The mission of the Office of Intercultural Learning and Engagement (OILE) is to nurture a culturally responsive and inclusive learning community for all students, faculty, and staff of Indiana Wesleyan University’s residential campus. As we advance our mission by being a purposeful reconciliatory agent building Godly bridges between all university constituents, our work also focuses on cultural enrichment responsiveness across the curricular and co-curricular facets of university life. As such, we intentionally collaborate with partners across campus to inform, inspire, and invite learning opportunities for all. We aspire for Kingdom principles and perspectives to inform university policy on responsiveness to the ways we use pedagogy and praxis in ushering transformational learning outcomes.
Among our many initiatives on campus, we specifically boost efforts in multicultural equity, intercultural promotion and understanding, domestic and international diversity, advocacy for the underrepresented, assessment, and institutional responsiveness. We consult with faculty, staff, and students to facilitate seminars, workshops, conferences, and other experiential learning opportunities that raise awareness regarding many of the aforementioned issues—locally, nationally, and globally. We believe curriculum development via intercultural classroom engagement fosters a campus climate of cultural responsiveness. As such, we collaborate with offices in both academic and student support divisions in order to create spaces of belonging, giving voice for all.
The Office of Intercultural Learning and Engagement is divided into three departmental functions purposed to serve the Indiana Wesleyan University student, faculty, and staff in distinct ways, yet primarily provide a comprehensive “one-stop-shop” for intercultural learning opportunities and multicultural equity and access across the university.
Department of Intercultural Learning and Development
The Department of Intercultural Learning and Development serves the IWU-Marion campus by exploring avenues for curricular responsiveness and professional development of intercultural interest to all students, faculty, and staff. This department also provides intercultural seminars, trainings, and workshops to aid in the overall multicultural enrichment and intercultural proficiency throughout the entire campus. In addition, we collaborate with the CAS General Education Committee by facilitating the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale (IES)* online assessment for all courses and experiences that satisfy the Intercultural Experience General Education requirement and provide assistance to faculty on how to utilize the IES online assessment in their classrooms. For the number of courses and experiences that satisfy the Intercultural Experience General Education requirement, the use of the IES, as well as the Intercultural Experience Rubric provide systematic ways to measure a student’s capacity to identify her/his own cultural patterns, compare and contrast them with others, and adapt empathically and flexibly as needed.
The IES was developed to evaluate the competencies critical to interacting effectively with people who are from cultures other than our own. The competencies assessed by the IES are equally applicable to evaluating how well people work effectively with people who are different from them (gender, generation, ethnic group, religious affiliation, and so forth). Focusing on three dimensions of intercultural effectiveness: Continuous Learning; Interpersonal Engagement; and Hardiness, an overall intercultural effectiveness score and report is generated, for the individual that takes it. This report includes analyses of the dimension scores, explanations of scoring profiles, and personal development planning for intercultural effectiveness. Faculty members are responsible for debriefing IES reports with their students and for incorporating the Intercultural Experience Rubric into their courses/experiences. For more information about the IES online assessment, go to: www.kozaigroup.com. Alongside administering the IES, some of our initiatives include:
- Intercultural Advisory Council
- Campus Equity Response Team
- Intercultural Experience Courses/General Education
- Ad Hoc CAS Faculty Committee on Student Retention and Success
- Faculty, Staff and Student C.R. equipping
- Curricular and co-curricular development and collaboration
Department of Multicultural Access Programs (MAP)
The Department of Multicultural Access Programs (MAP) creates initiatives to increase access and positively impact the success of incoming and current underrepresented groups (students of color, first generation college students, and low-income students) at IWU.
MAP coordinates the following initiatives that promote college access and graduation success of underrepresented and underserved groups of students. Some of our initiatives include:
• Pre-College Programming
• IWU Near You
• Parent University
• Multicultural Student Access/Support Programs
• The Luther Lee Scholas (LLS)
• Multicultural Endowed Scholars (MES)
• Ongoing research on Access and Equity for underrepresented and underserved students in higher
education
Department of Intercultural Student Engagement
The Department of Intercultural Student Engagement uses a model of Cultural Responsiveness to plan initiatives and programming in order to create a sense of belonging and meet the needs of Indiana Wesleyan University’s diverse student population while engaging the greater community as a whole with themes of reconciliation, diversity, equity, justice, and inclusion. Some of our initiatives include:
• International Student Association (ISA) – A student organization for missionary kids, third culture kids, and international students that aims to facilitate transition, create spaces of belonging, support, and engagement through informal interactions and formal planned programming such as:
• Transition to American College Living (TACL)
• “Intercultural” Local Field Trips
• Weekly ISA dinners
• Monthly Cultural Dinners
• Semester retreats
• Mentoring Program
• Host Family Initiative
• Intercultural Ambassadors – A student leadership program anchored in the commission given in 2 Corinthians 5:12-21, in which “Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” These student leaders engage reconciliatory community building initiatives centering around themes of diversity, equity, and justice. Annual, semester, and weekly learning opportunities and programming include:
• Speak-Up
• Coffee Talks
• Passport to Culture
• Love Revolution Week
• Film Festivals
• His & Her Story
• Common Day of Learning: Courageous Conversations
