35th Annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity (NCORE) on Higher Education
IRT Associate Director and Manager of Programs Catherine Wong, IRT Arts and Sciences Specialist Brittany Zorn, IRT ’13, and IRT Education Specialist Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 presented at NCORE in New Orleans earlier this month.
What is NCORE?
According to it’s website – “the conference series constitutes the leading and most comprehensive national forum on issues of race and ethnicity in higher education. The conference focuses on the complex task of creating and sustaining comprehensive institutional change. This change work is designed to improve racial and ethnic relations and their intersections with other issues and groups on campus. The conference speakers and sessions offer strategies for expanding educational access and success for diverse, traditionally underrepresented populations.”
IRT Interactive Session: Cultivating Community Amongst BIPOC Scholars through a Pandemic. The session highlighted the ways IRT’s advising and curriculum have necessarily shifted in the last three years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zorn and Godo-Solo– who have a combined 28 years of experience advising BIPOC students through the graduate school application process- provided an overview of the community-building activities IRT has implemented in order to cultivate a stronger sense of belonging amongst its scholars and engaged attendees with questions about their own community-building strategies in a growing hybrid virtual-in-person landscape.
Franklin Chilaka, IRT ’20 (far left) and Victoria Thach (far right) met up with Brittany and Leislie after the IRT session on Friday morning. Franklin is in his third year at the University of Colorado Boulder in their Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice PhD program.
Godo-Solo was an advisor to both IRT proud alumni Jaqueline Neri Arias (pictured in center below) and Brittany Zorn from the IRT 2013 Cohort. They met up for a mini reunion during their time in New Orleans interestingly enough on the eve of their 10 year anniversary working together as IRT scholars and advisor! Jaqueline is currently the Executive Director of Student Life and Inclusion at Dominican University in Illinois.
Often, I am reminded of the reasons why I do this work and the incredibly way that IRT changes the trajectory of the professional lives we dreamed of having. During the NCORE Conference, I had the opportunity to have lunch with two mentees with whom I worked closely, ten years ago when they were both Interns in the Summer Workshop and applying to graduate school. One wonderful aspect of the IRT is the sense of community. I truly enjoyed catching up with my two former advisees at a national education conference, hearing their stories about their time as IRT Scholars, and now, observing them in their element as exceptional student affairs professionals who give of themselves so willingly and with unwavering kindness and foresight; their commitment warms my heart. I cannot begin to express my excitement at being in their company and knowing that the ripple effect of IRT continues to expand as these Scholars carry out their passion for working with the next generation of BIPOC scholars. As my dear colleagues now, it is the greatest of pleasures to work beside them as we continue to engage in this important work!
Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91
Avoid Being Gone in a Hot Minute: The Making of Centriarchical Decolonized Women of Color/Women Stealth Leaders
IRT Associate Director & Manager of Programs Catherine Wong, collaborated with Patricia Lowrie, MS, Director Emeritus and Executive Consultant, Michigan State University and Jacquelyn Reza, EdD and MFT, Professor and Director of Professional Development Emeritus, De Anza College, in this 2 day Pre Conference Institute focusing on decolonizing leadership styles, developing strategic alliances in and out of one’s college/university/community organization and deepening the collective agency with one another as Women of Color and women in the Academy.
Embrace Pono: Journey Together in Harmony with the Aloha Spirit
Following the announcement that the 36th Annual NCORE will be held in Hawai’i for the 1st time in the history of the organization, IRT Associate Director & Manager of Programs Catherine Wong and Gerry Ebalaroza- Tunnell, PhD, Principal Consultant/Founder Co3 Consulting; Co-Creating Cohesive Communities, co-led an Invited 2 hour Session focusing on what it means to acknowledge and understand that Hawai’i is not an exotic vacation destination without regard for the rich history of its people. Instead Hawai’i is a place where indigeneity is still embedded in the people. During this interactive workshop, participants learned how to embrace Pono (doing right) and preserve this paradise for future generations.
Institute for Recruitment of Teachers 
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