January 26, 2016
12 first-year students came together for our Winter Term FreshSpectives Retreat at the Trotter Multicultural Center on Saturday, January 16. FreshSpectives is a cohort of first-year students who identify as LGBTQ+ run by the Spectrum Center’s Community Engagement Team.
Each year, the students participating in FreshSpectives decide what they would like the cohort to do. This year, the students decided to make it an open cohort, allowing students to come and go to meetings as they needed or desired. Roughly 35 students have signed up for FreshSpectives throughout the year, and about 25 of those students have been active with the cohort at some point since the start of the Fall semester.
The Winter Retreat included a dialogue about social identity and intersectionality with CommonGround. CommonGround is a program offered through The Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR) in which campus organizations and communities can request workshops that raise awareness about social identities (race, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.), prejudice, stereotyping, power, privilege, and oppression.
During the FreshSpectives Retreat, discussion centered around coming out (both to other people and to oneself). This was intended to kick-off the semester by bringing cohort members together to discuss topics not always discussed in our more social meetings throughout the semesters.
As a member of FreshSpectives, and participant in the retreat, freshman Marissa Alvarez commented:
I enjoyed the dialogue we all shared about identities. It was great to take a step back and look at everyone’s intersection and how being queer affects how we make decisions. Our discussion about coming to ourselves was also very important to me. I feel closer to everyone now. I think it was amazing to hear each other’s stories and sharing my own helped me validate my feelings.
FreshSpectives is a great way to meet other first-year students who identify as LGBTQ, as well as to have space to discuss various questions about gender, sexuality, and LGBTQ identity. Alvarez agreed stating:
I am in FreshSpectives because I have been out for less than a year and part of that is finally feeling like I can explore my identity as a queer person. It’s a great thing to be able to have other freshman who are like and unlike me in so many ways. We all seem to support each other and are able to make one another laugh.
This year, FreshSpectives has chosen to meet bi-weekly on Fridays at 4:30pm. Follow links on the Spectrum Center website to sign up, or email Marion Berger at [email protected] to get on the email list for updates about future events. Social gatherings include events such as movie nights and friendship speed-dating.