Our self-esteem is the part of us that builds our character and personality, said Tina Leonard, a counselor at the Counseling Center.

Because she feels self-esteem is so important to our lives, she has organized a workshop titled “Building Self-Esteem” at 7:30 p.m. in the Effingham Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Leonard said among the things she will discuss are the definition of self-esteem and how culture affects our self-esteem. Our culture can often times be based on our environment, socioeconomic status and educational levels. Leonard said sometimes these can be cause conflicting matters that can put students in the position to question their self-esteem.

Leonard said students often don’t realize how much our culture could affect their self-esteem.

“People may choose to stay with the pattern of their culture, but others may choose to step outside of that pattern,” she said. “This could cause you to question yourself and it could cause cultural conflicts.”

Leonard said the main question she wants students to ask themselves is how they feel about themselves and is their culture supportive of that. Leonard said there is a definite link to our self-esteem based on our culture or ethnic group

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Leonard said she will also discuss areas of awareness in self-esteem and students’ individual similarities and differences.

“It’s all about individual choice,” Leonard said. Our emotional ideas, psychological ideas and physical ideas wake up our self-esteem, she said.