In an attempt to celebrate diversity on College Confidential we started recognizing and drawing awareness to the heritage months. We’ve been doing this for a couple of years, but not to the desired depth. Seeing my latest post about the #BlackHistoryMonth, @AustenNut reached out and suggested we make this a bigger, more inclusive celebration. This is an initiative @AustenNut is going to lead, but if there is anyone else wants to be involved, please let me know.
If you are from one of these minorities and want to share your experience, your tips for fellow students, your journey, or you simply have ideas of what we should celebrate or focus on, let me know. @AustenNut and I are happy to have more people be involved in this iniative.
This is the celebration list we have so far:
DATE
CELEBRATION
AUGUST
Muslim Appreciation & Awareness Month
SEPTEMBER 15 - OCTOBER 15
Hispanic Heritage Month
NOVEMBER
Native American Heritage Month
NOVEMBER 8
National First Generation College Student Day
FEBRUARY
Black History Month
MARCH
Women’s History Month
MARCH 18-24
Neurodiversity Celebration Week
APRIL
Autism Awareness Month
MAY
Asian Pacific Heritage Month
Jewish American Heritage Month
National Speech Language Hearing Month
JUNE
Pride
@thumper1 has an ongoing AMA that we will be highlighting during National Speech Language Hearing Month in May.
@MaineLonghorn and @jym626 will be doing an AMA focused on mental health in March or April.
just want to say please don’t include anything from autism speaks / trying to “cure” autism in autism awareness month-related stuff–the autistic community are not fans of that organization
It would be good to include disability as well. (Neurodiversity overlaps but not all neurodiverse people consider themselves disabled, and obviously there are many categories of disability beyond those related to neurodiversity.) The only “official” awareness month is the one in October that’s focused on disability employment: National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) | U.S. Department of Labor, but I’ve also seen various organizations that choose to broaden the focus beyond employment.
There’s also an awareness month in March that’s focused on developmental disabilities specifically… although that’s a fuzzy category too, as it’s sometimes equated with intellectual disability, but in other contexts (such as housing) it includes anything congenital (such as cerebral palsy, which often causes no intellectual disability at all).
And there are more poorly-understood categories of disability on the rise that are affecting the college-aged population, notably Long Covid.
And of course, whether you include mental health challenges under the “disability” umbrella or not, that is a huge category that deserves its own focus. NAMI’s Mental Health Awareness Month is in May Mental Health Month | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness, which unfortunately is already a bit oversubscribed on the list above.
I definitely wasn’t advocating for a full month’s worth of “celebration” for everything I mentioned - just trying to cover the bases. I’m not even sure the “awareness month” paradigm is what works best for CC, since threads take on a life of their own anyway, once launched. But having a more intentional plan for initiating relevant threads seems like a good idea, IMO, whether it aligns with “awareness months” or not.
yeah–something chronic illness-y would be nice; i know there’s a thread about long covid in the parents’ forum but i wasn’t sure if students are allowed to post there
I am a white hispanic female. Ive wanted to go into healthcare since I could read, but I didn’t know women were allowed to be doctors until I was in like third grade. There were no significant women figures in Tv shows, books, or at an annual hospital event I went to. None of my doctors were female. I also thought women were not allowed to be president either.
I am Hispanic and grew up in a Spanish speaking household. In fact, English is my second language. So, while awareness and appreciation are, well, appreciated, it’s fundamentally who I am so I think about it differently I guess.
What I think is in terribly short supply, however, is invisible disease awareness. There are many, many people, some very near and dear to my heart, who have to manage a full-time job every day, 24 hours a day, that nobody but those closest to them can see. Many of them do it so well and bravely that it is literally invisible to the outside world.
But it’s there, and acknowledgement every now and again goes a long way. Trust me.
I also love the idea of a mental health awareness effort. If you’ve ever read the piece written by the father of a bi-polar son entitled, “I have a terrible wish,” you would know how devastating mental illness can be for a family. Mental illness can be terribly isolating.
