Journey In Social Justice

 

My Social Justice experience has been a very interesting but rewarding process. My college career started in St. Cloud, where I was blessed to be accepted into the connections program. This program allowed me to take classes at both St. Cloud State University and St. Cloud Technical and Community College, where I was offered various options of courses to study. Since early adolescence, I've had a passion for working with youth of color, so I spent my time there studying African American Studies and Youth Activism. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to leave St. Cloud and come back to St. Paul. I am very thankful for my time in St. Cloud due to being introduced to ideals such as white supremacy, oppression and intersectionality.

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I was offered the opportunity to play basketball at Hamline and I jumped at the chance to do so. Upon arriving on campus, I was disappointed to find out that Hamline didn ́t offer an African American Studies major but they did offer it as a minor. Due to my passion for working with youth, I decided to major in early education while minoring in African American Studies. During this time I took classes like educational psychology, schools and society and Diversity and education, which were all very beneficial and amazing for my growth as an educator and scholar. However, during this time I concluded that even though my calling in life is to work with youth of color, I realized that I don’t want to feel restricted to educating youth strictly from a classroom. While the traditional classroom is still an option for the future, I believe that there are various different gateways to educate youth of color. I expressed these feelings to one of my peers and she suggested that I take a look at Hamline’s Social Justice program and see if it interested me. I decided to take the introduction course of social justice to get my feet wet and I enjoyed it. I realized that this was the route that I wanted to take here at Hamline. 

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The following semester, I fully dived into the major and took more social justice classes. One course in particular that challenged me and pushed me out of my comfort zone was The Role of Conflict in Social Change. This course emphasized the importance of remembering and honoring the often forgotten struggles and humiliation that Black women and children faced during the Civil Rights movement. We learned and talked about forgotten heroes like Dorothy Height, Recey Taylor, Joan Little, Fannie Lou Hamer and many other women who worked and suffered in the fight for freedom. This class reminded me to always question the dominant narrative that has been passed down to us. It also showed me to never be afraid to stand up and challenge the muting of voices of marginalized groups in our great nation. 

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The lessons that have been instilled in me through both my educational and social justice lenses have been put to the test. During the past couple summers, I’ve had the privilege to work for the Children's Defense Fund, Saint Paul Public Schools, Freedom Schools, as a Servant Leader Intern. During this time, I worked with youth in grades K–12 in urban communities, where quality academic enrichment programming is sometimes limited, too expensive, or non-existent. This experience integrated education and social justice by allowing me the opportunity to teach predominantly Black and Brown youth a portion of our history through a diverse set of curriculum. My experience with Freedom Schools, my previous coursework and all the other mentorship roles I’ve held in the past, helped me develop my concentration: Urban Education. My concentration purpose involves using social justice as a tool to ensure that every youth has an opportunity to get adequate education, no matter their race or financial background.

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After graduation, I plan to continue my work with students of color in diverse settings. I strongly believe that youth are our present and our future, and that my calling is to serve, educate and mentor them in any way that’s possible. I am very hopeful that I’m giving the opportunity to make a difference in our youth’s lives. My fraternity brother, American politician and civil rights activist, Elijah Cummings once said “Our children are the living messages we send to a future we will never see. Will we rob them of their destiny? Will we rob them of our future? No we must not do that.”