{"id":1521,"date":"2013-08-28T10:58:42","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T14:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/2013\/08\/transylvania-kicks-off-still-overcoming-striving-for-inclusiveness-a-year-long-celebration-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T10:18:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T14:18:49","slug":"transylvania-kicks-off-still-overcoming-striving-for-inclusiveness-a-year-long-celebration-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/1780\/2013\/08\/transylvania-kicks-off-still-overcoming-striving-for-inclusiveness-a-year-long-celebration-of-racial-and-ethnic-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Transylvania kicks off \u201cStill Overcoming: Striving for Inclusiveness,\u201d a year-long celebration of racial and ethnic diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEXINGTON, Ky.\u2014The year 1963 was a watershed for race relations\u2014both nationally and at Transylvania University.<\/p>\n

Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech in Washington, D.C. Around the same time, Lula Morton Drewes \u201867 became the first African-American student to enroll in the regular B.A. degree program at Transylvania, an act that heralded the beginning of desegregation at the university.<\/p>\n

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\nDrewes will soon mark the 50th anniversary of her enrollment with a return to campus. She\u2019ll speak at Transylvania\u2019s fall convocation, which formally opens the academic year, at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 in Haggin Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

The convocation will kick off a year-long celebration and discussion at Transylvania titled \u201cStill Overcoming: Striving for Inclusiveness.\u201d The program will focus on the advent of a more enlightened attitude toward racial and ethnic diversity, which Drewes\u2019s arrival on campus has come to symbolize, and on other events that have furthered this purpose over the years.<\/p>\n

Additional speakers, scholarly presentations, panel discussions, film screenings, and music and artistic programs are among the other activities being considered for Still Overcoming. It will center not only on Transylvania\u2019s experiences, but also on related issues in America both past and present.<\/p>\n

\u201cRace is obviously still an issue in this country, and we want it to be the starting point for our conversation at Transylvania as we celebrate 50 years of desegregation,\u201d said Eduardo Nino-Moreno, director of campus diversity and inclusion, who is coordinating Still Overcoming. \u201cBut we also want to embrace the broadest possible definition of diversity as we look for ways to be more inclusive on campus and in our wider interactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Drewes, \u201cWe are thrilled to have her come back to Transylvania for convocation and for our program of celebration as we look back on some of the formative events in the university\u2019s history relating to tolerance and openness,\u201d Nino-Moreno said.<\/p>\n

Drewes, a 1967 Transylvania graduate and a 1963 graduate of Lexington’s Bryan Station High School, went on to earn a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University and currently works as a clinical psychologist and wellness coach in Berlin, Germany. She has worked in private practice and in family counseling, mental hospital, and academic settings in Germany and the United States.<\/p>\n

In addition to her convocation speech, Still Overcoming events will include:<\/p>\n