Making/ Unmaking Ourselves in Academia

An Offering for Graduate Students of Color

program Overview

We look forward to seeing you for all or any part of the following...

Here are our Morning Offerings:

Descriptions

Session A: "The Intentional Care for the inner child: nurturing you in the corporate and non-profit sector"

Amira Elsheikh, m.ed.

This workshop/collaborative space is designed to support graduate students in caring for their inner child and supporting themselves intentionally post-graduate school. We will talk about how to accept and care for your inner child, share how to battle imposter syndrome and engage in strategic activities to support your self love journey. We'll conclude our time with a collective focus on how to bring your most authentic self to your work spaces while holding firm boundaries in the corporate and non-profit world.

Session B: "Creating inner sanctuary in and out of the academy"

Dr. E. Morales-Williams

In this 45 minute workshop, participants will work together to create a caring container for reflecting on the impact of white supremacy culture in graduate school and the stories we hold in our bodies around self and school. Participants can expect small group discussions to share resiliency practices, and time to create a sanctuary plan that maps out triggers, inner and external resources for self/co-regulation, and words of power to keep you in your power- in and out of the academy.

Session C: "Managing stress and imposter syndrome with self-compassion and neuroscience"

Chesy Tronchoni Bello, MS, MT-BC

During this psychoeducational and interactive workshop, participants will learn about the stress cycle, imposter syndrome, and how to manage these with self-compassion while staying grounded to their identities. We’ll explore themes such as setting healthy boundaries, engaging in sustained self-care practices, and how existing systems and cultures impact our wellbeing. Participants will leave with concrete examples of how to apply self-regulation techniques, self-awareness, and neuroscience to relieve stress. The workshop will be led by mental health counselor and music therapist Chesy Tronchoni Bello, MS, MT-BC, who will draw from her clinical experiences providing therapy services, as well as her lived experience as an immigrant and former international student.

Session D: "Krav conditioning"

Coach Fred blow Tydings

Distractions, doubts, and double standards are pervasive in our culture. Being of or akin to ancestors and people who have been historically oppressed offers a narrative of pain and perseverance, but that is only one angle from the kaleidoscope. Steadily rising, our power comes from within- we pull from what has been poured into us and nourish the connections around us. In this session, we will strengthen our confidence by practicing trust within ourselves and others through physical self-defense training. This trauma-informed Basic Self-Defense Course encourages community, forward-thinking, and wholistic health.

Here are our Afternoon Offerings:

Descriptions

Session E: Making/Unmaking Ourselves: an ongoing conversation

Dr. Liz Mendoza

This session is intended to hold space for a follow-up discussion to the lunch keynote presentation. During "Reclaiming our divine: Our journey back to ourselves”, Liz will weave narrative and theory to talk about healing as a process. Participants will reflect on their personal experiences with prompts and embodied reflection. This space is intended to hold conversations for any lingering reflections that want to be shared in community.

SESSION F: Healing through art

Hibah Rahmani

Art helps provide a way to express emotions and experiences not easily expressed through words.

Through the art we create, whether that be painting, drawing or sculpting we give ourselves the opportunity to express emotions of joy, love, rage and anger!

There are many different art mediums that we can explore. In this workshop we will explore painting with our emotions.

Session G: returning to self through care-centered movement

Camden Copeland

In this workshop we will use slow and intentional movement to regain a connection to self and find grounding. These practices can be returned to time and time again. Students are encouraged to bring a writing implement and something to write on and wear clothes that allow movement. If students have yoga mats (a towel works too) or props, they are invited to bring those as well.

Session II: Truth Telling: An Interactive Reading for Intergenerational Healing

Dr. Chenelle Boatswain, Christina Rodriguez & WesLey Alvers

We remember the riots of summer 2020 in Philadelphia and do not forget the virus of Anti-Blackness as a continued pandemic. Recognizing healing as an avenue of liberation, especially when thinking about the present and future of our children and next generation, we hold this space to collectively reflect, process, and proceed intentionally.

Join us for a whole family-friendly (adult and young person), group reading of Hold Them Close: A Love Letter To Black Children. Within its guilded graphics, the author's words guide us through time with respect to Black families, tragedy, truth, and intergenerational wisdom. In this children's book we receive encouragement and strategies for healing in community. We will identify recurring themes as a group and use a customized work/playbook for continued processing in smaller groups. Children will have the opportunity to be in their own focus/play group.

Un-Conference Organizers

Christina (Chris) Rodriguez

She/her/ella

Warrior Queen, Educator, and daughter of the universe,

Christina Rodriguez is a passionate, spiritually-led servant leader from Philly. To face the whole truth of her multiethnic identity, she is on a healing journey to better understand herself and practice unconditional love. Christina's personal work is undeniably tied to her professional prerogatives. She manifests peace by working with and supporting children, youth, young adults, families, and any open heart to personal growth and community change agency. With her partner, Christina is developing a collaborative that centers wholistic health, using Krav Maga, Breathwork, and community.

Her educational background and training include youth development, neuroscience & human behavior, and Breathwork (gratitude to Mama Ayo with Positive Energy Works). Christina offers praise to the Creator and receives gratefully lessons from caregiving and parenting, being in Love, wisdom from Elders, and being with Atabey, Mother Nature.

Krista Cortes, PhD

she/they

Krista L. Cortes, Ph.D. is a first-generation AfroPuerto Rican mother/scholar/activist who was born and raised in the diaspora. Her academic and professional career is defined by transformative research and practices that uplift people historically oppressed and marginalized in university settings. Through her work at La Casa, Krista seeks to create expansive understandings of Latinidad and Latinx identity by taking up the question – what do black-affirming educational spaces look like for AfroLatinx students?

Krista has experience in community organizing through her work with UAW 2865, the union for student workers in the University of California system. During her tenure as unit chair, UAW 2865 won contract protections for undocumented student workers, saw the creation of gender-neutral bathrooms across campus, and called for the de-militarization of the UCs. There is a continued need to agitate and organize at the intersections of workers’ rights and racial justice. Krista hopes to stoke the activist spirit among Penn students.

Krista earned her Ph.D. in Education from the University of California Berkeley. She holds two graduate degrees from Penn (Master of Science in Language and Literacy; Master of Science in Teacher Education). She earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Krista is a practicing Santera who enjoys exploring the natural world and learning alongside her two children.

Elizabeth (Liz) Mendoza, PhD

She/hers/ella

Guided by a desire to design educational spaces that center healing as foundation for learning, Elizabeth Mendoza, Ph.D., intersects sociocultural theories of learning, critical theories of race, and participatory action research together with practices and teachings from Curanderismo, a Mexican healing art, and other traditions of energy work.

As a witness to the dance of healing and trauma that is often unjustly demanded Communities of Color, her work focuses on the creating possibilities toward a more just society. Elizabeth believes that one step on this path starts with the centering of our own healing that deepens our connection to our inner wisdom, relations to each other, and to mother earth.

Mica Kong González, Ms.Ed.

She/hers/ella

Mica's experience as a first-generation American, Chinese-Uruguaya graduate student informs her work as a planning committee member. She holds a BSc from the University of Toronto and a M.S.Ed. in Mental Health and Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently an M.Phil.Ed candidate at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing licensure as a mental health therapist.

Mica has clinical training as a bilingual (Spanish/English) mental health therapist and is an intern at La Puerta Abierta serving the Latinx community in Philadelphia.

Mica has a deep passion for storytelling, Testimonio pedagogy, and Liberation Psychology.

"I come to you with love

In this World

there is more love

than time.

I come to you with the

readiness of skin, fearless.

Like fruit ripening."

(an offering by Fede Kong González, Mica's brother and inspiration)

Workshop Facilitators

Amira Elsheikh, M.Ed.

she/her

Amira, M.Ed is an Adult Learning Faciliatdor and a champion for educational equity for Black and Brown children across the country. She works hard to support the development of leaders and teachers. Her passion is ensuring that adults know how to adequately take care of themselves in the education world, both in school settings and the non-profit/private sector.

Chesy Tronchoni Bello, MS,

MT-BC

she/her/ella

Chesy is a bilingual mental health counselor and music therapist. An immigrant from Venezuela, she’s navigated academia and clinical spaces for almost a decade, finding passion in connecting with others through arts, self-discovery, and empowerment. Her clinical work is deeply rooted in mindfulness practices and intersectional feminism. When she’s not working with newcomer immigrant youth, you can find her practicing yoga, painting, or cuddling with her cat Doug.

Fred Blow Tydings

he/him

A Philadelphia native, Fred Blow Tydings is a certified personal trainer with a focus on self-defense. Fred partners with individuals and groups who wish to strengthen belief in self, promote positive self-esteem, and encourage self/situational awareness. He uses Krav Maga and tactical training to emphasize safety, personal strength, confidence in ability, and clarity of mind.

E. Morales-Williams, PhD

they/them

Bio forthcoming

Hibah Rahmani

they/them

Hibah Rahmani is a local artist and herbalist in Philadelphia who specializes in clay, painting, drawing and tattooing with a background in ceramics and fibers from the University of the Arts.

Through these mediums Hibah discovered an outlet for expression, passion and creativity that lead to a deeper understanding of self. They hope to connect with others who may feel overwhelmed by the weight emotions can bear and who may struggle to translate that into words. When they are not creating Hibah usually likes to spend their time in the kitchen cooking and baking, gardening or with their four fur babies.

Chenelle Boatswain, EdD

she/her

Chenelle is often thinking about the unseen barriers that brilliant womyn of color are negotiating to thrive and advance as professionals. When she is not working as an instructor for pre-service teachers and social workers or academic coaching with students, she could be found dancing or boxing. Chenelle is loved by two sweet fur babies with whiskers in West Philly.

Wesley Alvers

they/them

Wesley Alvers (they/them) is currently a second year MSW student at the School of Social Policy and Practice and is a social work intern at The LGBT Center. They have spent the most recent years of their career as a counselor at an Oregon-based abortion clinic and are looking forward to jumping back into the world of reproductive health equity. Along with a focus on the many facets of reproductive justice, they are grateful to celebrate the trans and gender expansive community both on Penn’s campus and within the broader Philadelphia area.

Camden Copeland

she/hers

Camden is an alignment-based hatha yoga teacher who sees yoga as a tool for collective healing. She began practicing in 2016 and has since fallen in love with the practice. Yoga has deeply impacted her relationship with herself and the world around her. Her classes are intended to build heat and find grounding. As a teacher, Camden's hope is to support her students in reconnecting with themselves and finding agency in their own bodies.

And a big thank you to the people who have supported this project

BAKARI WHITE

CATHERINE YUTING POLITYLLO

ELSIE LOPEZ

GAPSA

SPACE AND EVENTS STAFF

Thank you for sharing

space with us