Curled up on a sofa seat in her softly lit apartment with Benjie, her cat, Lucia Reyes, sophomore in computer engineering, recalled her experiences during the 2007 ISCORE conference with a smile on her face.

“Through the whole process, you grow so much; it changes the way you look at things,” Reyes said.

The Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity is a student-led conference based on the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity – NCORE.

It hosts presentations and speeches focused on creating an “ongoing dialogue on race and ethnicity” at Iowa State.

Last year, in spite of a tremendous snowstorm the day of the conference, 450 members of the ISU community turned up. Registration for next year’s event was closed Nov. 16.

Student presenters at ISCORE participated in NCORE the previous summer. As part of the requirements of attending NCORE, they are required to attend a spring training course before the conference and register for a fall semester course based on their presentation at ISCORE.

“There are a lot of networking opportunities. You get to meet different people within the school that maybe you did not know before,” said Kelsey Manning, junior in animal science and alumnus of ISCORE 2007.

Reyes, who participated in NCORE 2006 after her freshman year, described the conference as an unforgettable experience.

When she arrived in Chicago for the conference, she said with a laugh, the most mentally exhausting part of her entire trip was not the grueling discussion sessions held throughout the day on topics ranging from discrimination to defining cultural identity – instead it was getting acclimated to downtown Chicago.

“Since I was not in Ames when the group drove to Chicago from school, I had to fly there from Texas. And, let me tell you, grabbing a cab in Chicago to get to the hotel was no joke,” Reyes said.

Kellogg Japannah, director of the ISU student support services program and chairman of the ISCORE planning committee, describes the conference as “a labor of love” and “a good cultural experience for all that are involved.”

“ISCORE is something that changes the concept of race and ethnicity at Iowa State; each year it has a different twist,” he said.

Sponsored by the Vice President for Student Affairs Office, ISCORE 2008 will also host a few guest speakers that embody the characteristics of cultural awareness members of the ISCORE planning committee hope to instill in the Iowa State community.

Included in the list of speakers is Billy Mills, a native American who won an Olympic gold medal in the 10,000-meter run in 1964.

Possible topics to be presented at this year’s ISCORE include discussing the “model minority,” which includes: Asian-Americans, interracial dating beyond race and society and “The Black and White Keys: How Music Brings Cultures Together.”

Since its inception eight years ago at Iowa State, ISCORE been limited to just the ISU community. Japannah said this is because the conference is still relatively new for both the people involved in planning it and as the people participating in it.

“ISCORE is simply the starting point, something to spark conversation,” he said. “With topics like this people may think ‘Oh, I’m not welcome.’ But the conference is not only for people of color, but basic Iowans as well. It brings a different perspective to the table.”

More actual conversation about racial equality is something that is needed, Japannah said.

ISCORE 2008 is scheduled for March 7, 2008, in the Memorial Union.