Bryant Welcomes New Intercultural Center (ICC) Director

Shontay Delalue King brings eight years of experience in secondary and higher education to Bryant.

Shontay Delalue King, the newly appointed director of Bryant’s Intercultural Center (ICC), remembers being one of a very small number of African-American females in undergraduate classes at the University of Maine.
At the beginning, it was a challenge to integrate herself into the campus community, especially as a first-generation college student. She soon developed the leadership and interpersonal skills that have served her well throughout an eight-year career in secondary and higher education.
“At the core of what I do is making sure that students feel welcomed, supported, and advocated for,” she says.

Creating allies

King’s goal this year is to continue to enhance the visibility of the ICC to demonstrate to the campus community that it is a welcoming place for all– not just international and multicultural students.

“The ICC is a place for students to get grounded in who they are so they can grow as individuals during their time here,” says King.

The goal, says King, is to help people accept and appreciate the differences that make each person unique, instead of striving for a color-blind world, which risks diminishing what makes people who they are.

“We want to create allies so people feel comfortable helping each other,” she says.

One of the things that attracted King to Bryant was the notion of The Character of Success and Bryant’s commitment to values of self management, integrity, respect of others, and responsibility of self that define the campus community – Bryant’s acronym of SIRR.

“Integrated in that is the ability to work and live among people with a background that is different than your own,” says King. “That is where the ICC comes into play.”

Experienced leader

Most recently, King was a project success and health and wellness counselor at the Metropolitan Regional and Technical Center (Met) in Providence, where she was also a college/transition counselor.

Prior to that, she spent two years at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau in a variety of positions including director of admissions and academic advisor.

King earned a Bachelor of Arts in communications and a master’s degree in education from the University of Maine. She began her professional career there as the assistant director and coordinator of multicultural recruitment.
Preparing leaders

King says one of the biggest challenges she sees facing multicultural and international students is being one of only a few people of their race on campus.

“The work that we try to do is to help them see outside of their box,” says King. That works for domestic majority students, as well as those who may not have been exposed to many people of different backgrounds in high school, she says.

“In my experience, if you are able to help a person see something in a way that they weren’t able to see before, they are appreciative and open to hearing more,” she says.

Finding your voice
Students are an integral part of the many programs planned in the ICC. These experiences are an important complement to students’ experiences in the classroom, says King.

“This helps the students become leaders,” she says.
It was in the classroom and community at the University of Maine where King found her voice.

“I became more comfortable articulating my concerns and learned how to get across my opinions and feelings in a way that helped people really understand what it was like to be me,” she says.

King encourages everyone to stop by the ICC and learn about the programs planned for the academic year. To learn more, visit the Intercultural Center.