Section BEG2B

On Thrusday, November 12, I attended the global awareness workshop during club hours in room 2-125.  The name of this workshop is Coloring up you future.  During this workshop, politician and successful businessman Alfonso Quiroz discussed his political and workplace career.  While the original goal of the workshop was to discuss being openly gay in politics, Alfonso also spoke about other problems he has faced with ethnicity in politics and the workplace.  Alfonso gave us somewhat of a summary of his career since he was in high school and how he got into politics and public work.  Alfonso also discussed how he feels being a mix of multiple ethnicities has effected his career, as people of each of his ethnicities do not see him as dominantly anything, yet they often view him as trying to be something.  For example, he discussed how he is part Mexican, but he has often received somewhat of discrimination from Mexicans because he is not completely Mexican, yet he does establish himself as being part-Mexican.  The main point that Alfonso made throughout the workshop was that in order to live somewhat of a happy life, an individual must simply be what they are and not try to hide anything from his/her co-workers.  By this, Alfonso did not mean to broadcast oneself as being a certain sexuality or a certain ethnicity, yet not to pretend to be someone he/she is not in order to appease anyone.  This workshop was a little out of my comfort zone being that I am not gay, but I am glad that I attended it because Alfonso discussed greater aspects of careers than simply homosexuality.  I would recommend this workshop to another student because it is a great opportunity to learn about the importance of individuality within the workplace.

This workshop was done to fulfill my career section. At first, it was frustrating a little because the room was way different and I thought that we wouldnt be able to attend it due to limited seating. We got the seats though. I was there with Agnes, Michael, Jeffrey and Brian. The workshop host was about a gay guy who was part of the LGBT community. In this, he talked about how he was turned gay at the age of 27 and before that, how he got an internship working under the administration of Bill Clinton. He said that it was one of the most memorable experiences ever because many people dont work with the President everyday. He talked about how hard his life was not because he was gay, but because people were being racist towards his ethnicity (he was Latino and German I believe). His main point, in the end, was the fact that whether you work in New York, or anywhere, people will always want to put you down so that they can succeed and they can push you back. He said that you have to ignore those people and always strive your best and reach to the top so that you can become successful.

At first, it was difficult to find this workshop because there was something wrong with the room number; however, I was really happy to find subway sandwiches and soda for everyone attending this workshop. While I was eating my sandwich, I could not stop listening to this speaker. Although I don’t remember his name, he was a great speaker. He was easy to understand and his concerns and thoughts about gays in the real world were true to our current time.
This workshop was definitely something that is not common therefore forced us to think outside of our comfort zone.  The speaker helped me try to understand the point of view of a gay man out to achieve his goals. I recommend this workshop for others who are willing to see a different side of gays today.