cultural differences that arise in these situations.

When I came to this school, I found it challenging to step out of my comfort zone and understand that I was in a different cultural environment than the one I had lived in the past seventeen years of my life. Yet I allowed myself, through the help of programs such as I-LEAD, to step out of my comfort zone and see and learn about different cultures as well as the dominant culture that now surrounds me.

I feel I have grown as a person and my mind has been exposed to so many different ideas and ways of life that I never even knew existed. Through the different intercultural alliances I have developed at the College of Saint Benedict, I have acquired a little wisdom.

Mai Moua

Mai Moua:

To me a multicultural alliance is a group of diverse people who have different experiences and backgrounds getting together to create change as a united front. Through such alliances women empower themselves and make their voices heard. Women’s alliances provide opportunities to reach places of power, places where a woman can get a good job to provide for her family and an education to expand her knowledge, or even become president of her country. The support of other women is essential so that all women know that they are not alone in the struggle for success and equal opportunities.

I had the opportunity to form alliances on an international level when I took part in the Woman as Global Leaders conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This conference allowed women from all over the globe to share their perspectives. We heard women in high positions in their own countries, like Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, speak of their experiences as women in power.

The biggest challenge for me in participating in this conference was having to create new networks with other women and “put myself out there.” In the end, I didn’t just meet other women. I met intelligent and inspiring women from diverse backgrounds with whom I became good friends. The conference enabled me to see the importance of forming alliances with women of different cultural standings, which will help me interact with people far different from myself long after I graduate from college.

Robin Posey

Robin Posey:

A multicultural alliance is formed when a diverse group of people of different backgrounds and beliefs comes together to fight for a cause to make some type of positive change or difference within a community and within the world. At the College of Saint Benedict, I have become a part of a multicultural alliance through the I-LEAD Program.

Growing up in St. Paul as a biracial child with a fairly dark complexion, I had no problem fitting in. Then I came to the College of Saint Benedict, where I found myself suddenly part of a minority group. I needed a support system--an alliance--to help me transition between the culture I had known and the culture of the college.

I have been able to become a part of such an alliance through the I-LEAD Program. The alliance that the I-LEAD Program has created has been a positive force and a great support system where I have found peers who also want to exert a positive influence on our college campus as well as the world.

Through this program I have honed my leadership qualities and skills. I attended the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, where I had the opportunity to be trained as a facilitator. I have also volunteered in our surrounding communities and brought my leadership skills to clubs here on campus. The alliances I have formed in the I-LEAD program have supported me in these projects.

Bibi Abdulla

Bibi Abdalla:

What does it really mean to be multicultural? As an I-LEAD fellow, I have learned that this does not mean your race, nationality, or religion. Being multicultural is a skill which enables a person to communicate well and cross over the cultural barriers that divide people.

I remember when I first came to the College of St. Benedict. I was very scared of being the only Somali woman on campus. Coming from a culture and religious background that is completely different from that of most of my college mates, I wondered whether I would find people to whom I can relate or whether I would find myself isolated. As soon as I met my fellow I-LEAD group, all of this anxiety vanished. Through laughter and humor, we have found not what divides us but what brings us together.

This program has made me realize that culture is not a barrier; rather, it is the lack of communication between cultures that creates obstacles. As a result of the intercultural skills I developed through the I-LEAD program, a barrier I faced no longer exists. I am able to engage in discussions and be a part of the vast community, locally or globally.

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