{"id":53952,"date":"2023-03-27T11:23:05","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=53952"},"modified":"2023-08-08T12:11:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T16:11:11","slug":"four-from-emu-attend-2023-mc-usa-hope-for-the-future-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/four-from-emu-attend-2023-mc-usa-hope-for-the-future-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Four from EMU attend 2023 MC USA Hope for the Future conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Two staff members and two students represented Eastern Mennonite University at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mennoniteusa.org\/ministry\/peacebuilding\/undoing-racism\/hope-for-the-future\/\">Hope for the Future conference<\/a> in Atlanta in February 2023. <strong>Shannon Dycus,<\/strong> vice president of student affairs and dean of students, and <strong>Jackie Font-Guzm\u00e1n,<\/strong> vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), joined sophomore engineering major <strong>Mana Acosta<\/strong> and junior music major <strong>Thaddeus Jackson<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The conference \u201cprovides 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.\u201d This year\u2019s theme, \u201cThe Book of Esther, Such a Time as This: Collective Trauma and Hope,\u2019\u201d was selected to provide \u201ca prompt for discussion on how to find hope in troubled times,\u201d specifically from college students who were invited to attend the conference for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMana 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,\u201d said Dycus, who was a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mennoniteusa.org\/news\/register-now-for-hope-for-the-future-2020-a-mennonite-church-usa-people-of-color-event\/\"> speaker at Hope for the Future in 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mennoniteusa.org\/menno-snapshots\/hope-is-a-practice-for-such-a-time-as-this\/\">Read a litany written by Dycus based on what she experienced at the conference.<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For Font-Guzm\u00e1n, the priority of intergenerational relationship building was clear. \u201cThere 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.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both Acosta and Jackson felt a sense of belonging at the conference. \u201cIt 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\u201d said Jackson.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt would be great if EMU and the Mennonite Church in general became a place where it felt like everyone\u2019s space instead of BIPOC people coming to a white person\u2019s space,\u201d added Acosta.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Acosta cited building a network and connecting with others who shared her experiences as a highlight from the conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Font-Guzm\u00e1n liked that the conference was organized \u201cwith the intentionality of being able to tap into groups that have historically not been at the table.\u201d Font-Guzm\u00e1n added that EMU needs to be more intentional about diversity, which is essential to connecting across differences and planting seeds of change. \u201cEMU students are diverse, but our faculty and staff are not\u2026 not only across race, but across religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two workshops Dycus attended focused on how to continue to engage DEI priorities across Mennonite institutions. \u201cDEIJ (justice) is a priority for EMU, and it is helpful to think with other leaders to discuss resources, strategies and challenges,\u201d said Dycus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All four attendees enjoyed honoring the elders at the Evening Gala where music played and everyone danced. \u201cBecause dance is so central to many of our cultures, it was another way to embrace and celebrate our identities,\u201d Dycus exclaimed. \u201cJoy is also an act of resistance, and we used our bodies to exhibit this joy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/events\/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D683893620\"><strong><\/strong><strong>Sue Park-Hur, MC USA director of racial\/ethnic engagement, was one of the primary planners of the conference and the<\/strong><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/events\/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D683893620\"><strong>speaker at EMU\u2019s Convocation on March 15,  2023<\/strong><\/a><strong> <\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/four-from-emu-attend-2023-mc-usa-hope-for-the-future-conference\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Four from EMU attend 2023 MC USA Hope for the Future conference<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":53953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14715,5861,17562,5642],"tags":[6795,17870],"feature":[17427,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-53952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-conferences-and-events","category-digest","category-faculty-and-staff","tag-diversity","tag-mc-usa","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Four from EMU attend 2023 MC USA Hope for the Future conference - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/four-from-emu-attend-2023-mc-usa-hope-for-the-future-conference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Four from EMU attend 2023 MC USA Hope for the Future conference - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/four-from-emu-attend-2023-mc-usa-hope-for-the-future-conference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-27T15:23:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-08T16:11:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu-wordpress-multisite-instance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/03\/27112047\/52679096356_e06cc7f615_k.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kate Szambecki\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kate Szambecki\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/four-from-emu-attend-2023-mc-usa-hope-for-the-future-conference\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2023\/four-from-emu-attend-2023-mc-usa-hope-for-the-future-conference\/\",\"name\":\"Four from EMU attend 2023 MC USA Hope for the Future conference - 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