Virginia Beach City Public Schools will host a diversity workshop for middle and high school students who will serve their schools in the coming school year as Diversity Youth Ambassadors. The goal of this program is to impress upon students the value of diversity in a school by training students in strategies that will:

• reinforce how they can learn from each other’s differences;
• encourage a climate of mutual respect; and
• identify ways they can offer each other support.

The diversity workshop will be held Wednesday, July 18 from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at Virginia Wesleyan College. As part of the workshop, students will participate in training, hear about the importance of diversity to the Virginia Beach School Board from Board member Todd Davidson, create a diversity poster, and set goals for themselves and their schools for the coming school year. In addition to the student participants, a faculty member from each middle and high school will also attend the workshop. These staff members will serve as advisors for diversity initiatives in their schools this coming school year.

For further information about the workshop or the Diversity Youth Ambassadors, contact Lionel Jackson, principal of Holland Elementary School and coordinator of the Diversity Youth Council, at 427-1880 or Bruce Phelps, student activities coordinator, at 263-2030.