Multicultural Student Affairs is unveiling two new programs this year, “Real Talk” and “I Am Northwestern,” with the aim of creating safe spaces for students to explore and share their identities.

“Real Talk,” the brainchild of recently hired MSA assistant director JT Turner, is a four-part series workshop created with the goal of educating students about “queerness from an intersectional lens.”

The workshop, which was test-run by Turner during Resident Assistant training before school started, will begin to be offered in Winter Quarter 2016 and will create conversations on homophobia, transphobia, heterosexism and cisgenderism, among other topics, to both NU’s LGBT community and the larger student population.

Turner, who identifies as gender-queer and uses they-them-their pronouns, said they came up with the idea to create “Real Talk” after looking at another NU program, “Safe Space.” They took aspects from it as well as aspects from other schools’ programs that would work for the NU population. Turner thought “Safe Space” was too information and statistic heavy, which discouraged participants from continuing to learn about issues regarding the LGBT community.

“Really what ‘Real Talk’ is aiming to do is have people produce knowledge for themselves,” Turner said.

In “Real Talk,” definitions and data are just one part of the program, Turner said. Participants will be able to ask themselves and other participants questions relating to inclusion, the LGBT community and identity, among other topics, Turner said.

“How do our own identities play into how we experience the LGBT community?” Turner said. “Everyone can participate on these conversations, that’s ‘Real Talk.’”

“I Am Northwestern” aims to teach students how to express their life stories, such as background history, present experiences and future aspirations, and relate them to their own identities. During Fall Quarter, students will meet in one of two small groups and learn how to express their stories. They will also be able to share the stories with other participants.

The groups will meet for two hours at a time over four consecutive weeks during the quarter, starting Oct. 13.

Alejandro Magaña, MSA assistant director and one of “I Am Northwestern’s” organizers, did not respond to requests for comment, but Turner said this new initiative is “trying to get space for a different narrative,” specifically that of first-year students who might be looking for their place at NU.

“This program will really help them get the skills to tell their stories in a way that is empowering but also to say ‘Hey! There’s all kinds of people at Northwestern!’” Turner said.

Associated Student Government vice president for diversity and inclusion Matt Herndon said although he hasn’t met with MSA to discuss these programs, hearing about them made him very excited about the spaces NU is creating to hear student voices.

“I feel like this campus isn’t very educated on the different experiences people have at Northwestern,” the SESP junior said. “I’m always down for the University taking the responsibility of educating students on issues of social inequality.”

SESP junior Melissa Bustamante said she supports the creation of both programs and hopes they will remain diverse and representative of all the different cultures at the University, keeping the spaces safe, with participants receiving the respect they deserve.

“It’s great that we’re creating an environment where everybody can come together, especially since like I feel Northwestern is very segregated,” she said. “But I also feel like, or at least I hope, that whoever facilitates (the programs) or is organizing (them) makes sure that there is a set foundation of respect.”

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