Diversity message delivered to student audience

Known throughout the U.S., Canada and Australia for her dynamic seminars and speaking engagements over the past 25 years, Maura Cullen has been capturing the hearts and minds of many with her ability to simplify the complex issues of diversity in an entertaining and educational manner. Recently she addressed an audience of students—many of them freshmen—in the Student Center multipurpose room.

Cullen encouraged students to make friends during their time at SUNYIT, hopefully lifelong friends, but warned that there are many among them who will do things they know are wrong in order to make friends; wrong decisions often rooted in peer pressure and stereotypes. Asking how many people within the crowd had ever felt invisible before, she brought a student up on stage and pulled out a velvet bag—her “magic bag.” She had the student take colored silk squares from the bag, put them back in, one at a time, and—a moment later—pull them out again. To the amazement of both the student and the audience, the silk squares had become a multicolored quilt.

“Just like we can make pieces of silk disappear, so can we make people disappear,” Cullen said. “It’s through acts of inclusion that we make people re-appear. Being kind, being respectful matters. Those are the folks who will be hired before others.”

Using the silk squares and other props, Cullen explained how easy it can be to have an mind and overcome stereotypes and bigotry. Before she concluded, she offered the student audience some advice; things to keep in mind not only through their careers in higher education, but throughout their lives.

“The real truth is, the more you help others, the more you encourage them, the more they will support you,” she told them. “Your act of kindness can not only change lives, but can save lives. With integrity, you decide how much you keep and how much you squander.”

Finally, she reminded all to make every day count, and every interaction one not to regret, as you may not have a second chance.

“We take too much for granted,” she said. “Tomorrow doesn’t always come.”