Two staff members and two students represented Eastern Mennonite University at the Hope for the Future conference in Atlanta in February 2023. Shannon Dycus, vice president of student affairs and dean of students, and Jackie Font-Guzmán, vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), joined sophomore engineering major Mana Acosta and junior music major Thaddeus Jackson at the annual gathering of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) leaders from Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) conferences, congregations, agencies, constituency groups, affiliated schools, and ministry partners.
The conference “provides a safe setting to assess the present reality and experiences of BIPOC leaders within Mennonite Church USA and to address ways to grow in solidarity across cultural, racial and intergenerational lines for systemic transformation.” This year’s theme, “The Book of Esther, Such a Time as This: Collective Trauma and Hope,’” was selected to provide “a prompt for discussion on how to find hope in troubled times,” specifically from college students who were invited to attend the conference for the first time.
“Mana and Thad are making an impact on campus, and we thought they could be enhanced by this experience and share their learnings with the EMU community over the next year or two,” said Dycus, who was a speaker at Hope for the Future in 2020.
Read a litany written by Dycus based on what she experienced at the conference.
For Font-Guzmán, the priority of intergenerational relationship building was clear. “There was a nice holding of that space between honoring those who had built this conference, and at the same time, looking at the future generations.”
Both Acosta and Jackson felt a sense of belonging at the conference. “It was nice to be in a space where everyone was Mennonite and no one was white. Not that white Mennonite spaces are bad, but it was comfortable, more comfortable than I expected” said Jackson.
“It would be great if EMU and the Mennonite Church in general became a place where it felt like everyone’s space instead of BIPOC people coming to a white person’s space,” added Acosta.
Acosta cited building a network and connecting with others who shared her experiences as a highlight from the conference.
Font-Guzmán liked that the conference was organized “with the intentionality of being able to tap into groups that have historically not been at the table.” Font-Guzmán added that EMU needs to be more intentional about diversity, which is essential to connecting across differences and planting seeds of change. “EMU students are diverse, but our faculty and staff are not… not only across race, but across religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Two workshops Dycus attended focused on how to continue to engage DEI priorities across Mennonite institutions. “DEIJ (justice) is a priority for EMU, and it is helpful to think with other leaders to discuss resources, strategies and challenges,” said Dycus.
All four attendees enjoyed honoring the elders at the Evening Gala where music played and everyone danced. “Because dance is so central to many of our cultures, it was another way to embrace and celebrate our identities,” Dycus exclaimed. “Joy is also an act of resistance, and we used our bodies to exhibit this joy.”
Hope for the Future was co-sponsored by MC USA Executive Board and MC USA agencies Everence, Mennonite Education Agency and Mennonite Mission Network. Everence and the Schowalter Foundation provided funding to sponsor Acosta and Jackson.