CA’s Strive Workshop Series Bridges Cultures and Builds Connections
During the spring 2025 semester, the office Community and Equity launched Strive, a community-led educational series designed to foster cultural understanding and connection.
Under the guidance of Director of Community and Equity Alexis Dinkins and Assistant Director of Community and Equity Alex Holmes, students created and facilitated workshops that celebrated their identities.
Dinkins says the series was inspired by a desire to make equity programming more accessible, drawing from CA’s former Martin Luther King Jr. Day conference. The one-day program focused on social justice advocacy and served as a catalyst for creating the Strive workshops.
“We really wanted to reintroduce CA to community learning in a way that our Martin Luther King Jr. Day programming did—though over a longer period of time,” said Dinkins. “We wanted to normalize people sharing aspects of their identity and lived experiences, and doing so with the intention that others can gain knowledge from it and feel closer to each other.”
While students were only required to attend one Strive workshop session this semester, the broad and deep appeal of the offerings led many students to attend two or more.
On February 21, the inaugural sessions were held. The student-led affinity group Umoja’s “It’s Not Just Hair” program explored the cultural significance of hair in the Black community through an interactive game and hairstyle demonstrations.
Concurrently, Computer Science Department Head Ben Stumpf ’88 led “Exploring Classism in the USA,” in which participants discussed socioeconomic status and created a collective timeline of how family history shapes class perspectives.
On March 26, the South Asian Student Society (SASS) and Muslim Student Association co-hosted “The History of Henna Through Culture” in the Ransome Room. The workshop offered insights into the rich history of henna as an art form and gave attendees the chance to try it on themselves or a friend.
Meanwhile, the Multiethnic Student Organization (MESO) hosted “Pick A Side: The Struggles of Having to Choose an Identity” in the Great Room, where participants engaged in a thoughtful discussion about the complexities of heritage.“The students did a good job of inviting people from outside of their respective communities into the experience,” Dinkins says. “There was both an understanding of why we hold traditions so sacred and why these things are so important to us—while offering opportunities to engage as someone coming from outside the culture.”
Holmes added, “CA is such an intellectual place, and we’ve encouraged students to run these sessions as an interactive workshop. We’re asking participants not to regurgitate information but to listen and be present with us—especially in experiences they may not have had access to before.”
On April 25 the final Strive workshops of the year provided meaningful lessons. The “Privilege for Sale” session simulated a town where attendees were assigned jobs and income levels, challenging them to navigate purchasing housing, food, insurance, and other essentials, some with extremely limited means. This hands-on exercise, hosted by the Community and Equity Office and student Community and Equity Co-heads highlighted the complexities of social inequality.
On that same day, “From Conflict to Connection,” hosted by the Jewish Student Organization in collaboration with the American Jewish Committee, encouraged participants to read a historical account from two different perspectives, helping them explore how varying viewpoints influence our understanding of events and the importance of empathy in bridging divides.
Reflecting on the program’s impact, Holmes says, “A lot of conversations about culture were happening in affinity groups on the fringes of the community, but students leave those spaces and move back into the mainstream. How does our community get these pieces on the outside into the center? Strive makes space for us to come together.”
Strive is set to become an annual tradition, with plans to grow the program into a full-year offering and to invite guest speakers to host select workshops. By creating a shared space for learning, Strive is helping to shape a more empathetic and engaged CA community.
