Experience Journal

A.      Describe an organizational experience from your own life—either something that affected you personally, or

                something you witnessed—using the following criteria:

                1.   Think over the experiences you have had in organizations, especially those experiences having some relationship to identity or diversity.  Note that these could be experiences focused on your own identity, the identity of another person, or the collective identity of a particular social group within the organization.  You could write about the overall experience of one person or group within an organization, or you could describe one particular incident that seemed significant.  (If more than one story or situation comes to mind, use the one

                      that had the greatest emotional impact on you.)

                2.   Examples of the types of situations you might describe:

                      a.   A time when you or another person experienced discrimination within an organization.

                      b.   Your observation of how a particular identity group has received what you perceive to be unfair treatment within an organization.

                      c.   Your observation of how a particular group receives preferential treatment within an organization.

                      d.   A time when you or another person received unusual treatment (not necessarily negative) due to a lack of understanding about this person’s identity or culture.  For example, if something about this person’s identity seemed unusual to most people in the organization, they may have felt unsure as to how they should interact with this person. They may have intended to do “the right thing,” but the overall treatment of this person

                            seemed unusual or awkward.

                3.   Remember:  The word organization does not refer only to business or the workplace.  There are also social clubs, student & professional organizations, sports teams, volunteer groups, self-help groups, etc.

          B.  After telling the story, answer the following questions:

                1.   How did you feel about what you experienced or witnessed?  What were your emotions?

                2.   How did you perceive power functioning in this situation?  Of those involved, who seemed to have more formal or official power in the organization?

                3.   Ideally, how do you wish this situation had been addressed or handled differently?

              Minimum word count: 300