2020 Honorees
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The 2020 Rodney K. Sisco Diversity Student’s Choice Award Faculty Honoree
Dr. Nathan Cartagena is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and also serves as the faculty advisor for Unidad Cristiana, a student group that was formulated to enhance Christian unity and celebrate Latino cultures. Dr. Cartagena was selected as this year’s faculty honoree because he has collaborated in scholarship and community to cultivate a deep appreciation for diversity in worship, cultural expressions, and ways of knowing. He has excelled in listening, encouraging, mentoring, and supporting diverse students.
Wheaton College students are saying:
“Dr. Cartagena has demonstrated commitment to the cause of racial justice through leading reading groups, mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, and producing popular as well as scholarly material on the topics. Dr. Cartagena is a man of great honor, conviction, and love for his neighbor. He is a professor who teaches with passion and heart, imparting significant knowledge to his students and creating awareness of what it means to live justly, in mercy, and understanding. He calls out his brothers and sisters in fraternal correction in Christ, but he also shows the highest level of mercy. He is intelligent, kind, and is doing glorious work for the Kingdom.”
The 2020 Rodney K. Sisco Diversity Student’s Choice Award Staff Honoree
Mr. Daniel Watts is the Manager of the Building Roads to Intellectual Diversity and Greater Education (BRIDGE) program. The BRIDGE is a four-week intensive and residential academic and leadership program that brings together high-achieving, first-generation college-bound African-American and Latino students from the Chicagoland area who are eager to experience the academic rigor of college.
Mr. Watts was selected as this year’s staff honoree because he has worked diligently to enhance institutional policies, programs, and systems to strengthen and sustain equity-minded practices. He creates a welcoming and supportive climate for students entrusted to his care.
Wheaton College students are saying:
“Daniel Watts advocates and creates support for racialized minorities who participate in the BRIDGE program. He always has his office open for anybody to come in and have a safe space to do homework, listen to music, talk or just hang out. He has developed welcome systems for minoritized ethnic groups who matriculate into Wheaton College. He mentors those at Wheaton not only with words but with his actions and presence. Through his multiple roles as a mentor, teacher, and friend, numerous students from the BRIDGE program have grown academically, spiritually and socially. He embodies self-sacrificial love and grace-filled compassion.”