Professor Light recounts how one student responded to the exhortation of campus leadership to reach out to people unlike themselves. In this interview, the graduating senior was asked, “What was the single most powerful moment you had in your four years on campus that has anything to do with the broad topic of racial and ethnic difference or diversity? Was it a happy moment or an upsetting moment?” The white female student describes an encounter with three African-American women, and how this incident left her with some insights about herself.

Professor Light reveals an enlightening finding of the study when students from different races and different ethnic backgrounds are asked, “Is it important to you to have faculty members, professors, teachers, who look like you and come from a similar background?” To his surprise, the responses from freshmen and seniors were vastly different.