In January, members of MultiCulti — Urban’s diversity, equity and inclusion student leadership group — hosted 15 events aimed at community-building, cultural education and fostering radical hope as a part of the 19th annual Month of Understanding (MOU). All month long, students and faculty came together for discussion spaces, panels, food events, crafting and more.
MOU has been a school tradition since 2007, when students recognized a need for more formalized opportunities to learn about one another’s cultures and identities. That year, a small group of students hosted Urban’s first Diversity Day. Now, nearly two decades later, the 34 students in MultiCulti led three weeks’ worth of lunchtime events highlighting cultures, identities, current events and issues at Urban and beyond.
The theme for this year’s MOU was radical hope, a term students in MultiCulti came up with over the summer.
“For me, radical hope is the notion … that we need each other collectively: … as community members, as teammates, as friends, as necessary parts to a whole,” said Jason Ernest Feldman, Dean of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. “So much of our hope is intertwined. … And so, radical hope for me looks like knowing we can make a difference, [but] that we can’t do it if we don’t do it together.”
This year’s MOU included six events that were collaborations between multiple affinity spaces. Among these was the Black Student Union (BSU) and Asian Pacific Islander affinity space’s Jazz! event on Jan. 14.
“It was a mix I didn’t really expect, … but it was actually awesome,” MultiCulti Board of Directors member and open member Kavi Greenwood ’26 said. “It felt like a really unique opportunity to learn about something I’m interested in but wouldn’t normally actively seek out.”
Another particularly well-attended event was the Financial Aid and Socioeconomic Status (FASES) affinity space’s resume writing workshop. When planning their event, FASES co-leaders Audrey Thornton ’26 and Laia Trachtenberg ’26 considered how they could bring in as much of the community as possible. “We were aiming to have an event that honors FASES and helps our FASES kids, but also can apply to the … school as a whole,” Trachtenberg said.
FASES’s event took place on Jan. 22. The event featured a panel of seniors who gave advice on finding a job as a teenager, followed by the college counseling department and business office helping lead a resume-writing workshop.
“Part of MOU [is], ‘How far can I stretch this [event] where it still feels rooted in what our affinity space is?’” Thornton said. “But also, [it is] connecting with the Urban community and making it something that doesn’t feel [like] people are gonna read the title on the schedule and be like, … ‘It feels like they could have this as a meeting, and it feels like … I’m intruding a little bit on that space.’ I think we found a good balance.”
Interactive events like Scrapbooking and Journaling, Food as Stories, and Deportation & ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) were also popular. The Latinos Unidos and Kids of Immigrants affinity spaces co-hosted Deportation & ICE, during which speakers from community-based organization and immigrant rights advocacy group PODER led a know your rights training session.
“It was really impactful to have a professional speaker on that topic instead of [watching] an Instagram or social media video about deportation,” MultiCulti open member Brayden Wright ’26 said. “I could trust that what they were saying was actually what you’re supposed to do.”
Wright co-led the second annual Food as Stories event, which took place on Jan. 26. Students and faculty gathered in Treehouse to sample foods from their peers’ cultures and families while learning about the stories behind the recipes. “I’m glad everyone could enjoy themselves, have an MOU of celebration, learn about different cultures and eat different foods than they probably do on a regular basis,” Wright said.
MOU concluded on Feb. 2 with BSU and the Antiracist White Privilege Awareness (AWPA) ally space’s Mardi Gras Indians event. Attendees watched a documentary about New Orleans’ Mardi Gras Indians group; ate king cake, a traditional Mardi Gras pastry containing a small plastic baby that symbolizes luck and prosperity; and made beaded flowers and jewelry.
“I thought it was really, really educational,” Trachtenberg said. “I actually didn’t really know about the Mardi Gras Indians as a concept beforehand, … so it was interesting that I got to learn about something completely new.”
In a survey of 99 people conducted by the office of Equity and Inclusion, nearly all respondents reported attending one or more MOU events this year. Respondents each attended an average of four lunchtime events this MOU. “By and large, every event had beautiful attendance, and there was incredible participation [in] every single one. … [Yet] it’s never been about how many people walk in[to] the room, for me,” director of service learning Katina Papson-Rigby said.
Papson-Rigby pointed to community members’ eagerness to support one another as an indicator of MOU’s success. “So many folks were willing to quickly sign up in support of MultiCulti and in support of student vision, in support of our larger community and all of the goals that are underlying MOU every year,” she said. “That felt to me like real community.”
Students and faculty engaged with MOU in a variety of ways, including helping set up the rooms, speaking on panels and participating in discussions, creating crafts with peers, and welcoming presenters and guest speakers. “I hope we continue to push ourselves to think about what engagement look[s] like in MOU and in activism in general,” Feldman said. “And at the same time, [to] not compromise on the storytelling piece of it — continue to bring in stories of belonging and stepping out of our comfort zone.”
Trachtenberg shared a message for those who are hesitant to take part in the uniquely Urban tradition of MOU. “It’s one of my favorite things about Urban. Period,” she said. “I have friends at [other] school[s]. They don’t have stuff like this. So take advantage of it while you can.”