IC News

Ithaca’s historical LGBTQ walking tour is an informative and critical glimpse into the history of an often-overlooked community. And as of this spring, you can add “award-winning” to its description.

The tour, which was created in 2019 by Rachel Steinmetz ’19, Cal Goodin ’19, Rachel Kreidberg ’18, and Gianna Caputo ’19 with the help of Luca Maurer, director of the college’s Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services, was honored with a trio of awards.

The tour was given the 2020 Exemplary Program Award of the Gender & Sexuality Knowledge Community by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). Additionally, the tour won the Outstanding Social Justice Collaboration Award from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Commission for Social Justice Education and the Research Recognition Award from the ACPA Coalition of Sexuality and Gender Identities.

Covering more than seven miles of Ithaca and including 32 stops — including several on the Ithaca College campus — the tour utilizes text, images, audio, and video to paint a rich description of the area’s LGBTQ history. It also features an app, created through PocketSights, which means it’s accessible from anywhere, at any time.

It was put together thanks to the collaborative effort of several departments at the college, as well as community organizations such as Ithaca Heritage and Out for Health.

 “These awards are a testament to the multidimensional learning that our students are engaging in,” Maurer said. “The organizations bestowing these awards want to see collaborative efforts, and that’s what this was.”

Another thing the organizations wanted to see? Educational outcomes. And that was a priority from the beginning.

“During the creation of the tour, there were points where the students had to reflect on their experience in writing, and notate what they were learning and how they were being impacted,” Maurer said.