Guardlife - The Magazine of the New Jersey National Guard

Seminar Emphasizes Diversity Benefits

By Capt. Barbara G. Brown-Wilson, State Diversity Officer

Forty-seven Soldiers and Airmen received diversity training at the New Jersey Army and Air National Guard Diversity Training Seminar held June 3 and 4.

The majority of the attendees were members of the New Jersey Army National Guard Diversity Committee, who are primary and alternate representatives responsible for implementing the goals of the TAG’s Diversity Program. The seminar was designed to inform participants of the various aspects of diversity and how it relates to the Guard’s mission readiness. The training was also an opportunity to prepare Diversity Committee members for their upcoming tasks on the committee.

Dr. Samuel Betances, the seminar's guest speaker, covered a variety of topics, such as faulty assumptions about diversity, how diversity promotes mission readiness, demographic realities impacting the mission, and the differences between equal opportunity and diversity and how the two complement each other. He also engaged participants to hear his message and challenged them to make changes based on what they learned. His topics generated discussions during and after the seminar.

“Dr. Betances was very passionate about his work,” commented Sgt. Jason Peters, Primary Representative, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 102nd Reconnaissance, Surveillance, Acquisition Targeting. “He brought out that passion to make his seminar very interesting and informative.”

Maj. Gen. Glenn K. Rieth delivered the closing remarks. He spoke of the number of successes New Jersey has made in diversity including the Command Diversity Directive, which was followed by a Diversity Policy Letter in 2004, as well as the creation of a full-time Diversity Officer at the State Headquarters to supervise the Program with Brig. Gen. Charles A. Harvey Jr, as the Chairman of the Diversity Committee. In addition, Maj. Gen. Rieth stressed the need to “take every opportunity to develop and mentor our future leaders, officers and enlisted, who will come from the communities that we serve. It is the right thing to do.”

“The training was great,” stated Spc. Marjorie Terilus, Primary Representative, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 150th Aviation (Air Assault). “I would pay out of my own pocket to hear him speak.”

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