Peer education program promotes diversity

Now that reading days have arrived -- during the deceptive calm between the cessation of classes and the start of final exams -- Navneet Khera can finally slow down. Program Coordinator for the Greenfield Intercultural Center and a fourth-year Ph.D candidate in the University's Education, Culture and Society Program, Khera has been keeping a frantic PACE all semester. He is behind the development and implementation of Programs for Awareness in Cultural Education, a peer education program dedicated to "reopening difficult but necessary cross-cultural dialogues" at the University. "I designed PACE because of my own experiences with difference, both inside and outside of the University," Khera said last week. "Peer education programs have always fascinated me -- they are the most effective way to reach students on campus and educate them," he added. "There is a greater level of receptivity to discussion of [cultural awareness] when it is facilitated by students." As part of his dissertation research, Khera formulated the PACE curriculum -- readings, "segment" seminars with independent consultants, and internship and externship opportunities under the motto "Difference is not deficiency" -- for 20 students selected as PACE peer facilitators in the fall. According to a pamphlet Khera is currently preparing, the facilitators represent a range of racial backgrounds and age groups. They are enrolled in three of the University's undergraduate schools -- the College of Arts and Sciences, the Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science -- as well as in graduate-level programs in the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Education. "We didn't set out to do this," Khera said. "It's a microcosm of the campus itself, which I think is wonderful. "They bring the richness of diverse perspectives to the brainstorming of solutions and design of workshops, which eventually reflect a wide spectrum of ideas," he added. "PACE is not about particular ideologies -- it's about providing safe forums for the discussion of all ideas." Wharton junior Samuel Rivera, chairperson of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztl

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