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FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. – Thirty Pennsylvania Army National Guard Soldiers graduated from the Equal Opportunity Leaders Course on Dec. 17.
The weeklong course is designed to train leaders to ensure that the Military Equal Opportunity Program is fully understood and practiced throughout the force, said Master Sgt. Sally Haught, one of the course’s instructors.
“The MEO Program formulates, directs and sustains a comprehensive effort to maximize human potential and to ensure fair treatment for all Soldiers based solely on merit, performance and potential in support of readiness,” Haught said.
Topics covered in the course included: the Army’s EO policy and program overview; bystander intervention; accommodation of religious practices; hazing and bullying; racism and sexism; perceptions and stereotypes; prejudice, power and discrimination; the EO complaint process; and conflict management.
One of the course’s exercises is known as the “badge exercise,” during which the students create “badges” that list aspects about their identity – such as ethnicity, religion and social class – as well as personal characteristics and values.
The students then explain their badges and answer any questions their classmates may have about them.
“The purpose of the exercise was to allow the students to learn a little bit more about their classmates by understanding what they may be about, to include their values, and what their interests are,” Haught said. “They also learned how to ask questions that in instances personnel are not comfortable asking about, like race, religion and sexual orientation.”
The badges are displayed around the classroom until the last day when there is a badge take-down ceremony during which the students brief the class on what they learned about themselves and what has changed.
This was the first time the course was held in Pennsylvania since 2014. Haught said it has not been taught since then for various reasons, including changes in policy, personnel, manning requirements and because only trained EOA’s can conduct the training.
There is another course currently scheduled for March 2022, and the plan is to conduct this training at least twice a year, Haught said.
“It is important to have this course so that our leaders are trained and can offer assistance to the commander and their fellow Soldiers,” Haught said. “The EOL supports commanders at all levels and all MEO professionals who are responsible for the execution of MEO policies in their units.”
Staff Sgt. Jeremy Fuentes of the 628th Aviation Support Battalion, one of the students in the course, said the course was very informative.
“I definitely learned a lot and I have a lot of information to take back to my unit,” Fuentes said. “If I have a younger Soldier coming in, I was taught how to brief them and teach them and train them on proper EO as well as retrain older Soldiers who have been in for a while.”
Another student, Sgt. Catherine Davalos of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 213th Regional Support Group, said it was a great course.
“I definitely learned more about how to incorporate diversity and how to take Soldiers’ personal experiences into account when they come to us with an issue,” Davalos said.
Fuentes and Davalos both believe that EO does not always get the attention it deserves.
“I feel like it’s a check-the-block thing every year when training comes around for the unit, but I don’t think it’s really emphasized the way it should be,” Fuentes said. “If we have more Soldiers come to classes like this that we can take back to our units and have training there like this, I feel like the point will get across better.”
“I think we’ve taken strides to make it better for Soldiers, especially the younger Soldiers coming in,” Davalos said. “We’re moving in the right direction. We still have a long way to go. If we get the training out there, and we do the training correctly and actually learn, it can only get better from here.”
| Date Taken: | 12.22.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 12.22.2021 16:04 |
| Story ID: | 411809 |
| Location: | FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 74 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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