\nStudents study a map during the OMazing race.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
OXFORD, Miss. – Taking a cue from reality television,
\nUniversity of Mississippi students of various racial and
\nethnic backgrounds found life can be sweeter when people
\nwork together as a team. And the prizes aren’t too bad
\neither, including a $2,000 grand prize for the winning
\nteam.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n\n\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n“I gained a really valuable experience about connecting
\nwith people that are different than me,” said Sufian Ahmed,
\na junior computer science student from Amman, Jordan.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\nAhmed was one of 80 UM students who recently competed in
\nthe OMazing Race. Designed to bring diverse students
\ntogether to explore others’ perspectives and opinions, the
\ntwo-day competition was based on educating students about
\nthe various historical achievements across the Ole Miss
\ncampus.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n“Walking across the University Avenue bridge one day, I
\nactually stopped to read the historical marker for Hilgard
\nCut,” said OMazing Race director Josh Davis, assistant
\ndirector of Alumni Affairs. “I’ve passed the marker
\nhundreds of times in the last 20 years but never noticed it
\nbefore. I wanted to employ a scavenger hunt to educate our
\nstudents, as well as employ teamwork across racial lines.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n“My main concern was that people would draw conclusions
\nabout me based on the way I look or spoke,” said Taylor
\nFrancesca-Victoria Corso, a freshman business
\nadministration major from Bay St. Louis. “By the end of the
\ncompetition, my fears had subsided.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\nThought to be the first program of its kind in the
\nSoutheastern Conference, OMazing Race fielded competitors
\nof 20 four-member teams, including people from different
\nethnicities, genders, religions, sexual orientations and
\ninterests.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n“This was the first time a collaborative effort of this
\nsort was made here at Ole Miss to bring a large number of
\ndiverse students together to explore racial barriers,”
\nDavis said. “Participants learned to be respectful of
\nothers, while at the same time experienced personal growth.
\nIt was an enriching and enlightening experience.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\nThe two-day competition included a brief orientation,
\ndinner and a cultural mapping exercise on the first day.
\nThe final day concluded with a three-hour scavenger hunt,
\nfeaturing historical sites across the Ole Miss campus.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\nDavis said the aim was to place students from different
\nbackgrounds into one setting and encourage them to function
\nas a team. Part Italian, Cuban and Native American, Corso
\nsaid it was a valuable lesson.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\n“I learned that encouragement, rather than criticism or
\ncomplaints, was the most valuable concept to team work,”
\nshe said.
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\nA member of the winning team, Ahmed said he plans to use
\nhis share of the $2,000 grand prize to purchase a moped to
\ncommute to campus: “I was just passing by the registration
\nbooth, and ended up winning the contest,” he said. “It was
\nreally nice.”
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n\nPlans for another OMazing Race are under way for next year,
\nand Davis said he hopes to expand the competition into a
\nweekend retreat that features more intellectual and skills
\ncompetitions.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Students study a map during the OMazing race. OXFORD, Miss. – Taking a cue from reality television, University of Mississippi students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds found life can be sweeter when people work together as a team. And the prizes aren’t too bad either, including a $2,000 grand prize for the winningRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nOMazing Race Helps UM Students Bridge Racial Barriers - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/omazing-race-helps-um-students-bridge-racial-barriers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OMazing Race Helps UM Students Bridge Racial Barriers - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 Students study a map during the OMazing race. OXFORD, Miss. – Taking a cue from reality television, University of Mississippi students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds found life can be sweeter when people work together as a team. And the prizes aren’t too bad either, including a $2,000 grand prize for the winningRead the story …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/omazing-race-helps-um-students-bridge-racial-barriers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T14:25:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/wp-content\/uploads\/stories\/news\/6592.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/\",\"name\":\"Ole Miss News\",\"description\":\"The official source for University of Mississippi news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/omazing-race-helps-um-students-bridge-racial-barriers\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/wp-content\/uploads\/stories\/news\/6592.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/omazing-race-helps-um-students-bridge-racial-barriers\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/omazing-race-helps-um-students-bridge-racial-barriers\/\",\"name\":\"OMazing Race Helps UM Students Bridge Racial Barriers - Ole Miss News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/omazing-race-helps-um-students-bridge-racial-barriers\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-23T14:25:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/4515cb1b4f8a759552c0827c3df56430\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/omazing-race-helps-um-students-bridge-racial-barriers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/4515cb1b4f8a759552c0827c3df56430\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3e8e7562bf6d779d771ad8ce4cecd7ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43022,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions\/43022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n