Community Intercultural Relations Conference
The Community Intercultural Relations Conference (CIRC) is an annual event held on the shared campus of Central Ohio Technical College (COTC) and The Ohio State University at Newark. The conference features speakers, workshops, and networking and aims to raise awareness of social and cultural similarities and build an inclusive community. Attendees include business, nonprofit, education and community leaders, as well as faculty, staff, students and alumni from K-12 and higher education institutions throughout the region.
Friday, April 11, 2025
8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
Melissa Warner Bow Grand Hall
John Gilbert Reese Center
1209 University Drive, Newark, Ohio
Cost
$50 per person
Includes breakfast and lunch
Connecting Cultures, Strengthening Communities
Central Ohio’s evolving cultural diversity landscape makes this community a special place to live, work and play. The community and the people and organizations within it are much stronger when we welcome the full array of people and ideas that are here and open ourselves up to learning more. We proudly present the theme for the 16th Annual Community Intercultural Relations Conference (CIRC): “Connecting Cultures, Strengthening Communities.” Join us to participate in breakout sessions featuring speakers from diverse sectors and an astounding keynote that will inspire us all. Leave with action steps to help you shape an organization and community that truly serves and embraces everyone.
Conference Learning Objectives
- Participants will reflect on and define cultural diversity.
- Participants will explore how engaging cultural backgrounds and identities of all types strengthens organizations and communities.
- Participants will be exposed to strategies for building effective communication and partnerships in a culturally diverse community.
Speakers
Sara Abou Rashed
Arab-American poet, storyteller and public speaker
Sara Abou Rashed’s writing appears widely in Poetry Magazine, Poetry Wales, The Kenyon Review, The LA Review of Books as well as the latest high school English curriculum from McGraw Hill, among others. At 19, Sara created the autobiographical one-woman show, “A Map of Myself,” narrating her family’s displacement story, which she has performed over 17 times across the country. She has keynoted multiple national conferences, including Senator Sherrod Brown’s Women’s Leadership Summit and the American Foreign Service Intercultural Exchange Program. A former poetry fellow at the Vermont Studio Center, Sara has delivered a TEDxTalk and was selected as one of 20 international students for The New York Times’ Athens Democracy Forum. With a BA from Denison University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, Rashed is currently teaching and writing in Columbus.
Jennifer De Leon
Award-winning Latina writer focused on young adult and memoir/essays
Born in the Boston area to Guatemalan parents, Jennifer De Leon is the award-winning author of the YA novels Borderless, which was featured on The Today Show, and Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From. She is also the author of White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, and Writing which won the Juniper Prize from the University of Massachusetts Press. She is currently working on two children’s picture books: Sammy and Samuel and a biography of Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú. De Leon is also the editor of Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education, an International Latino Book Award-winning anthology. As a tenured associate professor of creative writing at Framingham State University and faculty member for the Newport MFA program directed by Ann Hood, she has published prose in over a dozen literary journals including Ploughshares, Iowa Review, Michigan Quarterly Review and more. She is also a contributor on NPR.
Breakout Topics
- Providing Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) presented by Denise Martin, Shuayb (Jet) Jama and Janai Troutman from the Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS)
- Breaking Down Physical Barriers Increases Community Inclusion presented by Jennifer Corcoran, Kim Kirkwood and Matthew Helton
- Community and Connection in Religious, Spiritual and Secular Communities presented by Chaplain and Director of the Spiritual Life Center at Denison University, Stephanie McLemore
- What Does it Really Feel Like presented by award-winning Arab-American poet, storyteller and public speaker Sara Abou Rashed
Sponsors
Bronze Sponsor
Vorley Taylor Champion Award
Presented at CIRC, this award recognizes exceptional diversity and inclusion contributions in the community.
Submit a nomination
About the Community Intercultural Relations Conference and Committee
To complete the mission of raising awareness of social and cultural similarities and building an inclusive community, the Community Intercultural Relations Conference (CIRC) Committee hosts an annual conference on the cost-shared campus of Ohio State Newark and COTC addressing topics around a current theme. The committee brings speakers to Licking County from Ohio and beyond with experience, knowledge, and skills in social, cultural and diverse subjects. The conference sessions include presentations, lectures, workshops and panels. Structured for discussion and personal story sharing and backed by research data, these sessions are designed to educate and enlighten conference attendees about mores, norms and challenges of community members and residents of diverse backgrounds in an engaging way.
Committee Membership
The committee consists of business leaders, educators, students and residents of Licking County. A minimum of seven community members, including at least one staff/faculty member and one student from Ohio State Newark and COTC. While serving on the committee, Ohio State Newark and COTC members give insight into the treatment of college students as they engage with the local community.
If you would like more information about the CIRC committee, please contact Kim Manno, director of advancement, at manno.18@osu.edu or 740-366-9135.