Student lead club is committed to building a culture of social equity at CGCC
EQUAL Club and community members walk around Sorosis Park display their color in awareness to the LGBTQIA+ community, background view of the Columbia Gorge. Photo Credit: Flora Gibson
By Cole Goodwin
Columbia Gorge Community College has a new club for students interested in social equality: the EQUAL Club.
“EQUAL stands for Equity through United Action League,” said Diego Minguela Cabrera, President of the EQUAL Club.
“The three main purposes of the club are education, awareness and activism,” said Minguela Carbrera. “We wanted to start a club where students could take the lead on addressing current issues such as LGBTQIA+ rights.”
Diego Minguela Cabrera, President of the Equal Club came down to visit the CCCNews office last week to chat about the EQUAL club. Photo Credit: Cole Goodwin
EQUAL’s charter states the club is committed to building a culture of social equity:
“Equity through United Action League (EQUAL) is committed to building a culture of social equity. We promote fairness and impartiality through the inclusion of all members of our community through opportunities of/openness to self-expression and participation in club activities. We will pursue the comprehensive work of cultivating equity, access, and inclusions practices by:
Identifying, defining, and educating our community on social justice issues and solutions.
Hosting events and activities that reflect and celebrate the diversity of our communities and elevate cultural awareness.
Creating a community that inspires students to transform themselves, connect with others, and harness their talents to win victories for humanity.”
“It’s a place where we can talk about sensitive things and be open, honest and respectful about it. We approach everything as a learning opportunity. We’re all learning all the time,” said Minguela Carbrera.
“EQUAL was officially approved as a club on April 21, 2022 and quickly geared up to plan/host several events on campus,” said Tiffany Prince, Director of Student Housing and Student Life.
“They planned an entire week's worth of events on the CGCC campus for an LGBTQ+ Pride Week in the month of June and collaborated with the Creative Writing Club and Associated Student Government to put on some joint events. It’s quite impressive for the short amount of time since they've become active!”
Events included a Pride Poetry Reading and Q&A, a color run, a pronoun button making event at The CGCC Library, a lunch hour “Let’s taco ‘bout it” event featuring a showing of Texas Strong and a discussion of issues facing transgender people, and a Crush movie night.
Jarett Gilbert standing in the clouds of colors during EQUAL’s Color Run activity. Photo Credit: Ben Kupchin
The Equal club also offers opportunities for CGCC students to develop leadership skills, meet new people, and get practical organizing experience.
“This is my first time being the President of anything. Taking the role as the president of the club has helped me to become more mature. I wasn’t really the leader type in high school, but this has helped me to be more organized and confident in the way that I express myself,” said Minguela Cabrera.
“I think to me personally the equal club is a place where I can express myself and also to learn about the things I didn't learn about while growing up,” said Minguela Cabrera “So, for me it’s a lot about the learning. In June when we were doing the Pride event I learned a lot about LGBTQ+ folks and the issues that they face. And it was also a way for me to figure out myself. Humanity tends to split ourselves into different cohorts, we're all still people and this club has helped me place myself out of the center and be able to pull back and recenter humanity.”
“I want the equal club to be strong because it’s a great place for people to learn about themselves and others.”
So what’s next for EQUAL?
EQUAL has a list of topics they want to tackle including: LGBTQIA+ Rights, Latinx awareness, Black Life Heritage, Planned Parenthood Rights, Education Issues, and Political Influences.
“Currently we are taking the time to learn about Roe v Wade and may develop some education on that,” said Minguela Cabrera.
“I also got to talk with our club about how CGCC serves the hispanic community,” said Minguela Cabrera “CGCC receives funds to support Latinx students. And something we want to do moving forward is talk about supporting hispanic communities, and issues facing hispanic communities. Columbia Gorge Community College is an inclusive school and we want to express that.”
Minguela Cabrera said that the community was welcome to participate.
“To whoever reads this, I want to say: Even if you are uncomfortable with being active there are so many ways to participate and to be included and I encourage that participation and learning from our group. We are a community based group so we want to include everybody and whoever wants to be involved.”
“We also understand that there are some issues that are contentious but there is always space to learn and we want to help each other understand each other and if you want to be active they have that opportunity with us,” said Minguela Cabrera.
Interested? You can sign up to receive emails from EQUAL by emailing EQUAL@cgccc.edu.
You can also sign up to the CGCC newsletter to stay updated EQUAL events.
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