Social justice is a concept that was very prevalent in both my academic and professional experience at Loyola. As such, there are two key things that I have learned about social justice from my time within this program. The first thing that I learned resonates with what I previously mentioned - in order to engage in social justice conversations and work it is necessary for one to have an understanding of their own lived experience. I mentioned that connecting academic content to my story and previous experience was empowering and contributed to my growth. Through this empowerment, I felt more confident in exploring my various identities - especially ones that were not at the forefront of my mind. This process also gave me the language to contextualize my experience and articulate it with others. In addition to this, I think the other key thing that I learned about social justice is the necessity of challenging oneself. Social justice and multiculturalism does not just 'happen' - it requires individuals to often have difficult and uncomfortable conversations. For me, that means that I need the skills to reflect on and identify the areas of growth for myself as well as the courage to challenge myself to be uncomfortable. These two things - an understanding of one's own story and the drive to continually challenge myself – are the key things I have learned about social justice as result of this program. Finally, in class we talked about ubuntu which translates to ‘I am because you are.’ This philosophy is one that resonates with my personal commitment to social justice and focuses on the interconnectedness of humanity. Through understanding one's story and courageously engaging in difficult conversations, I believe that we are creating the infrastructure to begin to connect with one another.