Towards a More Inclusive Shansi
By Ted Samuel, Senior Director
This reflection was originally posted in our 2020-2021 Annual Report.
On June 7th, 2020 at an online Town Hall for our alumni and supporters, Gavin and I publicly discussed our goal of fostering a more inclusive Oberlin Shansi. We noted that the “democratization of international opportunities” was among our core values that were reinforced during the turbulent early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our conversations around equity and inclusion in 2020 were both practical and aspirational. As Fellows evacuated, pressing questions emerged. What if a Fellow did not have a safe place to stay in their home country? What if they did not have support of biological or chosen family networks upon reentry? What if non-US citizens were unable to return to their home country at all? During a time of uncertainty and disruption, it was our duty to ensure that evacuation procedures extended beyond the Fellows’ arrival to their home soil.
After working with each Fellow on a reentry plan (which ensured that we provided an option for long-term housing, continued financial support, and ways to continue their Fellowship work remotely), we continued to grapple with the limitations of international exchange programs writ large. We believe that international and intercultural exchanges should be universal opportunities, regardless of a participant’s race, class, gender identity or expression, sexuality, caste, creed, or disability. However, the pandemic reinforced the fact that some Fellows face compounding challenges due to social factors outside of their control.
Even before the pandemic, we were working toward a more equitable Shansi. In 2019, the Shansi Fellowship was, to our knowledge, the only US-based international fellowship that hosted orientation panels and mentorship opportunities for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC Fellows. We partnered with the Multicultural Resource Center to cultivate inclusive recruitment and made application support more comprehensive to ensure that all prospective candidates could seek coaching throughout the selection process. Furthermore, we maintained transparency with our partner organizations when discussing policies relating to discrimination and harassment.
We understand that robust, inclusive Fellow support requires more than just time, labor, and expertise; it also requires resources. In 2021, we launched the Fellow Support Fund, in part to provide opportunities for Fellows affected by the pandemic to extend their Fellowships or to travel to Asia independently. However, the long term objective for this fund is to provide expanded coverage for mental health and grants for low-income Fellows as they seek professional opportunities in Asia and launch the next stages of their careers post-Fellowship.
Our mission is to join worlds between individuals, institutions, and communities in Asia and North America. However, this mission does not exist in a vacuum. Meaningful international exchange requires dialogue about critical issues, including institutional racism, gender-based discrimination, LGBTQ+ rights, and systematic inequality. Shansi is still evolving. We will continue to reflect deeply on our work and make actionable steps to ensure that our programs are, by design, for everyone.