'Race Experience' Brings Participants Face-to-Face With Diversity, Cultural Identity

Published 02.12.2015

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Gage M. Okonski, of Reading, enrolled in the residential construction technology and management: building construction technology concentration, is joined in The Race Experience by his girlfriend, Chelsea Lorah, of Reading.Construction management student Byron B. Reber, of Stevens, considers words that reflect the positivity of our differences ...... then chooses among the options for his change in appearance.A Public Relations & Marketing co-worker temporarily assumes camera duty for Dalaney T. Vartenisian, seated for a personal perspective on her photo assignment.Phillip E. McCoy, of Linden, a construction management major who accompanied Reber to the library, assesses his new persona.Members of the Penn College community, curious about how they would look with altered ethnicity, have visited The Race Experience this past week in Madigan Library. The kiosk, a touch-screen installation on the library's first floor through Friday, takes a digital photograph and transforms it to literally let participants see themselves in a different skin. The booth is designed to facilitate a healthy dialogue on the value of diversity, allowing visitors to share the face-morphing photos via social media and to reflect on societal factors that perpetuate racism and discrimination. Co-sponsored by the Student Government Association, the interactive display – with a mantra of "There is only race: the human race" – reinforces the college's cross-campus commitment as a Community of Respect.
Most photos by Dalaney T. Vartenisian, student photographer