Diversity in west’s student body is increasing each year in, not solely at West but Iowa as a whole. A University of Iowa researcher says Iowa’s first minority majority town is sign of the state’s growing diversity

According to the University of Iowa’s News Services For the first time in decades Iowa has a minority majority town and a University of Iowa researcher said it’s a sign of how quickly the state’s cultural face is changing.
According to 2010 U.S. census data, the Muscatine County town of West Liberty has a Latino population of 52 percent.
Questions are provoked to understand the underlying beneficiary factor to these increase of numbers to our community and growing society as well. As the population increases people have come to question this change in atmosphere especially SSIKED( Successful Students Inspired through Knowledge, Education and Diversity- integral goal of raising awareness of diversity and promoting academic success through minorities but not exclusively) members.

Maria Martin, academic dean and also SSIKED Advisor was asked questions concerning the topic and why it’s important that diversity has a platform at school and the meaning behind SSIKED, she said in a recent interview” It’s about representing the under representative population and eliminating that status, It’s about representing everyone and having collectiveness to school. Minorities are not diversity,everybody is, we are all part of diversity “the diversity”.

Moreover,As a number of nationalities increase at west and overall diversity Martin was also asked how this was beneficial to school and in what ways, she said” the larger the community, the larger the opinions. We raise awareness by representing students and what impacts them”.

In addition,Hiba Ibrahim,16 president of SSIKED was also asked concerning the topic of an increased number of diverse students in west’s student body “I think it’s good because people can attain the opportunity to learn differences and accept them. In a school backdrop diverse students can bring an alternative of fresh ideas and point of views to perspective that people aren’t normally generalized to and offer a new understanding of something we don’t understand”.

On a related issue,Nada Ibrahim,16 Vice President of SSIKED when asked what are the fundamental advantages of celebrating and unifying diversity in school replied “ It’s crucial that in a school environment where education is being encouraged that, we too, must be educated about different backgrounds to further our experiences and education in school to further ourselves in the future society”.

Finally,Maria Martin quoted one of her favorite quotes by Marcus Garvey”A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”.