Advancing Cultural Competency Certificate

 Certificate/Sticker Design by Artist, Morgan Hernandez

This certificate will be awarded to individuals who:

• Engage meaningfully in the foundational workshop sessions
• Attend supplemental events on campus to further one’s exploration of cultural competency issues
• Collaborate within the Advancing Cultural Competency Learning Community to spread the awareness gained through this program to foster a positive climate on campus

Consider participating in ACCC! 
Watch HERE for Fall 2022 Application!

SUNY Geneseo Facilitators:

robbie routenberg, Chief Diversity Officer                               

Sarah Frank, Director of Residence Life

Dave Parfitt, Director of Teaching and Learning Center

Monica Schneider, Professor of Psychology

Suann Yang, Associate Professor of Biology

Mark Howlett, Head Men's Soccer Coach, Intercollegiate Athletics

The Advancing Cultural Competency Certificate (ACCC) is designed to help staff, faculty, and administrators contribute meaningfully to our campus climate where all of our members thrive. This certificate is merely one piece of our ongoing efforts to enhance diversity and inclusion at Geneseo. It builds on our twenty-year history of the President’s Commission on Diversity and Community as well as ongoing research   and programmatic efforts of faculty, staff, committees, task forces, and departments supporting diversity. It is made available to all employees including classified staff, Campus Auxiliary Services employees, faculty, professional staff and administrators, as everyone influences our campus climate.

We understand that as individuals we all have different backgrounds and experiences that shape who we are today. The learning community design of this program provides growth opportunities for all participants regardless of previous knowledge or skills, acknowledging everyone has room to grow and learn. We expect this Advancing Cultural Competency Certificate program will benefit participants not only professionally, but personally as well.  

ACCC participants join a sustained Advancing Cultural Competency Learning Community. Members of this learning community benefit by being part of a group with an intentional representation of faculty/staff/administration from a wide range of campus affiliations. This intentional diversity allows for the exploration of cultural competency issues in a more complex way, and the consideration of a wider range of implications for the campus. This learning community serves as a cohort for relationship building and co-engagement in foundational workshops, with an emphasis on skill development and application to benefit the larger campus community beyond the cohort. 

• Foundational Workshops: Foundational topics will provide background on key cultural competency issues for everyone to explore; we will also provide information about other campus workshops and events to supplement the learning while allowing more scheduling flexibility. 
• Application: The learning community will identify ways to spread awareness gained through this program beyond the membership of the cohort. There are endless possible methods for creating this ripple effect; we look forward to the creative efforts to shift our campus climate.

This certificate program is designed to empower individuals with cross-cultural knowledge, understanding, tools, skills, and resources that:

• Develop and advance self-awareness of their own identity and culture
• Transform their personal and professional environments to be more inclusive and culturally supportive
• Will positively impact the cultural climate across the Geneseo college community

In order to accomplish the above goals, individuals within the learning community will develop a continued understanding of topics such as implicit bias, institutional racism, privilege, power, bystander intervention strategies, and how to facilitate change.

Check out our change makers! ACCC Alumni 

Feeling inspired? Apply to join the Spring 2024 cohort.