2018-2019 JHU OMA Annual Report 2019 OMA Annual Report_Unabridged | Página 21

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Multicultural Leadership Council (MLC)
The Multicultural Leadership Council (MLC) is a council of student body that oversees 35+ culturally-
based undergraduate student organizations, four executive members, and two OMA advisors. The
MLC seeks to increase visibility of these organizations, explore identity development and cultural
growth, and foster an inclusive sense of community. Through monthly meetings, leaders come together
as a way to engage with each other and further develop their leadership as it relates to their cultural
identities. The executive board serves as a resource to all groups within MLC.
This year, we encouraged cross-cultural collaboration for organizations to branch out beyond their own
identities. The hope was to foster a sense of community across racial lines. We also committed to
identity development of multicultural student leaders by designating a portion of monthly meetings for
leadership development. Workshops included Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005), Racial
Identity Development, and Racism 101. The latter workshop drew from Dr. Beverly Tatum’s research
on systemic racism, which sparked outstanding dialogue around inter- and intra- tensions. Students’
willingness to address these very personal issues within their communities led to a stronger sense of
self among organizations.
Multicultural Leadership Institute
(MLI)
OMA launched our first-ever Multicultural
Leadership Institute (MLI), which sought
to provide weekend-long leadership
development as it relates to students’
racial/ethnic identities. We yielded over 50
applications of interests and accepted a
cohort of 32 individuals to attend. The
weekend was thoughtfully designed to
allow for dialogue drawing from Critical
Race Theory. Staff of various departments
from HSA were present and were able to
connect with students in ways they
otherwise are not able to on-campus.
Drawing from the Community Cultural
Wealth model (Yosso, 2005), we flipped the traditional Privilege Walk, and instead facilitated a