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What I appreciate about the diversity here at CSUSB is that it really opens up the eyes
to people who've only been around their local communities and only seen people that may looklike themselves or act like themselves and by coming here, they're exposed to a variety of people, different backgrounds, different cultures, and it really broadens their perspective so that when they do leave here, whether they stay locally or they go elsewhere is they're just more empowered and of course they want to work more with other people of different backgrounds and more diverse backgrounds around the world, and that really empowers them to really think beyond maybe what they thought they were capable of doing, so regardless of the faculty's race or the community, the fact that they have this shared experience in some cases with the students really hopefully empowers students to see beyond what they thought was capable.

I'm a great example of that, I came here 26 years ago as a transfer student and it really,
and I had no idea of really the diversity that was around me and of course not just
in the community I live but also globally and it's really because of the education,
the faculty, that I got here and the diversity I saw here at CSUSB that really allowed
and opened my eyes to really seeing more around the world and really being able to engage the world.

And I think that's what we still see all these years later when I step into a classroom or work with students, is really see that they're empowered to say, oh, I want to learn more about people who may not be like me but share very similar perspectives on the world and education.

And of course, then whenever I went away and then came back as a faculty member and later as an administrator, it's really allowed me to stay here because what's really important to me is the fact that I've been able to really see diversity in my own life, in my own culture, in my own perspectives and that just keeps drawing me back here and I hope that continues to do that for students who come here as well.

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