Diversity Day Brings Over 100 Speakers to Regis Jesuit

March 8, 2018

Photo: Matthew Bornhorst ’19. NO LABELS. Stephen Brackett speaks to the Regis Jesuit student body at the Opening Ceremony of Diversity Day. He spoke about his personal experiences growing up as a minority and how no human can categorized under any label. He talked about how each person has different traits and heritage that makes us each different from one another. Brackett showed us the true meaning of diversity.
Photo by: Gustavo Flores Gomez ’20. JUST THE SAME, BUT SO VERY DIFFERENT. This is Father Tom, a teacher and priest here at Regis Jesuit High School. In his presentation he discussed his life expierences leading up to being ordained as a priest. He talked about the time that he spent traveling the world with the Jesuits and how he saw and experienced multiple Jesuit schools and their culture. In his presentation he talked about Regis Jesuit High School as a whole is part of a much bigger, worldwide community. He also talked about how even in third world countries the Jesuits can be found and how even though we are separated we are connected in so many ways that his amazing to acknowledge. When asked what he wanted people get out his presentation he responded, “When your part of Regis, your part of a much bigger world of education and we need to recognize the richness of culture.”
Photo by Hunter Sullivan ’20. INTERSECTING IDENTITIES. Liz Hamel and Jenny Medrano visited Regis Jesuit to talk about identity in our evolving world. They touched on the subjects of privilege and oppression around the world and interesting conversations were sparked in these workshops. When discussion challenges with empathy, Hamel said that “truly listening to someone can be an extremely difficult challenge and to fully understand someone and their perspective is always the goal.”
Photo by: Patrick Koenigs ’18. WEAR A CUP APPROACH TO LIFE. Joe Chavez came to Regis Jesuit to talk to the youth about the game called life. He talked about his expierences and how to live your life to the fullest and still be protected. He talked about when they have “these” kind of conferences doesn’t that mean that its not working and how many people have been dealt many different types of hand in their life. He also talked about how one choice could change you and your life forever. During his presentation he said, “life is a a brutal teacher” and how you must be ahead of the game.
Picture by: Carina Morroni
Photo by: Carina Morroni ’20 JEWISH CULTURE. Mrs. Phipps, a woman proud of her jewish heritage, explains custom jewish traditions. She told us the parts of the Jewish Seder meal and described the traditions of various Jewish holidays, like Yom Kippur, Pesach, and Hanukkah. She explained the rules for Orthodox Jews and Kosher practices, versus those of reformative Jews . When asked about Jewish customs compared to Christian customs, Mrs. Phipps comments on the similarities saying, “You have a prayer of ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ – we say the exact same thing but in Hebrew.”
Photo by: Erin McCormick ’20. WEAR A CUP. Joe Chavez tale about how life deals you cards but you are in charge of how you play them. The whole presentation was about the leader’s life as a Jewish Mexican and the struggles he faced. Chavez recalls how he never got handed anything in life but had to work for everything. It was a new outlook on how to deal with life and the difficulty that comes with it. When asked about his experiences, Chavez comments, “You get dealt a bad hand of cards and you just have to make the best of the hand.”

 

 

Photo by: Joelle Macke ’21. WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE ADOPTED. Mrs. Sydney Timme and Mr. Antonio Maes ’99 described their life-long experience of being adopted during the workshop “How It Feels to Be Adopted”. Throughout this workshop Timme and Maes as well as some of Regis Jesuit’s own students described how it feels to be adopted, what most people don’t know about being adopted, and the process of being adopted. Mrs. Sydney Timme delves into how it still feels to this day being an adopted child by saying, “You have to go there to know there.”
Photo by: Olivia Bachmann ’20. MISSION OF HEALING EYES AND HUNGRY FOR LOVE. “If everybody contributes that special gift that they have, we can all do something beautiful,” comments Megan Larson, a social justice worker. In her presentation Larson explains how all people have this desire to be loved, to be wanted, and to belong. It takes the right resources to start an organization that reaches out and helps impoverished people. She tells us how sometimes an action as small as speaking to others can spread information about an important organization and make it truly impactful.

 

 

Photo by Colton Barry ’19. A TALK FROM A FORMERLY HOMELESS SPEAKER. Sandy, a formerly homeless woman recently housed in downtown Denver. While describing her life as a homeless person we learned that homeless men outnumber homeless women by a lot, and so does the care that they are given. We also learn there are some people, such as Sandy, who become homeless to help there family and that there are a lot of services for the homeless, but there are many ways that they could do better, such as making more shelters and more permanent settlements. When asked about the most difficult thing about being homeless Sandy replied, “I think the most difficult part was having to give up everything.”
Photo by: Maddie Proctor ’21. DANCE AND SOCIAL MEDIA. This is Jorge Paredes, a senior at Regis Jesuit. You may recognize him as the mastermind behind all of the RJ Media videos. He teamed up with Regis Jesuit student and dancer Taylor McGuire ‘18 to lead a workshop analyzing the impact of social media in the dance world. In the class, students learned a combo and Jorge videotaped it for RJ Media. Taylor says, “The workshop was a way for students to share what they learned through social media and get a quick introduction to hip hop.”
Photo by: Leo MCCabe ’19 BEATS, RHYMES, LIFE. RJ students getting excited during Paradox
Photo by: Leo McCabe ’19 PARADOX GETS CROWD HYPE. RJ Alumni, Matt Klassen ’98 (AKA Paradox), performs at closing ceremony.
Photo by: Leo McCabe ’19 BILINGUAL PERFORMER. Mr. Aldo Pantoja ’01 and Mr. Tim Sauer ’06 lead the RJ alumni band Don Chicharron to close the day with dancing.
Photo by: Leo McCabe ’19
Photo by: Leo McCabe ’19

Photo Essay by: Bella Cali ’21