AACC’s Race Card Project displayed student’s inputs on race onto select walls around campus.

The project allows students to write down six words on how they feel about race and place it on a wall in three select locations.

The three displays are located in the SUN dining hall, the CRSC building and the CALT Building.

The project is modeled after the International Race Card Project founded by Michelle Norris, a journalist for National Public Radio.

Dr. Gina Finelli, a Sociology Professor, started her own version of Race Card Project at AACC several years back, she said.

Finelli chose to do the race card project with her students initially because of a chapter on race in the course she teaches; she wanted to incorporate a lab exercise.

She decided to do a big picture project based on the original by Norris where students can create “physical race cards on campus.”

“People can come by and just add their stuff,” Finelli said, “ [and] get a feel of the climate here … give people the opportunity to have a voice and say something.”

Finelli created guides and videos to help faculty incorporate the project into the coursework.

As a result, professors from many departments have begun using the displays and guides created by Finelli as part of their coursework.

Andre Banks, a Business Management major who saw one of the displays, said “I was surprised by the answers people made using only six words.”

“I thought it was a cool idea since it’s Black History Awareness Month,” Olyvia Utterback, an art major, said. “We should try to keep it going with other events throughout the year.”

The Race card walls on campus will be up from February 13-24 as part of Black History Month.