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"Diversity: '1) a quality, state, fact, or instance of
being diverse; 2) variety,' such is the pitiful definition Webster
[dictionary] gives for one of the most important words in society
today. Applications have check boxes to track it, essays are continuously
written about it, parents complain about the lack of it, and politicians
argue about how to measure it. But like so many other ideas, the power
of diversity lies not in its definition, its implications, or the
statistics regarding how it is implemented ...Differences, you see,
must be overcome. The victory over self-consciousness, over assimilation,
leads to the discovery of consciousness, of independence." [more]--
Brad Zamft
"So how has I-House changed me? I've learned how to flirt in
Farsi. I've played monopoly with residents who were raised under communism.
But, more importantly, I-House has taught me first in whispers and
then in shouts that when you belong to a community it lives in you
as you live in it. ...As real and challenging and as enjoyable as
day to day life in I-House has been, I have learned that this is only
a model, a smaller scale version of the world in which we really live,
the community without boundary to which we all truly belong."
-- Aurelio Perez
"It was different at the I-House. People were not just curious,
they were interested. What was even more surprising: some were informed,
some misinformed, about my country's culture, politics, economies,
etc. Recent political events have made Venezuela appear on the news
and people would come and talk to me about it. I discovered, much
to my surprise, that I could not remain impassive. This mattered.
This was important. It touched the most important things in my life:
my family, my identity, and, yes, my home." -- Maria
Marquez
Winners
from 2003
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