In this article, the author discusses the ways that she experiences and encourages her students to experience selfhood, diversity, and community. She reflects on the strategies that she has used to help students articulate, affirm, and share their experiences; how she uses the knowledge they gain in the process to become cross-culturally competent; and how she develops a sense of solidarity with her students that is useful in acting on behalf of their common good. A primary goal of multicultural education is to help students know and understand themselves and others. At the same time, the central purpose of social studies education is to bring students to an understanding of civic ideals and practices (National Council for the Social Studies 1994). If civic understanding is most likely achieved through participation and practice, then she argues that without an understanding and affirming of one's self, there can be only limited consciousness of others and thus limited engagement in civic virtue and social justice (see Gay 1994; Welch 1991).