This picture is an example of one of many communities that I developed here at Loyola. This was my 2014 Bridge to Loyola mentee group where we went to Hyde Park to do a community service project. I was a mentor for the program and coordinated several community engagement events and activities to promote community building. I worked with Loyola faculty and staff to help groom these students to be prepared academically for Loyola and the surrounding community. I spent three weeks with these students and continue to mentor them as they were the first community that I initiated and helped me grow. These students coem from all different walks of life and it is a pleasure to see hwo far they've come as I am approaching graduation.
I define a community as a group of people with shared experiences and intersecting identities. A community is a group of people working together for a common cause, providing support for one another, challenging each other to think critically, and encouraging the sharing of different perspectives. My community at Loyola has evolved through organizations that I have been a part of and events that I have attended that have helped me grow and develop into the person I am today. In my experience with the Department of Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs (SDMA), the Black Cultural Center (BCC), and working at the Damen Student Center each position has put me in a situation where I had to take a step back and understand my privileged identities and learn to be an ally for other communities that did not share my same perspectives. The people in my Loyola community have motivated me to excel in my academic courses and set a positive example for others in my community. Faculty and staff have supported my professional development through job preparation, leadership positions, and internships related to my career interests. Peers have held me accountable for my actions and events that I have committed to attending. They have supported me by encouraging me to never give up and to accomplish my academic and personal goals. My Loyola community has provided a platform for me to share knowledge that I have gained over the years, and has provided countless on campus resources that help students personally, academically, and professionally. In regards to my engagement with the community, I partnered with community members to stand against injustices in the world and had dialogues about efforts to combat these issues. This pushed me out of my comfort zone and taught me to reach out to the greater community for support in the fight against injustices that are happening today. To learn more about others and myself, I used the ideas that I learned about safe spaces and carried those to my volunteer experience at Family Matters. Those ideas helped facilitate sensitive conversations which allowed for different cultural experiences to be expressed. This experience allowed me to realize that everyone’s perspective is valid even if I don’t understand or agree with it and taught me to be tolerant of conflicting ideas and to be open minded.
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