expressing equity through...
kaap kinect
As a result of KAAP Department advisors reaching out to students who want to create an RSO for advancing a diversity initiative in KAAP, I pitched the idea of a peer mentorship program (Kinectorship!) that connected a first-year student with an upperclassmen KAAP major. The goal of the organization was to develop inter-department relationships within the KAAP department student body to ensure that underserved and minoritized students were getting peer support.
team organization
With every new RSO, we had to develop a constitution outlining team goals, a mission statement, a one-year plan, and executive board position details. Thanks to my experience in BHLP, a lot of those requirements were things I was cognizant about. During team meetings, I ensured that we stayed on topic and involved the more quiet individuals by asking them for their opinions. However, every team meeting was started with a catch-up so e-board can get to know each other better.
events
With the RSO still being new, we were not able to develop the Peer Kinectorship aspect of the program yet, but we developed aspects of it to draw students in. We hosted an info session that served as a panel where students had the opportunity to ask two recently accepted University of Delaware DPT students questions in addition to asking about the undergraduate experience.
We also hosted an ice cream social, an in-person event where we were able to meet three second-year students and got them interested in the club. We heard their concerns about school since their first-year was during a heavy quarantine. We thought this was valuable because it allowed us to identify a niche that no other RSOs had - fun, friends, and family.
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