What are you studying at Brown and what are your interests in your academic field?

I concentrate in Education and American Studies. My academic experience has challenged me to connect the theories we review in class with my community engagement work outside of the classroom. As I continue my studies, I am grateful for an interdisciplinary academic grounding as I explore what it means to be an educator. I am passionate about teaching within a community that looks like my own - low-income and majority Black and brown. Studying education at this level validates my experiences as I see phenomena within academic texts that I have experienced firsthand. I am constantly interrogating the ways in which our university has perpetuated harm and the role I can play in building reciprocal community relationships.

What inspired you to get involved?

I joined the Bonner Community Fellowship as I entered my first year. I am proud to say that the Swearer Center embodies the sustained and authentic community engagement that I searched for while reflecting on college options. I have remained involved in the center not only for my personal and professional growth, but to invest in future students at Swearer. Pursuing community-based work within an Ivy League institution can feel isolating at times. I am committed to working with young people interested in changing the world because we need our voices represented in elite policy and academic spaces. 

What might public policy look like if more of our leaders identified with the communities they claim to serve? How can pre-service teacher training harness the power of our students to create change? How can I fight for my community in each space I inhabit? I ask myself these questions daily as I navigate the tensions between academia and other goals.

Can you tell us more about your involvement with Swearer Center?

The Bonner program proved instrumental to my growth throughout my time at Brown, and I have felt inspired to ensure that incoming students have an exceptional experience as well. To this end, I prioritized efforts to support first-year fellows through the transition to college, selection of their placement site, fellowship applications and experience within the program.

With an emphasis on supporting the needs of first-generation and low-income college students, my advising through the Bonner Leadership Team allowed me to support pre-orientation planning and the ways in which the Swearer Center supports its students. I became interested in the CBLR Fellowship as a means to support students in a community-engaged course while learning more about how effective curriculum development, student-centered design and community-engaged scholarship can contribute to healthier university/community relationships. This opportunity allowed me to build deeper relationships with local partners while guiding students through their involvement off campus. 

As I pursue opportunities beyond Brown, the Edward Guiliano Global Fellowship funded my preliminary research experiences in New Orleans, Louisiana. My work centers on the experiences of Black and brown educators within the city’s charter schools. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews, I learned about the political context of New Orleans, how Hurricane Katrina has shifted the educational landscape and how Black educators view their role as changemakers. These experiences in teaching, research and higher education have bolstered my resolve to explore the various methods that will help us create the world we hope to live in.

Can you tell us about the work you are doing this summer and how it continues your work as a Guiliano Fellow during the academic year?

I had the honor of participating in the Breakthrough Collaborative’s Summer Teaching Fellowship in New Orleans this summer. After visiting the city with support from the Guiliano Foundation, I sought opportunities to invest in an environment that has already given so much in me. As my first full-time teaching experience, this summer proved to be exhilarating and challenging in all of the best ways. I am grateful to my students for reminding me why I do this work. As we build a future that is safe for Black and brown children, I hope to support them in stepping into their power and developing the skills needed to dismantle systems of oppression.

What would you tell other students about the Swearer Center and why they might want to get involved?

Be intentional about building your support network to ensure you have the capacity to show up for the people and places you care about. Leave campus, get connected with community members and listen to them about what their needs are to determine whether there is space for you. It is vital that we enter this work with humility, spirit ready to learn and an awareness that amazing work is already happening. It is our job to support this advocacy while holding ourselves accountable to our values.

As students at Brown, we are all implicated in the exploitative history of powerful universities. We are responsible for contributing to the community around us in ways that are reciprocal and sustained. The Swearer Center provides incredible opportunities to learn about Providence, explore the many ways to create change, reflect on your experiences at Brown and propel you into action.

What are you hoping to do with the Swearer Center or Community Partners in Providence for the rest of your time at Brown?

I look forward to continuing my work with my Bonner site, the Center for Youth and Community Leadership in Education. Moreover, my ethnographic research in New Orleans will culminate in my thesis for the Education Department. Before returning to Providence in the Spring, I will spend time in Jackson, MS via the Brown/Tougaloo College Semester Exchange Program. 

My current focus lies in becoming the best possible educator I can be for my students, while investing in the policy and research questions that keep me up at night. I hope to dedicate my career to the groundwork of teaching, organizing and supporting young people as I navigate these opportunities.

Have you made any meaningful connections through Swearer? This can be with community partners, program participants, mentors/faculty, etc.

Absolutely! My relationships with incoming Bonner classes, Swearer staff and community organizations through my work at CYCLE have helped make Providence feel like home. Swearer has provided space for introspection, learning from the rich experiences of those around me and unexpected connections. The opportunity to work closely with faculty during the CBLR fellowship allowed me to invest in a teaching team where I considered new pedagogical approaches, developed strategies to support students navigating nonprofit work for the first time and connected with colleagues in the Education Department. The relational aspect of this work ensures that our advocacy is sustainable and rooted in the needs of real people.

How do you think your experience with the Swearer Center will inform what you do when you graduate and your life after Brown?

The Swearer Center has guided my personal, professional and intellectual development as I pursue a career in public service. It has provided a space to learn, ask questions and build relationships. Access to this kind of incubator has inspired me to bring antiracist community organizing principles into everything that I do and lead in a way that holds space for the self-discovery of others. Swearer has shaped the kind of leader I will become and has strengthened my resolve to be an advocate in any position that I hold

Amplify: Student Voices is a series focused on highlighting the journeys of students involved in Swearer Center programs and how their engagement empowers them to become leaders in Brown’s community and beyond.