Philanthropy Week includes a Workshop on being identity conscious while giving back. Credit: Courtesy of Lizzy Ehren
Giving back to the community can quickly turn negative when social identity and privilege are not considered, and the Student Philanthropy Council wants to educate others about this issue Thursday.
As part of Philanthropy Week to protect social identities and privileges, the Department of Student Philanthropy is hosting the interactive workshop “Being Identity Conscious while Giving Back.” Students will discuss how their own social identities impact volunteering and learn tangible skills to be intentional with the people they serve, according to the event’s website.
Lizzy Ehren, a graduate assistant for student philanthropy and a second-year master’s student in higher education, said the workshop will teach students how to avoid potentially harming other communities.
“Most philanthropic work is really great but sometimes if people don’t take time to think through questions related to identity, privilege, equity and justice and giving back, sometimes they can do more damage than good,” Ehren said.
Ehren said the Student Philanthropy Council defines philanthropy as giving back to your community with time, talent and treasure — this workshop will focus on time and talent.
“I think when people hear philanthropy they think we’re just talking about giving back monetarily because that’s how it’s been used in the past,” Ehren said. “But we also like to do a lot to highlight how students can volunteer and give their time or how students can use their expertise and talents to give back.”
Anna Wagner, assistant director of student leadership development, will facilitate the workshop and said she hopes students leave with an increased sense of self-awareness.
“I hope they will get out of it a shared set of common language that they can use to talk about their own continued learning and development,” Wagner said. “I hope that students will get out of it a commitment to finding a cause to give back through that [which] feels right to them when they’re grounded in their own identities and when they’re reflecting on the identities of others.”
Wagner said students will discuss ways in which they can use the consideration of other identities in philanthropic work. The workshop will encourage students to do their own “homework” and research about different identities.
Ehren said the goal of including this workshop in philanthropy week is to help students raise critical questions related to giving back.
“I think the main hope is to just get people to pause and have those reflective moments,” Ehren said. “Because unfortunately, we don’t want to create a campus community where people are coming in and just assuming what others need or are not going in with a really intentional mindset.”
Wagner said she hopes students know this event is open to anyone excited to join.
“There’s not necessarily a preset amount of knowledge you have to have around topics around identity or privilege or philanthropy,” Wagner said.
The workshop will take place from 4-5 p.m. Thursday in the Hays Cape Room at the Ohio Union. Students can register online on the Student Philanthropy website.
This story was updated at 10:39 p.m. to clarify the event was hosted by the Department of Student Philanthropy.
