RAPP XXXIII
Beginning in the Fall of 2017, I had the amazing opportunity to participate in the 33rd Class of the University of Cincinnati, Racial Awareness Program. This program is a 9 month intensive that is designed to facilitate growth and social awareness in participants through interactive and educational methods through a slew of topics including race, gender, religion, sexuality, disabilities, economic status etc. This program ended up being one of the most beneficial experiences as my life as I was able to learn and grow constantly throughout its duration.
Each session took me out of my comfort zone in some way by forcing me to talk about many topics that I previously wouldn't feel comfortable talking about. My primary goal for joining this program was to gain more confidence in my ability to discuss these topics, which not only made joining this program a no-brainer, but also turned out to be one of the best decisions I could have made for myself as I now not only feel like a different person than before, but also have a reborn sense of ambition in areas and topics that I previously never thought about much as they don't completely relate to my life.
My favorite thing about the program was that I was able to meet so many amazing people with such ambitious mindsets to change the world around us. This program constantly put us through alot in terms of troubling topics and the stress of being in a socially engaging setting for three hours every other week. I couldn't have asked for a better group of RAPP members to go through it all with. While I had very few physical items to document my experience, each one of these photos do a great job of highlighting each one of us as individuals, accepted into a program where each of us could comfortably be ourselves, which was one of the most important aspects of it all.
Each session took me out of my comfort zone in some way by forcing me to talk about many topics that I previously wouldn't feel comfortable talking about. My primary goal for joining this program was to gain more confidence in my ability to discuss these topics, which not only made joining this program a no-brainer, but also turned out to be one of the best decisions I could have made for myself as I now not only feel like a different person than before, but also have a reborn sense of ambition in areas and topics that I previously never thought about much as they don't completely relate to my life.
My favorite thing about the program was that I was able to meet so many amazing people with such ambitious mindsets to change the world around us. This program constantly put us through alot in terms of troubling topics and the stress of being in a socially engaging setting for three hours every other week. I couldn't have asked for a better group of RAPP members to go through it all with. While I had very few physical items to document my experience, each one of these photos do a great job of highlighting each one of us as individuals, accepted into a program where each of us could comfortably be ourselves, which was one of the most important aspects of it all.