About 100 ISU students will gather this weekend to learn how their multiple identities affect diversity on campus.

On Friday and Saturday, students will participate in the Third Annual Multicultural Leadership Summit. This year’s slogan, “Don’t Sleep Through the Revolution,” that is designed to show students they should be aware of what is going on around them.

Dr. Rebecca Gutierrez Keeton, director of the Student Life and Cultural Affairs Office at California State University in Pomona, will be this year’s guest facilitator.

“This year, I know our facilitator will be focusing on multiple identities and how they interact within one person,” said Jeremy Hayes, member of the planning committee for the summit and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Student Services coordinator.

The Multiculture Leadership Summit began three years ago. Susana Munoz, minority liaison officer for the College of Education, and Vernon Wall, assistant dean of students, organized the first event.

Munoz said she saw positive results from a similar program at her graduate school, Colorado State.

She said she saw the need for a diversity program at Iowa State and got together with Wall to create the program.

“We need to get students to start talking about [diversity], and start taking some action,” Munoz said.

Munoz, summit planning committee member, said each student possesses different identities according to race, gender, ethnicity and a number of other identifiers.

“All those multiple identities make up who we are,” Munoz said.

The summit will raise the awareness of multiculturalism and diversity at Iowa State, Munoz said. “We want to make Iowa State more diverse and inclusive,” she said.

Munoz said facilitators hope to empower students and let them know they have the power to be change agents on campus.

That’s exactly what Hayes said he wants to see students learning from the summit.

Hayes said the program is also designed to give students an opportunity to come up with goals and an action plan for what they would like to see changed on campus and in their own behaviors and ideas.

“Hopefully [students will] leave here with some new ideas and strategies and goals,” he said.

Diversity plays a major role in the lives of students on campus, Hayes said.

“[We’re] giving students an opportunity to come together and really learn from each other,” Hayes said. “They learn from other people, and also they learn more about themselves as individuals, and what they bring to the table.”

This year’s summit will consist of small “cluster group” meetings, large group sessions and self assessments.

The Third Annual Multicultural Leadership Summit will be Friday and Saturday at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and Student Center, and will be free of charge.