The Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding (CERRU) was founded in 2009 to facilitate cross-cultural engagement and advance understanding. We live in a society where difference of identity and opinion are the norm. More than ever, we need
leaders who can appreciate the creative power of diversity. Our programs empower students to listen, understand, and collaborate effectively with diverse groups of people through dialogue and shared experiences.
Our Story
Based out of Queens College, one of the most diverse campuses in the country, CERRU serves both the campus and the community. We train students in conflict resolution techniques and facilitation of small group dialogues. These students serve as recruiters
of other students, facilitators of the Center’s conflict resolution/dialogue sessions, and organizers of community projects. Additionally, we work with community groups to offer dialogues on topics of importance to their constituents.
Since its inception six years ago, CERRU has provided a safe space for Queens College students, faculty, staff, administration, and the surrounding community to discuss and transcend divisive issues. CERRU has taken on a range of issues, including:
- Islamophobia
- Responding to violence and terrorism
- Immigration
- Sex trafficking
- Violence against women
- The economic downturn & student debt
- The legacy of the civil rights movement
See examples on
Facebook
CERRU trains approximately twelve to fifteen students per year in intensive conflict mediation and facilitation skills, and these students are an integral part in developing the programming models for investigating each issue.
Our Changemakers: Our Students!
CERRU runs two fellowship programs and an ambassador program in which we train students to help realize a world where our differences inspire curiosity, collaboration, and innovation.
As a CERRU Dialogue Fellow, students are trained as facilitators to foster discussion of difficult issues and maintain a safe space
to share diverse ideas and opinions. Dialogue fellows identify hot-topic social issues on the campus. They design and facilitate campus-wide dialogues, inviting fellow students to discuss the issues in a safe space.
CERRU Social Change Fellows spend their first semester in the program identifying an area of social change on campus or
in the community and coming up with a strategy for catalyzing that social change. During the second semester, students implement their plan to influence social change through their individual projects.
Ambassadors collaborate with specific clubs with which they are involved in a group effort to understand and celebrate
diversity on our campus. These students learn how to address controversial issues in their own clubs, have the opportunity to cosponsor relevant events with CERRU, and assist us in building a community in which all feel welcome to join our events.
