My 1,2,3 ANALYSIS
) 1 or 2 issues that are personally most vital to me in 2025.
For decades at the end of the Fall semester, faculty, staff, and students from colleges and universities in the nation leave the campus to enjoy the winter holiday. This year, many of them left with a sense of uncertainty, unsure how lives would be when they return in the spring. I live in New Mexico—an immigrant and woman friendly state. I work for a public state university that, for over a century, has proudly opened its campus to faculty, staff, and students of various backgrounds. Most meaningfully, I work for the Division for Equity and Inclusion that runs programs to ensure everyone is treated with respect and dignity. My personal motto–Inclusive Excellence—aims to understand, respect, appreciate, and value each individual’s background and what they bring to our community. Inclusive Excellence is not just vital to my wellbeing as well as my professional growth, it is vital to our nation’s strength and world leadership.
2) What would you like to see happen regarding those issues?
Nationalism and Isolationism, when practice to an extreme, can be toxic to our nation’s consciousness. I would like to see our nation, both at the macro and micro level, practice nationalism and isolationism at a moderate level while considering inclusive excellence and taking into account of the cultural strength of those among us. I would like to see our policymakers making sure that they take care of our communities before indulging themselves in seizing global power. At the same time, I would like to see ordinary citizens cultivating a habit to understand, respect, appreciate, and value their neighbors, co-workers and community members of their strengths and contribution to our communities.
3) What will you be doing to reach those goals?
I will continue to practice inclusive excellence that aims to understand, respect, appreciate, and value each individual’s background and what they bring to our community. More importantly, I will raise my own awareness of my ignorance of other’s culture as well as helping others to open their mind and heart to learn more about the world around us.
Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash
Before moving to New Mexico, Julia worked for the Dallas College in Texas where she successfully expanded a $30-million privately-funded endowed scholarship program county-wide. She is a past President of the Texas Diversity Council and a past board chair of the Asian Chamber of Texas.
Julia’s passion is to raise one’s cultural competence of those that look and speak differently from them. In her free time, she volunteers at the Bernalillo Metropolitan County Court as a certified mediator and answers the crisis/suicide hotline for a local crisis center.
- TRENDS 2025: Inclusive Excellence – by Julia Wai-Yin So - January 5, 2025
- The Effects of SCOTUS Decision on One University – by Dr. Julia Wai-Yin So - January 4, 2024
- Stereotype and Character Assassination – by Julia Wai-Yin So - March 30, 2023