By: Jessica Liu, `13

It’s hard to sit down and try to articulate all the events that occurred during our first day at Student Diversity Leadership Conference, which was filled with intensive yet rewarding group sessions from 9 am to 10 pm. Our jammed packed day kicked off with Helene Cooper, the White House correspondent for New York Times and the SDLC keynote speaker, who spoke about focusing on the “little things” and “little details” that make all the difference in life.

In fact, it was indeed these little details that made my experiences today moments I will never forget. Over 1,300 students were split into multiple groups called families, which composed of approximately 60 students each. Within our families, the main topics we discussed were religion and ethnicity. Although we all came from different states, whether we came from a school with no diversity or a lot of diversity, all our stories seemed to overlap in one way or another. The little details included the reactions to the comments made about these topics. There was nothing more rewarding than having someone nodding in approval to a comment I made because he or she knew the emotions I felt. Today, I was able to speak without the fear of judgement or prejudice from the people surrounding me. Today, I was willing to accept new people openheartedly. Today, I found a new family in the Leland group with whom I shared my little details with. It was the little things that truly brought a big family together.