Monica Grove specializes in helping people. For the past eight months, she has been a Pima County Extension nutrition educator. She teaches low-income families, young people, pregnant teenagers, and others about food and nutrition.

"I’m talking about things we all do every day," she says. "But I tell them how to do a better job of feeding themselves and their families." The "better" job includes learning about the food pyramid and serving sizes, learning how to get the most nutrition for the dollars they spend on food. These are important, life-enhancing skills Monica teaches. She also enjoys making contacts with people—"a variety of people in a variety of locations around Tucson." Her goal is working with at least 100 people every three months.

Monica learned early on to meet people. She almost had to because her father is a pastor in the military. "I grew up as a military brat, moving often. And, I grew up helping people because that was what my father did." After graduating from the University of Northern Colorado, in Greeley, with a degree in human rehabilitation services, Monica worked at a mental health center in Maryland. She helped homeless individuals with housing and nutritional needs; and she connected her clients with other available agencies.

Her connection with the military continues. She moved to Tucson about two years ago when her husband was assigned to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Monica Grove is the newest member of the College Diversity Committee, where she adds an African-American point of view.

"When I tried to build a new career, the typical response from prospective employers was that they didn’t need anybody who spoke Spanish," says an anonymous letter writer to the Public Relations Journal. "What about the other 99% of the description of my experience, my strengths, and my education? I realized then why my parents generation resented being hyphenated into a corner. Once tagged as Mexican-American, we were saddled with other people’s perceptions of our limitations. "As is true for everybody, I can fit into several handy categories: ex-paratrooper, veteran, college graduate, husband, parent, bicyclist. None of these are so delimiting as being labeled ‘Hispanic.’ Assumptions such as these can have a great deal to do with a dearth of qualified Hispanic (or any other minority) candidates."

A recent survey taken by Working Woman magazine asks what diversity really means in the work world, to people who experience its effects every day. As varied as the people in the survey sample of 1,800 were, most had many experiences in common. They believe communication is often difficult, and that mistrust is rampant between the sexes and among the races. Most business owners and managers supervise mixed-gender and mixed-race groups; most said they have solved conflicts at work. (57%) said that women and minorities understand diversity problems and are better at finding solutions than their white or male colleagues. A black female manager suggested the reason: "Women and people of color accept the intelligence and contributory potential of other women and people of color—at once. "White males force these people to prove themselves over and over losing valuable creative, productive time."

Is prejudice in hiring ever justified? Should employers have to fight the prejudices of their customers? Particularly when it’s a prejudice against "ugly" people. A few years ago, two economists found solid evidence that good looks translated into larger paychecks. Now in another study, the same economists looked at about 2,000 graduates of a highly selective law school. After 15, years, the "attractive" lawyers earned 13 percent more than those judged less good looking. The uglier lawyers tended to work for public agencies where clients typically have little to say in who does their work. Discrimination supposedly being driven by customers’ preferences (for better looking people) is not being corrected by free market forces. However, being less attractive may well fit the definition of disability in the Americans With Disabilities Act. Recent court decisions reflect that possibility. It’s easier and less intrusive to penalize employer discrimination than to police prejudiced consumers. As a practical matter, the issue becomes stickier as the reach of anti-discrimination laws is lengthened beyond what the public considers reasonable.

"Five-State Multicultural Conference," Kansas State University, March 21-22, Garden City, KS. Fee $95, 316-275-9164

"National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in american Higher Education," University of Oklahoma, May 30 - June 4. Fee: $350. For information, call 405-325-3936.