🎊Happy last day of finals everyone! 🎉
Celebrate by reading about these two fantastic Humans of IDP, Jonathan Avery, and Calvin Schuster. They facilitated a race dialogue together this semester.
Co-Facilitators Calvin ’19 and Jon ’19
Why IDP?
Jon: During my time at Cornell I have struggled to find spaces to have communication across differences in identities, backgrounds, and beliefs. IDP has provided that space and at an important time. It is truly remarkable seeing this program tackle some of the greatest social dynamics and barriers on college campuses today. In a time when it is hard to find ways to cater to the various communities on college campuses, IDP provides understanding and space for these communities to come together. I also love IDP because it utilizes a flexible process which can change and adapt to be used in different types of spaces.
Calvin: I decided to do IDP because of the unique structure of the class, and because of the goal. No other course legitimizes using personal experience as a form of learning in the same way, and no other class has such a strong focus on removing power dynamics to encourage fully genuine contributions. And of course, the goal (and outcome) of IDP is crucial: creating a space for people to learn about systemic inequality, allyship, and coalition building to both give people the space to grow personally, but also to improve overall campus climate and (eventually) national climate. A wonderful byproduct of joining IDP was meeting all of the fantastic people! I have never met a group of people so genuinely passionate about something in my life. Honestly, IDP revolutionized my experience at Cornell.
What is your favorite thing about your co-facilitator?
Jon: Calvin has no idea what kind of impact he has had on my life. His energy and drive have been incredible to experience this semester. Of all the many great traits and qualities Calvin carries, these two are my favorite. He is an all around good person that isn’t afraid to do the work that challenges people most. He is always ready to handle business. Calvin gets the motivation to go above and beyond even when everybody else in the room is exhausted. There is nothing he won’t do to get the job done. Being surrounded by this level of drive has pushed me even beyond the IDP space. His drive has challenged me to push myself in ways I hadn’t before this semester.
Calvin: I’m going to pick my favorite thing about Jon as a facilitator and my favorite thing about Jon as a person in general. Jon has amazing intuition as a facilitator; he reads the room, sees the dynamics at play, and always seems to know the perfect question to push everyone to think deeper in any given moment. Outside of being co-facilitators, it’s been awesome getting to know Jon this semester; he always reaches out to meet up to talk about class and life in general, and the conversations we’ve had in Chipotle, Five Guys, or making cookies for our section have been some of the best conversations I’ve had all year. Time flies by every time; I couldn’t have lucked out more being partnered with Jon this semester!