Ask the Experts

How can the SAA help increase the racial and ethnic diversity of students and teachers attending institutes and conferences?

  1. Diversity begins in the studio of each teacher. Encouraging families that are less fortunate or with different cultural backgrounds can be handled on many different levels.

  1. Some teachers choose to offer private scholarships. These are in the form of an agreement between the parent and teacher.

  2. There are scholarships available through the SAA, and many Institutes offer scholarships. It is possible that those who need a scholarship also don’t know about them and are not into filling out forms. We can assist people in finding scholarship money by encouraging them and helping them with the process.

  3. Flexibility in teaching and getting to know your students on an individual basis will help you as a teacher reach out to everyone, including people of color.

  4. One of the key issues is financing. You are a member of the SAA, and we could start a scholarship fund for this purpose! Teachers are already giving their lives to enriching the lives of others, so help from outside sources is needed. Contact can be made locally or nationally via the SAA website. If this is important to you, jump in!