In reaching out to a variety of minority groups for the purposes of education and social justice, we will also foster the growth of diversity within the membership of SAS by providing activities that will increase education and communication between and among different professional and student groups. We believe that diversity is recognized, accomplished, and respected through attention to, awareness, acknowledgment, and acceptance of individual and group differences across culture, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age group, and ability level, as well as religious, spiritual, and political beliefs. This view of diversity also encompasses a broad range of ideas, values, approaches, and needs. We are dedicated to recognizing and analyzing issues of diversity, multiculturalism, and privilege in order to make more inclusive contributions to science and practice. We feel that it is important for the SAS host institution to model these ideals within their own program. We have demonstrated the adoption of these ideals through our diverse student population, research interests, educational backgrounds, and scholarly discussions.
It is our intention to attend to and increase SAS visibility at the International Conference on Counseling Psychology and continue to maintain a listserv for those students that desire to have a greater knowledge base on issues related to diversity. Within our own workshops we will also establish activities that invite introspection to increase awareness of one’s own diversity and the diversity of others. Other activities will include panel discussions with the counseling psychology students involved with the mentoring programs mentioned above. Inviting these students to share their experiences in mentoring minority students to educate others resoundingly meets our goals and ideals of open discussion of topics in social justice and diversity. We plan to achieve our ideals of diversity by focusing on outreach to historically underrepresented populations while simultaneously striving to accomplish our previous goals of education and social justice.