Office of Institutional Diversity & Equity > Education > BUILD Diversity Certificate

BUILD Diversity Certificate

​​ The Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity is pleased to sponsor BUILD, a professional development diversity certificate available to all DePaul University faculty and staff. BUILD provides participants with the "building blocks to an inclusive campus" by:

Building multicultural competencies
Understanding differences and how they impact the workplace
Inclusive excellence
Leveraging diversity and building leadership capacity
Developing measures of success

The BUILD Diversity Certificate program reflects DePaul University's commitment to create a learning culture that values diversity and inclusion. The certificate program helps participants develop cultural competencies, offering the tools necessary for linking diversity to organizational and work performance, and connecting the university's Vincentian mission of dignity and respect for all individuals to our core operating business principles. 

Length​

This program may be completed anywhere from 9- 18 months, and offers a full range of required and elective courses.

Curriculum

Level 1

The Level 1 Diversity Certificate requires completion of four required courses, four electives and a written 3- 5 page reflection paper.

Required Courses:
  • Best Practices in Recruitment of a Diverse Workplace
  • Examination of the Self
  • Microaggressions and Implicit Bias
  • Legal Foundation of Diversity
Level 2

The Level 2 Diversity Certificate requires the above four required courses, five electives and completion of a Capstone project.

Sample Electives (for both Level 1 and Level 2)
  • Undocumented Student Allyship
  • How to be an Antiracist
  • Religious Diversity in the Workplace
  • Safe Zone Allies Workshop

Testimonials

"The BUILD program deepened my awareness of the painful experience of exclusion and racism around me. BUILD offers an opportunity to learn, reflect, and focus on inclusion of everyone without exception after the example of Vincent de Paul whose respect and kindness for others was universal." -Sr. Betty Ann


"Given DePaul's Vincentian mission, I recognize that I am part of a rich and diverse community. My BUILD experience broadened my awareness of both myself and others. Besides meeting other like-minded colleagues from all across DePaul, our active engagement with relevant and current topics helped me realize the importance of treating people respectfully, fairly, and non-judgmentally- that we have the utmost responsibility for creating a place )and a society) where ideas can thrive. Long after my graduation from BUILD, I still reflect on ideas of implicit bias, gender and identity issues, education access, and so much more that positively influence my teaching and understanding of the world. 

Especially in today's vocal, polarized, and changing climate, the BUILD program is critically relevant, informative, and educational-and a must for anyone who is dreaming of peace." -Judy


"Like many white people, I mistakenly thought that most civil rights issues had been legally addresses in the 1960s and that racism was on the wane. I thought the incidents that I saw were aberrations, not the tip of an enormous iceberg. I did not feel comfortable trying to talk about these issues with coworkers and acquaintances of color. So, when the BUILD program was established, I leapt at the chance to educate myself without putting any individuals on the spot.

I am so glad that I did. I learned so much history that never was taught in my schools. I learned microaggressions and began purging them from my speech. I learned about how systems are constructed to preserve white supremacy and began supporting efforts to rewrite those systems. I learned techniques to interrupting someone saying something racist that creates conversation and a learning moment rather than putting the speaker on the defensive, techniques for offering support to a person who was marginalized. I am so much better prepared to have conversations, support efforts, and thinking through my feelings about recent spate of recording killings of Black people, police violence, BLM, race-related vulnerability to COVID and other ailments, and everything else that is happening in this tornado of a year.

I strongly encourage you to complete the BUILD program. You won't regret it."-Kris


"The commitment DePaul has made to the BUILD program is amazing. It was nice to be able to attend such a broad range of quality sessions on campus. The BUILD program brings together so many university experts who offer sessions on a wide variety of topics. The sessions I attended were as good, if not better, than sessions I have attended at professional association conferences, and the BUILD program is free. As ​an added benefit, participants experience the sessions with other mission-driven DePaul faculty and staff, enabling them to form relationships with others on campus." -Kate 

For further information, please email DiversityCertificate@depaul.edu.​