Sharmila Ghosh Works for Open Minds
Sharmila Ghosh knew she'd have to take a deep breath to get through a second day of diversity training for Providence, RI police officers. What she really wanted to do was stay home.

Ghosh had already taken 200 of the city's officers through a day of diversity workshops, training spurred by the Sept. 11 attacks. The feedback she received wasn't always kind. As Ghosh read through evaluations the night after the training, she came across a number of vehement reactions toward people from cultures other than the U.S. The most startling was scribbled by an officer who wrote, "If you think we are going to learn about this from an educated, colored woman and immigrant, you are wrong," Ghosh says. September 11 has spawned many xenophobics, according to Ghosh.

"I think that people feel 'Look, we've been receptive to other cultures. Look what it's done for us,'" Ghosh says.

Ghosh graduated from the intercultural relations program in May and has since been doing independent consulting. When she entered the program, Ghosh thought she would pursue work in foreign-student advising, a field similar to her former career in education.

For much of her life, Ghosh lived in Bombay, India, where she ran a pre-school. When she came to the U.S. 15 years ago, Ghosh took a job as a kindergarten teacher in Rumford, R.I. It seemed like a natural transition for Ghosh to become an education advisor, but her plans evolved as she became interested in diversity issues while an intern with the City of Providence Human Rights Commission.

Ghosh started her internship in September 2001. After terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, she was called on to administer diversity training to various city workers. She's continued working as an independent consultant for the commission since leaving her internship. Her background in education relates nicely to her work in intercultural relations, she says.

"I see conducting workshops as a way of sharing knowledge that has been gained through theory and research," she says. "Coming from a family that has been in the education field for generations, I grew up with the quote, 'A mind is like a parachute - it functions only when open.'"

As both an educator and intercultural trainer, she views it as her responsibility to open minds, bring about awareness and share knowledge about relations between people of different cultures. She says it's a challenge sometimes because she's a first-generation immigrant who speaks with an accent. But she also sees her diverse background as one of her strengths because she brings "the experience of my collective culture" to diversity workshops. "Typically, the initial impressions my audience has of me changes over the course of the training, and ultimately becomes an asset and a personal strength by the time we reach the end of the session."

Ghosh works with a variety of people, and prefers small settings that allow participants greater interaction. Recently, she headed to Kentucky, where she led a series of simulation games for engineers from the U.S. and India who will be collaborating on a three-year project. She sits on the Governor's Commission on Prejudice and Bias in Rhode Island and conducts diversity training for the commission.

She also sits on a board with other parents, students and administrators at her daughter's school that brings light to diversity issues. "We're really reaching out to other immigrant populations. I know the doors will be open for other children," she says. For the first time in the school's 118-year history, students celebrated "Heritage Day" in January that enabled students to bring together the diversity among them.

Ghosh says it's because of Lesley that she's able to lead diversity workshops and contribute to groups addressing diversity issues. "I would not be able to stand out there and face an audience without Lesley," she says. "I'm able to speak, articulate my points and involve participants."

Published on July 17, 2002