Amanda Jantzer ’04 is one of the faculty members involved in Becoming Community, an intentional practice with the vision of creating transformative inclusion.
Transformative inclusion differs from inclusion in this way:
Inclusion says, “You’re here! Join us. We’ll help you adapt to who we are and how we do things.”
Transformative inclusion says, “You’re here! Now the us is new. Together, let’s discover what the new us is.”
Transformative inclusion deconstructs the center in interaction with newcomers, so that the voices, experiences, and cultures of all community members are reflected in our new institutional norms and our self‐understanding.
Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s plan to undertake and model an intentional practice of community formation based in transformative, rather than primarily reactive and additive, inclusion.
The project will involve a cycle of learning, practicing, teaching, and sharing, to ensure that we embed inclusion deeply and widely on campus and share what we learn with others.