We'd Love Your Thoughts the RAPP 25 Year Reunion

Survey responses have been coming in steadily about the RAPP 25 Year Reunion.  Already I've learned some great things about what people thought worked and what we could do better next time - as well as some great ideas for the years in between.  Please keep the feedback coming!

If you were able to attend the reunion, please take a few minutes to complete this survey.  If you're a RAPPer who wasn't able to or didn't want to attend, we'd also love to learn from you about that - please take a few minutes to complete this survey.

Maurice H (VI) and Elmann C (X) checking out the photo table decorations.

More "RAPP Food"

This year's retreat made me reflect on one of our previous facilitators and debate whether to start another "RAPP Food" myth.

Steve Succop was a facilitator with RAPP XXII, XXIII, and XXIV. He was a last-minute replacement facilitater his first year and our office really won out with that decision. Steve became known for his great listening skills, his keen ability to connect students and their ideas, and his powerful words. Along with being an excellent facilitator, Steve played an integral role in the creation of the current RAPP curriculum.

Steve also likes gold fish crackers, so we bought a packet (or big pourable container) for each retreat.

(my favorite picture of Steve - taken during RAPP XXII with that year's "RAPP baby")

We're missing Steve this year (he's gone on to bigger and bolder things), but we brought him "in spirit" to the fall retreats. I say we start another "RAPP food" tradition in honor of Steve!

(RAPP XXV facilitators and Peer Leaders with "the new RAPP food")

-Rebecca

Heading Home, Pt. II

More pictures of RAPPers on retreat at Grailville. :)

RAPP XII in Hodie.A RAPP group (XIII , perhaps?) upstairs in Hodie.

XVIII relaxing in the basement of Hodie.

RAPP XXII waiting for the bus home on Spring Retreat.

RAPP XXIII waiting on the bus at Winter Retreat.

An Old Staff Quote

In the RAPP Scrapbooks we recently unearthed are many wise quotes from my many wise predecessors. Needing a moment of inspiration to go ahead and respite from the hecticness that is retreat prep, I looked back through the RAPP XII one.

Here's a quote from Maria P.P. Root included in the scrapbook by Azizi C. As we're prepping for exploring the social construction of race and as we briefly touched on the issues in "marking boxes" when one's identity is multiracial, this one stuck out to me as quite relevant to our current work. Spoiler alert to current RAPPers, but I also think it complements well this video we'll likely be watching at the retreat

I HAVE THE RIGHT...
Not to justify my existence in this world.
Not to keep the races separate within me.
Not to be responsible for people's discomfort with my physical ambiguity.
Not to justify my ethnic legitimacy.
I HAVE THE RIGHT...
To identify myself differently than strangers expect me to identify.
To identify myself differently from how my parents identify me.
To identify myself differently from my brothers and sisters.
To identify myself differently in different situations.
I HAVE THE RIGHT...
To create a vocabulary to communicate about being multiracial.
To change my identity over my lifetime - and more than once.
To have loyalties and identification with more than one group of people.
To freely choose whom I befriend and love.

An Amazing Find!

It seems that Jen, the Diversity Education Graduate Assistant this year, made an amazing discovery yesterday!

The RAPP Office has secret treasures buried throughout its many cracks, crevases, and shelves. Buried among that were some heretofore lost RAPP Scrapbooks. I'd heard about them from Kim McGinnis but hadn't seen one in person. What an amazing thing to go from having zero of to having three!

While I'm sad that the three folks whose scrapbooks we found no longer have theirs, I'm excited that we were able to get these pieces of RAPP history. I've just begun poring over them and already have learned some valuable things - to start with, the names of the people who went through RAPP that year!

If you see YOUR RAPP scrapbook among these three, please contact me and we'll get it home to you (hope you don't mind if we make copies first, though!).

(pic-the RAPP IX, XII, and XIV scrapbooks unearthed yesterday)
-Rebecca