My journey in becoming a Diversity Mark Officer

An insightful and very personal reflection by Rachel Gefferie: PhD student and Student Success Diversity Mark Officer

  "Rachel Gefferie - 2" by Rachel Gefferie.

It is 10.00am. Here I am, in my improvised study room, anxiously waiting for the computer to produce that terrifying sound of a Teams meeting being started. I have managed to secure an interview. Not just any interview, it is the interview that would determine whether I will be selected for one of the three vacant positions as a Diversity Mark Officer via the Careers and Employability Service Work Study Scheme at the University of Kent. I have positioned my camera a gazillion times. Trying to find the right angle. I must look professional and confident. I must admit, it has been a great while since I succeeded in convincing a potential employer to move on with me as an applicant. Trust me, I have applied for many jobs. Yet, every time I had to read another email, answer another phone call stating, ‘Dear applicant, there has been a great number of potential candidates for the role of… so unfortunately, you have not been selected for an interview’. I started questioning my ability to sell myself. But then there was this email from the Work Study Scheme program, asking, ‘Do you need help with your resume? Feel free to schedule an appointment with one of our advisors’.

Money was running low; my husband could not bear our monthly costs any longer by himself. As a mature PhD student, with previous experience as a lead social worker, I felt embarrassed to request help in something as basic as writing a resume. But I refused to listen to that nagging voice of doubt and shame. I scheduled the appointment, and the ball started rolling. It rolled in directions I would have never imagined.  I met this amazing advisor named Hannah. She helped me gain back my confidence. Her advice was straightforward; change your approach, re-arrange your resume, make it more about you; the person who is applying for the job. I learned to give more details about my ambitions, my social media presence, and my ability to engage with modern technology. Then I applied again and guess what? I am now a proud Diversity Mark officer, working with an amazing team, who are passionate, dedicated and determined to decolonise the curriculum of the University and make it inclusive for BME students and academics.

In hindsight, landing a job as a Diversity Mark Officer via the Work Study Scheme with the Student Success team at the University of Kent, was the second-best thing happening to me during the pandemic. The first one was me being able to return from the field, all the way in Suriname, South America, back to the UK to be safe and well with my husband. In fact, my job turned out to be an extension of my research topic. Exploring the politics surrounding the development of the Surinamese-Creole social-ethnic identity and how historical events tainted the perception and expectations of the Creole in Suriname, perfectly ties into the aims of the Diversity Mark initiative. Both deal with post-colonial events and the ghost-like effects in current daily life. Yes, I say ghost-like, because it does feel as if we are fighting a war against invisible, yet fierce forces who are haunting minority communities in society. In the case of my research, the Creole people in Suriname do belong to the group of ethnic minorities in the world. The so-called BME community (Black Minority Ethnic groups).

Not only has my view on job hunting changed, my understanding of sensitive topics such as racism, exclusion, inequality, and white privilege underwent a 180-degree change. Suddenly my own lived experiences became important.  For the first time, my story of being the only Dutch speaking black student from South America was not confusing, but valuable and inspiring to help someone else’s story gain recognition. In this case, the story of BME students struggling to find their space in a mainly white, knowledge orientated curriculum. BME students who long for a sense of belonging and the opportunity of sharing their own knowledge.

During the job interview I was painted a scenario where I had to convince a group of white male academics about the benefits of diversifying their module. Luckily, that scenario did not scare me off. In my role as a social worker in the Ministry of Social Services in Sint Maarten, I got used to dealing with challenging situations. Little did I know that this experience of working with drug addicts, broken families, teen moms, would come in handy for my task as a Diversity Mark Officer. In the very first meeting it became clear to me that establishing a bond with each one of the convenors, read white academics, would be crucial for me to succeed with the immense job of auditing a reading list. That is right! The main instruction in securing the mission is the auditing of the reading list. We were specifically advised not to use the word ‘auditing’, as somehow this word does not seem to go down well with academics. And I understand why. Imagine you being the academic expert, and some random student who is yet not fully seasoned, is going through your teaching material to determine whether you can improve your offering…

The Centre for journalism was placed under my wings, and their enthusiasm led to them requesting an audit of ALL their modules. To be honest, I was a bit terrified about doing this ‘auditing-thing’, but I have faced bigger challenges. So, off I went. Took on my first module, after having done a thorough organising of all the modules I was to review for the school. Allow me to briefly introduce to you, my workflow.

As I mentioned before, the first thing is to build a working relation with the convenors involved in the Diversity Mark program. Convenors would explain to me the technicalities, content, and aim of their modules. This helps me understand the sort of knowledge that students would be receiving and limitations that might go with providing this knowledge from a more diverse approach. Then it is time for the passive work, going through the weekly lectures and explore documents, files, articles, books that serve as a source of information. Moodle in this case becomes my best friend and companion for at least 2 weeks. I read through lecture material, listen to audio, and watch videos, meaning that for two weeks I am stepping into the shoes of the students who are enrolled in the module. I try to envision how I, as a BME student, would want the teaching material to reflect my own lived experiences, and how I would want to integrate my own knowledge in the module. Embracing my role as a BME student helps me to then finish the auditing with useful recommendations and relevant ideas. The best part is discussing my findings in a one-on-one session with the convenor and enquire their feedback on my analysis. I discuss assignments and activities that can enhance their module in representing the BME community and-or other faith based, gender-orientated students. So far, we have had amazing, constructive, cooperative feedback. The final step is producing an overall report of the reviewed modules and present it to the rest of the staff. I aim to include in the report specific actions that should be taken to actively make changes to the curriculum.

Remember I mentioned me being a Dutch-speaking-Black student? Right! My Dutch-tongue was another hurdle to overcome. I recall the numerous times I had to repeat myself. My Dutch accent would make simple wordings such as ‘the bathroom’ sound different and therefore understood poorly by anyone blessed with a very polite sounding English accent. I will spare you, my curious readers, the details of such embarrassing moments and continue enlightening you about my job. The point I am trying to make is that while this new job pushed me out of my comfort zone, it also introduced me to a world full of opportunities. Just the other day I was filling out a questionnaire from one of my PhD colleagues about the impact of the pandemic on our research as PhD candidates. If it were before I had this job, my answers would be as dark and depressing as could be, but now, my answers were full of promise, achievements, positivity and so on. My positive attitude was gained from my involvement in activities as part of my job. Activities such as writing this article, initiating evaluation meetings with convenors to help them put a bit more of that diversity flavour to their module, taking part in online talks about decolonisation, and the best part yet…working on my very own podcast episode where I was given the chance to share the work of a Dutch-Surinamese writer about White privilege. This podcast was produced from the reading group activity I did in celebration of WorldFest 2021. The theme was, ‘Liberating the minds of students from multiple voices and multiple authors from the Global South.’

Looking back, I am so proud of myself. Proud that I was willing to put aside my pride and dare myself to learn, listen and re-discover the world of modern job hunt. The message to my fellow mature students; be open to new things, keep on discovering, do not hold on to your previous experiences. Sometimes a new experience is of much greater value.