Capacity Building DEI Courses

Creating an Inclusive Climate

This online, self-paced course is for anyone who wants to ensure that the places they live, work, study, and socialize are welcoming, affirming, safe, and accessible to all. The course is a four-module pathway that addresses the topics: How can I be an ally? How do we practice active listening? How do we use language to create affirming spaces? How do we celebrate together? Participants earn the Inclusive Climate digital badge upon successful completion of all course components.

Creating an Inclusive Workplace

This online, self-paced course is for anyone who manages a program or facility with supervisory responsibilities and wants to implement strategies for welcoming, safe, affirming and accessible workplaces. The course is a four-module pathway that addresses the topics: How can supervisors foster an inclusive workplace? How do I have difficult conversations? How do I interrupt implicit bias in the workplace? How do I retain a talented and diverse workforce? Participants earn the Inclusive Workplace digital badge upon successful completion of all course components.

Culture and Context in the Performing Arts

This course is for anyone who enjoys the arts a way to discover the experiences, identities, and cultural contexts of others. Participants attend a matinee of a selected performance at the Moss Arts Center and participate in a post-performance discussion.  Pre-work on cultural intelligence and contextual materials are shared prior to the performance. Sponsored by the Office for Inclusion and Diversity and the Moss Arts Center.

Diversity Committee Toolkit

This toolkit is for anyone who leads or serves on a diversity committee in their unit or department. The first half of the Toolkit is an adaptation of The Breakthrough Inclusive Action Tool Kit written by Ariel Zych with Jessica Deters and Teirra Holloman with support from Science Friday and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Tangled Bank Studios.  Breakthrough focuses on actionable institutional and community work that leads to notable change. The second half of the Toolkit is dedicated to sharing best practices for transformational committee work. Contact inclusivevt@vt.edu to access the Diversity Committee Toolkit.

Diversity Search Advocates Lab

This course is for anyone serving on a search committee.  This toolkit is designed to help you practice being an effective advocate for diversity when serving on a search committee. We present the ways that implicit bias is coded in search deliberations and offer language for intervening and redirecting. We also provide scenarios for thinking through and responding to typical situations that arise in search committees.

Experience InclusiveVT: Cultural Competency Development

Experience InclusiveVT invites participants to engage with Virginia Tech's diverse communities. 

The experience combines an online module on intercultural development with participation in a minimum of six lectures, programs, or cultural events that engage you with ideas, traditions, and world-views different from your own. The course Canvas site provides information on campus activities that count toward fulfillment of the InclusiveVT Experience badge, as well as a section for tracking and reflecting on the events you attend. 

What is Privilege and Why Does it Matter

The concept of privilege can be a contentious one. When someone says that "your privilege is showing"--or something along those lines--your first reaction might be to feel defensive, as if you were accused of doing something wrong. Sometimes, the concept of privilege is weaponized to create us-them divisions, or to cast blame on certain groups. This doesn't help the cause of privilege, which is a very essential topic in diversity, equity, and inclusion conversations. In fact, without an understanding of what privilege is and how it matters, we can't progress in our work toward equity. The purpose of this workshop is to explore the concept of privilege--what it is, how it integrates with group/social identities, and how we can leverage privilege to further equity for all.