Overcomer by Lauren

Overcomer by Lauren - May 2022 Scholarship Essay

“Are you black?”, my Spanish Professor asked the only bi-racial student in the class. The student replied, “Yes, my mom is white and my dad is black”. Immediately, I became breathless, anxious, and embarrassed. I was shocked and my classmates were too. After class, I empathetically approached the student after class to comfort and console her. Since I was the only other minority in the room I felt like I should have spoken up for her but instead, I froze. She responded, “It’s okay Lauren, this happens all the time. I get asked that a lot on campus”. I replied, “What?!”. I was appalled. I quickly learned my alma mater struggled with a lack of diversity and inclusion on campus. In two years, I became the student government Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Coordinator, D&I Committee Chair, and a University Committee Member. That incident in my Spanish class ignited me to continue implementing initiatives and legislation to make my alma mater more diverse and inclusive.

As a result, I joined the Intercultural Student Engagement Council. Our mission was to spread diverse and inclusive values from incoming students up to University administration. We realized that most incoming students did not come from diverse communities and didn’t know how to appropriately engage with students from different cultures. Our council created a class required for all freshmen where they would practice talking about race in a healthy way and learn the different identities that make up an individual from ethnicity to socioeconomic status. The responses we received from students after attending this session were, “I learned so much from this session” and “This gave me a deeper insight into the experiences of others”. I felt like I was finally seeing progress across my campus and continued to receive helpful feedback from students and staff.
However, I was still hearing painful stories from other students of color about their experiences that were continuing to take place on campus. I thought to myself, “Can I really make a difference here?” “Can I handle this?” “Should I just cease all of my positions and work?” I felt like I was the only one climbing this huge mountain many have avoided for decades. This took a toll on my mental health. I was ready to stop climbing. This impacted me mentally, emotionally, and academically. I had to overcome so many obstacles by collaborating with the university administration. I learned I was either too outspoken about the issues students were facing or too creative to make changes on campus that not many staff wanted to see. This left me feeling drained and burned out.
After a time of reflection, I made the personal decision to stay in my position and not give up. At the beginning of my senior year, I accepted a job offer and felt extremely grateful for the opportunity. After accepting the offer I felt like I didn’t have to stress about applying for job positions anymore and could focus on my courses for the rest of the school year.
But I realized not many students of color were struggling to find job opportunities after graduation. Soon, I had the idea to host a conference to connect students of color and alumni of color. Coordinating the first-ever diversity and inclusion conference on campus was one of the hardest things I have ever done from raising enough funds to reaching out to alumni hoping they attend. I coordinated weekly meetings with top leaders across campus, talked with local recruiters to set up career fair booths, and ran email campaigns to market the event to students. The day before the conference one of my committee members quit the team because of a disagreement with another team member. I became angry, tense, and distressed thinking of everything we needed to do to make sure the conference will run smoothly. I remember lying in bed the night before the event thinking to myself, “Are students even going to come?” “Was this all for nothing?” At the end of the conference, all of those questions I had the night before were shattered. The conference was a hit! We had so many comments from students stating, “It was refreshing to see successful minority professionals who looked like me. ” “I felt welcomed and accepted”. All of the students’ feedback tore down every lie I believed about us making a difference because of all of the setbacks we were experiencing.

The skill that helped me the most while obtaining my undergraduate degree is perseverance and not giving up no matter what. When I made the decision in the middle of my journey to not give up despite what was going on around me. It gave me the energy to keep going one step at a time even when I didn’t know a path forward. If I were to go back and tell myself one thing is that it’s okay to not know the entire plan at the beginning and you will learn how to move forward as you are doing it. Perseverance can only grow in the face of adversity.