Blog: Ronda Stroud

The staff and students of Life Development Institute attended the Diversity Leadership Alliance December workshop today at hosted by Paradise Valley Community College .  The topic of this month’s workshop was Curiosity: The Keystone of Intercultural Competence presented by Dr. Janet M. Bennett, Ph.D. The title alone was enough to stimulate an amazing conversation by the students of LDI on the way to the workshop, but real excitement came when Dr. Bennett began to explain the stages we as human beings go through while developing intercultural sensitivity. Dr. Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. The model is broken into 6 stages, including: Denial, Defense, Minimization, Acceptance, Adaptation, and Integration. According to Dr. Bennett, the first three stages of the model are ethnocentric stages. During these stages we tend to believe our own culture in the center of everything. During the last three stages of the model we become ethnorelative and begin to view our culture in the context of other cultures.

This workshop opened up a great dialogue amongst the students of LDI. The students were all in various stages of the intercultural sensitivity model due to their diverse backgrounds and upbringings. One of the most interesting topics in their conversations after the workshop was that they believe as adults with hidden disabilities, many people tend to be less accepting of the challenges they face on a daily basis because their disabilities are not physical. Some of the students felt that people are not curious enough about hidden disabilities and this is why there is less acceptance for people who have them. I asked the students what they thought they could do to get people talking about becoming more culturally sensitive to people with hidden disabilities. They all had great ideas about getting out into the community to educate and inform in order to peak curiosity. One student gave a pretty good answer that stuck with me. He said “Keep going to DLA workshops and share what you’ve learned with the world.”

On Monday, November 23, we will be sponsoring Mock Interview Day from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.   This program brings employers to our site once a semester to offer students experience with the interviewing process through mock interviews.  The goal of the program is to provide students with an opportunity to sharpen their interview skills and gain confidence in an interview situation allowing one-on-one interaction with employers. 

We hope to have five to ten employers that will agree to conduct 30 minute interviews with approximately 20 students.  Students will sign up for 2 mock interviews with the company of their choice; the interviews usually last 30 minutes.  The suggested format for the interviews is 15 minutes of questions and 15 minutes of review and feedback.  Company overviews will be presented at 9:00 a.m. and interviews will be conducted between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.   If you are unable to participate the entire session, please provide the times in which you or your participating representatives are available.

Life Development Institute thanks those past employers who have worked with us to provide this educational program to our students.  Just a few past employer participants include GE Capital, Wells Fargo, Arizona State University, TOSCO, and American Express. 

If your company is interested in participating in this program or have questions, please contact (623) 773-2774, Ext. 214.  I hope you will consider participating in Mock Interview Day.  We appreciate your role in enhancing our students’ career skills.