RMIT’s emerging leaders join hands to build a more inclusive community

RMIT Vietnam celebrates diversity and embraces differences in its community and beyond with the aspiration of being a place where all people are valued and respected, have equal access to opportunities, and are encouraged to fulfil their talents and potential.

Under the theme Diversity and Inclusion, this year’s Emerging Leaders Projects (ELP) inspired first and second year students to take leadership actions that bring positive values to the people around them.

RMIT Vietnam Senior Manager of Student Life Ms Thao Nguyen said that ELP focuses on purposeful leadership development where students are assigned into teams to work on project ideas that create meaningful impact to their community.

“The program fosters teamwork, creativity, critical thinking, communication, problem solving skills, and develops leadership capability for future leaders while empowering our students to be change-makers in helping solve current social issues through their projects and initiatives,” Ms Thao said.

The three winning teams addressed different aspects of the main theme including cultural inclusion, diverse genders, sexes and sexualities, and gender equality.

Including you

Winner of the Champion Award – the Including YOU! team made understanding and supporting the needs of people from different backgrounds and cultures as well as valuing their individuality as their mission.

Choose Cultural Inclusion as the team’s focus, the Including YOU! team wanted to spread the message that regardless of your background, gender, sexualities, or accessibility, you are still you and you have your own unique identity.

Bachelor of Business (Digital Business) student and team leader Dang Nhat Ha said, “we hope RMIT can be an ideal community where everyone’s individuality is respected and valued”.

“We want to include everyone and no one will be left behind just like the name of our team - Including YOU!.”

While overcoming a lot of challenges along the way, including workload management, collaborating with new people and perspectives or working under time pressure, each team member has gained a better understanding of diversity and inclusion, and has gained friendships for a lifetime.

As a freshman who has recently joined RMIT, Bachelor of Business (Management) student Chau Hoan Thien has had a better understanding of RMIT’s culture and values through ELP.

“The project gifted me with wonderful people who I believe to be the most talented and enthusiastic people that I’ve ever met,” Thien said.

“I’ve been able to learn so much about Diversity and Inclusion, and why it is important to promote those values at RMIT.

“ELP 2022 was such a great opportunity for me and my team to contribute our effort and ideas towards making RMIT a wonderful place that we are so proud to belong to.”

What are your pronouns?

Addressing Diverse Genders, Sexes, and Sexualities (DGSS) topic, the team with the most engagement on social media – The Alphabet Mafia is looking forward to a brighter future in which people can freely express their gender identity and be themselves.

“Our primary message [through the project] is that attention to one’s pronouns is a gesture of respect and inclusion,” Bachelor of Business (International Business) student and team member Bui Huynh Hoang Lan said.

Bachelor of Digital Marketing student and team member Doan Viet Khue said one of the challenges that the team faced was how to provide solutions that are respectful and appropriate to the majority of the RMIT community.

“It can be seen as a judgment or discrimination if we don’t deliver it properly,” Khue said.

The team managed to both overcome the challenges regarding language choices and possibilities of action and be able to develop a winning video with a meaningful message to LGBTQIA+ community which brought them the prestigious award.

Recommendations and ideas to ensure the DGSS community is more visible on campus included rainbow stickers on classroom doors, decorations at the basketball court, flags at high traffic locations, updating social media avatars and adding pronouns on student ID cards. Visiting Melbourne RMIT leaders praised the recommendations and were delighted to see action being taken during RMIT Pride Week.

“The project gave us the opportunity to make new friends and work together collaboratively, despite not having met each other before,” Bachelor of Digital Film and Video student and team member Bui Vuong Khai Han said.

“This initiative was all about developing soft skills such as teamwork, concept presentation, promotion, and action, thus we are quite grateful to be a part of it.”

Mysterious race

The mysterious race proposed by the crowd favourite – The Convincers brought an entertaining and engaging playground to the RMIT community where participants can have fun while gaining useful information to break through gender stereotypes by answering the questions like – can women lead? And can men talk about skincare?

Bachelor of Digital Marketing student and team leader Pham Huu Nghia believed that even though gender stereotypes maybe be fading, its influence can still be felt.

“We want to contribute our voice in raising awareness about gender equality and reinforce the message that no matter what gender you are, you are still you – be respected, loved and treated fairly and equally,” he said.

Come as strangers and leave as friends are what all team members can take away after participating in ELP.

“Conflicts were inevitable, especially in the brainstorming phase, as we all had different opinions and cannot agree on a mutual idea,” Nghia shared.

“We’ve gradually built the connection through tolerance, active listening, and mutual respect. We learnt to recognise our own values and appreciate others which is key to grow.

“We’ve greatly improved our leadership skills -- all members grew out of it and became six leaders with their unique leadership skills and strengths.”

Story: Ha Hoang