An opportunity for students to learn how to make positive changes on campus begins Friday with the fourth annual Multicultural Leadership Summit.

This year’s guest facilitator is Felice Yeskel, a faculty member of the Social Justice Education Program at the University of Massachusetts. She has a background in economic justice and social change and provides training on diversity and multicultural issues.

“The goal is to train students to become change agents and to go back out into the world to be more comfortable, more understanding and more open,” said Ramsey Tesdell, sophomore in technical communication.

Students who attend the two-day event, to be held in Room 136 of the Union Drive Community Center, will be divided into clusters and then guided through activities and conversations with two trained facilitators.

The students are then required to meet back with their facilitators after the summit at other diversity conferences Iowa State is involved with.

“It’s about learning about yourself and others … It’s easy for people to stay in their comfort zones. This is an opportunity to be a more thoughtful person and change common perceptions people have of each other,” said Pete Englin, dean of students.

“We’re not always good at expressing our thoughts and feelings, and this is a chance to create a positive change,” he said.

The summit is different each year because of the different participants, said Vernon Wall, assistant dean of students.

“The participants get a sense of who they are,” Wall said. “There is a tremendous impact on individual participants, and they take that change in themselves to aspects of their own communities.”

Students change because of their experiences, he said.

“The summit varies each year depending on the guest facilitator … it takes on whatever aspect they bring to it,” said Jeremy Hayes, a summit facilitator and graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies. Hayes said he has attended all four summits.

“It’s really powerful to see other people on campus and committed to change,” he said.

Karli Rainey, a summit facilitator and graduate student in educational leadership and policy studies, said she would like this summit to help move the ISU campus closer to ISU President Gregory Geoffroy’s diversity initiative.

“It’s great to see how many students want to know about multicultural issues,” she said.

Wall said there’s no limit on the number who can participate, except for space limits.

“We never turn anyone away who wants to participate … every year we have 100 to 110 students”, he said.

Students are required to register for the summit, but it is free. Students can register through the Web site at www.dso.iastate. edu/cgi-bin/sac/mls/partapp.