PTK Resource

Student Lens

For our PTK College Project this year,

our goal was to help create a safe and welcoming campus for all students. To achieve this, we collaborated with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council to contribute to their online resource center. PTK members collected and reviewed resources with a focus on collecting resources (websites, videos, books, etc.) that are aimed at MVCC students who want to learn more.

Books:

AUTISM

TED Talk

  • "Autism is not a disease; it's just another way of thinking," says Ethan Lisi. Offering a glimpse into the way he experiences the world, Lisi breaks down misleading stereotypes about autism, shares insights into common behaviors like stimming and masking, and promotes a more inclusive understanding of the spectrum. Ethan Lisi - Neurodiversity Advocate

Book

Articles:

Study:

CULTURAL DIVERSITY

TED Talk #1

  • Rebeca Hwang has spent a lifetime juggling identities -- Korean heritage, Argentinian upbringing, education in the United States -- and for a long time she had difficulty finding a place in the world to call home. Yet along with these challenges came a pivotal realization: that a diverse background is a distinct advantage in today's globalized world. In this personal talk, Hwang reveals the endless benefits of embracing our complex identities -- and shares her hopes for creating a world where identities aren't used to alienate but to bring people together instead.
  • Rebeca Hwang - co-founder and managing director of Rivet Ventures, investing in solutions for women and empowering their choices.

TED Talk #2

  • Adopted from South Korea at birth, Hayley Yeates was raised in Sydney and identifies herself as a proud Australian. Dedicated to learning, she has degrees in Human Resources and a recently-earned Masters in Project Management. Yeates is an experienced change and communications professional, specializing in complex, enterprise-wide projects. She confidently brings her whole self to everything she puts her mind to, and she believes that diversity is an essential ingredient of any high-performing team. With tart humor, Hayley Yeates makes the case that investing in cultural diversity is just as important as fostering gender diversity.
  • Hayley Yeates - Inclusion strategist

TED Talk #3

  • Michael Rain is on a mission to tell the stories of first-generation immigrants, who have strong ties both to the countries they grew up in and their countries of origin. In a personal talk, he breaks down the mischaracterizations and limited narratives of immigrants and shares the stories of the worlds they belong to. "We're walking melting pots of culture," Rain says. "If something in that pot smells new or different to you, don't turn up your nose. Ask us to share."
  • Michael Rain - Digital Storyteller

TED Talk #4

  • Hollywood needs to stop resisting what the world actually looks like, says actor, director, and activist America Ferrera. Tracing the contours of her career, she calls for a more authentic representation of different cultures in media -- and a shift in how we tell our stories. "Presence creates possibility," she says. "Who we see thriving in the world teaches us how to see ourselves, how to think about our own value, how to dream about our futures."
  • America Ferrera - actor, director, producer, activist. America Ferrera believes stories have the power to make people better. She uses her voice to speak up for more humanity and justice in the world.

BIASES

TED Talk

  • Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we've seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Vernā Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how.
  • Vernā Myers - Diversity Advocate. Vernā Myers is dedicated to promoting meaningful, lasting diversity in the workplace



DIVERSITY

TED Talk

  • The subject of race can be very touchy. As finance executive Mellody Hobson says, it's a "conversational third rail." But, she says, that's exactly why we need to start talking about it. In this engaging, persuasive talk, Hobson makes the case that speaking openly about race — and particularly about diversity in hiring -- makes for better businesses and a better society.
  • Mellody Hobson - Investment Expert. Mellody Hobson is president of Ariel Investments, a value-driven money management firm — and an advocate for financial literacy and investor education.

INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE

TED Talk

  • In this passionate talk, diversity trainer and activist Fahad Saeed addresses the persistent myth that inclusive language and acronyms create more barriers than they tear down. Sharing his own experiences as a gay Muslim man born to immigrant parents, he explains how redefining the constructs around personal identity can have positive repercussions in marginalized communities and beyond.
  • Fahad Saeed - an activist and diversity trainer.

MVCC LIBRARY DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION GUIDE

Phi Theta Kappa has collaborated with Reference Librarian, Jodi Oaks, and created a guide that covers finding resources on diversity, equity, and inclusion, including books, articles, and reliable websites that are available in the library's collection: https://mvcc.libguides.com/dei

Jodi will be adding more resources to this guide, including links to campus resources and websites.

Resource Submission Form

Role on Campus