Inclusion Week is an initiative that lands close to home for many students on Villanova’s campus. Organized by Villanova University’s Student Government Association (SGA), Inclusion Week aims to highlight organizations around campus that support and advocate for the underprivileged and underrepresented. Additionally, this highly important week works towards promoting resources that are available but often underused by students on campus.
One of the main missions of Inclusion Week is to cultivate a welcoming environment for all the various groups of students. It serves as a time of reflection and growth for individuals and the campus as a whole. It also places a focus on the intersectionality of a multitude of identities and how that affects unique experiences.
“To me, inclusion means creating spaces where all individuals can show up authentically and feel that their voices matter,” Andrea Morales, SGA Assistant Director of Inclusion Week, said. “This directly influenced our event design, we made sure to highlight different identities, provide accessible programming and encourage collaboration across communities. Our goal was to create events that resonate with people from all walks of life while honoring lived experiences.”
Additionally, a main question when designing these events was what Villanova’s campus can do to create environments that encourage exploration into those identities.
Initially, Inclusion Week was created to emphasize the ways in which Villanova is dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion through education, celebration and reflection. Beginning as a small, student-led initiative, it has since skyrocketed into a campus wide motivated practice that involves faculty, staff and students alike.
This demonstrates the climate of the campus, in the sense that growth is an important target, even against opposition, meaningful dialogue and a broadened understanding of all remains a forefront of the University’s main objectives. For this year’s Inclusion Week’s events, SGA chose to center them around six distinct pillars.
“The Inclusion Week Initiative aims to create awareness for organizations that support and advocate for marginalized and underrepresented peoples, as well as promote the various resources available to the students from these groups,” a statement by SGA on its Inclusion Week webpage read. “Guided by our principles of Diversity, Unity, Education, Belonging, Equity and Empowerment, Inclusion Week promises to promote diversity and inclusion, create a welcoming environment for students from various backgrounds, and serve as a time for individual and communal growth.”
Within every event held throughout the week, these pillars will leave their mark. From engaging workshops and panel discussions to cultural celebrations and other creative activities, each event depicts the importance of diverse perspectives at Villanova.
Specific highlights from this year’s Inclusion Week include Lotería Night hosted by Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc., LASO’s Paint Your Flag Night and the Mid-Autumn Festival hosted by several Asian cultural organizations.
Students can also take part in creative experiences like Blue Key’s “Paint Your Own Intersectionality” and NISA’s “Threads of Tradition Embroidery Workshop,” or join community-focused gatherings such as the First-Gen Villanovans “Cultural Game Night.” For junior Corey McCall, who serves as Blue Key’s Inclusion Coordinator, their event focuses on how each and every person has different identities, both external and internal, an essential part to members of their organization.
“The event was an important part of [Inclusion Week] because it teaches a lot to our tour guides about what intersectionality truly means and just because you someone in one way because there are so many different factors to what makes someone’s true identity,” McCall said. “It’s something that’s very true to me as well, especially because it’s my position in Blue Key as the inclusion coordinator and it is something that I love [to] incorporate everyone into different events.”
For Morales, a crucial part of Inclusion Week was making sure the week was truly for everyone. Although it highlights many historically marginalized groups’ cultures, the education and commemoration allows for all Villanovans to come together to collectively cultivate a more inclusive environment here on campus.
“Every member of Villanova plays a role in shaping this culture,” Morales said. “And Inclusion Week serves as a reminder that inclusion is not about a single group, it is about all of us working collectively to build a stronger, more connected community.”
