Faculty, staff, alumni, family and friends gathered together in Old Main Chapel on May 10, 2018 to celebrate our graduates and recognize our scholarship and award winners. This year, we had 22 students graduate with a bachelor's degree in women and gender studies, 28 earn a minor, 6 receive the undergraduate certificate in women and gender studies, and 5 students complete the graduate certificate.

For the Major in
Women & Gender Studies:

Lorena Aguilera Santana
Lorena is an international student from Mexico, graduating with a double major in women and gender studies and sociology, with a certificate in leadership studies. Lorena received the 2018 Jacob Van Ek award, and magna cum laude Latin honors in sociology. She would like to thank her family, partner, and friends for all their support and encouragement.

Nadia Brecl
Nadia is graduating with degrees in sociology and women and gender studies, a minor in ethnic studies, and certificates in public health and LGBTQ studies. They have been active in Gender Justice League, Triota Honor Society, and worked as a program coordinator at the CU Women’s Resource Center. Nadia is also a 2018 Jacob Van Ek award winner.

Kate Dooley
Kate has earned degrees in both women and gender studies and English literature. After graduation she will be pursuing a master's in English literature at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She plans to write a master’s thesis that includes a feminist and queer examination into British Romantic female novelists. 

Ellen Gelman
Ellen is graduating with a degree in women and gender studies, a minor in sociology, and an elementary education certificate. After graduation, she plans to teach elementary school and advocate for social justice in her classroom and beyond.

Joshua Kirby
Joshua has completed degrees in both sociology and women and gender studies, as well as the LGBTQ certificate. They are a member of the Triota Honor Society. Joshua read their poem "Utopian Futures" to open up our commencement ceremony.

Abigail Madeline Levitt
Abby is graduating with degrees in both women and gender studies and psychology, with a certificate in LGBTQ studies. She was a learning assistant for two semesters in the class Women's Mental Health. She would like to thank her Mom for keeping her together, her grandpa for being an encouraging force in her life, Dr. Tina Pittman Wagers, and Dr. Emmanuel David for fostering a love for Queer Studies. She is planning on attending graduate school in the fall of 2019.

Stuart Rayne Matson
Stuart is graduating with a BA in women and gender studies, a minor in sociology, and an emphasis in creative writing. Stuart has also earned the Certificate in Global Gender and Sexuality Studies. She has enjoyed the opportunities to dive into and strengthen her writing at CU, with various topics from researching sexual assault on CU's campus to continuing her work on her rock opera. After graduation she plans to travel the world. Stuart would especially like to thank Sarah Massey-Warren, Robert Buffington, and Glenda Walden.

Zoe Nefouse
Zoe has earned a major in women and gender studies and a minor in creative writing. She is a member of Triota Honor Society, a Chabad student board member, and a staff member at the Gender and Sexuality Center. After graduation, she plans to move back to California, moisturize her skin, and continue to educate herself and others on how to make this world a more compassionate place. She would like to thank her mother and father for giving her unwavering love, support and trust; as well as every friend, family member, and stranger who has willingly sat through a (probably unprompted, yet painfully in-depth) analysis of The Discourse™ and maybe even changed their perspective on issues because of it.

Adriana Portillo
Adriana is graduating with both double majors in women and gender studies and psychology as well as double minors in sociology and ethnic studies. She is a member of Pi Lambda Chi Latina Sorority Incorporated, and studied abroad in Alicante Spain for the fall 2017 semester where she completed an internship at the local Red Cross, helping women who have experienced domestic violence. She would like to thank her family and friends for the unconditional support, and would also like to thank the Department of Women and Gender Studies for helping her find her voice on such a large campus.

Emma Louise Morgan Presley
Emma has earned a major in women and gender studies, a minor in political science, and certificates in LGBTQ studies and applied business. She served as the president of the Triota Honor Society, president and event coordinator of the Gay Straight Alliance, was an active member of the Gender Justice League, and worked with �鶹ӰԺ's Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence as both a children's advocate and domestic abuse response team member. Emma would like to express her immense gratitude for her family, both given and chosen, for their unconditional love and support. She would also like to thank the entire Department of Women and Gender Studies, especially Professor Montoya and Joanne Belknap, for their mentorship over the past four years. 

Oriana Marie Richmond 
Oriana is graduating with a degree in women and gender studies, and minors in Spanish and political science. She was the 2017 recipient of the WGST Jean Dubofsky Scholarship, and is the president and founder of Buffs for Reproductive Rights, a Planned Parenthood Generation Action student group that works to make sure all students at CU �鶹ӰԺ have the access to exercise their reproductive rights to comprehensive, safe, and affordable healthcare. After graduation, she will be working as a community organizer with Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. She would like to thank her parents Angel and Dan Richmond for always supporting her goals and giving her the tool box she needed to achieve them. She truly appreciates the sacrifices that you have made for her so that she was able to go to college and graduate today. She would also like to thank her friends and her girlfriend for giving her so much love every day, and making her college experience worth much more than a degree.

Priya Robb
Priya is graduating with degrees in sociology and women and gender studies, along with a minor in leadership. Priya was recognized with the outstanding senior award from Panhellenic council. She would especially like to give thanks to her parents.

Nicole Marie Rosato
Nicole is graduating with a degree in women and gender studies, a minor in sociology, and has also earned a Certificate in Global Gender and Sexuality Studies. After graduation she plans to spend some time recuperating in Indonesia before attending law school in California, (hopefully Pepperdine!), and to continue her volunteer and advocacy work with victims of intimate partner violence.

Maren Grace Rosenbach
Maren is graduating with a degree in women and gender studies, and is also a member of the Triota Honor Society. Maren says it has taken her 22 years to reach this moment, and she could not be prouder for never giving up, for believing in herself, and for having the courage to be in spaces that went against "normative" timelines. She would like to thank Professor Bayard de Volo for her guidance and kindness, never letting her feel like she did not belong. She is grateful to all the WGST staff, faculty, and peers for giving her a language to express her internal feminist trait that needed releasing; to her community college educators particularly Maryann Grim and Kathleen Hefley; her rockstar friends and family for their constant encouragement and love; to Gianna and Sydney, who inspire her to walk through this world with fierceness and brilliance by example, and lastly, she would like to thank Fletcher for teaching her that she is worthy and for showing her unconditional love.

Shannon Gisela Small
Shannon is graduating with degrees in women and gender studies, and humanities with English emphasis. They are the co-president of CU Humanities club and the Aro&Ace student group. After graduation Shannon plans to take a year off before going to graduate school. She would like to thank her father, as well as all her friends, for giving her the support and environment she needed to succeed in university over the last four years. 

Alyssa Stephens
Alyssa has completed degrees in both communication and women and gender studies. She worked as a resident advisor in Libby Hall for two years, including one year as the senior resident advisor, and helped found To Write Love on Her Arms at CU, a student group advocating for mental health awareness. After graduation she plans to continue working in collegiate residence life.

Jacqueline Tillman
Jacqueline is graduating with a major in women and gender studies, a minor in ethnic studies, and a certificate in LGBTQ studies. Jacqueline transferred to CU from Front Range Community College, is a member of Triota Honor Society, and received the Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Scholarship in 2017. They also worked as a rape crisis advocate at Moving to End Sexual Assault and the Colorado Organization for Victim’s Assistance. Jacqueline would like to thank Dr. Misri for finding them where they were. Like Sara Ahmed writes of first reading Audre Lorde, Dr. Misri’s classes have been their feminist lifeline: “just enough to bear my weight, pull me out, and help me survive.” They would like to thank Dr. Emmanuel David for venturing into and dwelling with their amorphous archival project. Their support has challenged them, in the Muñozian sense, to feel hope, glimpse utopia, and conjure possible futurities. They would also like to thank Alicia Turchette & Valerie Bhat for their laughter and care across semesters, Beth Whalley for their life-world of queer love, their parents for their unfathomable support, and their sister, Gab. “I, too, overflow.”

Allegra Twichell
Allegra has completed degrees in both women and gender studies and ethnic studies and certificates in Global Gender and Sexuality Studies and LGBTQ studies. She would like to thank her mom for being a feminist inspiration in her life and her dad for always being accepting and incredibly supportive. She would also like to thank her best friends for their friendship and the amazing faculty in the department for guiding her through her journey at CU.

Katie Wallace
Katie has completed her degree in women and gender studies. After graduation she plans to help elect millennials to congress, because she is tired of watching old white men ruin this country and the world. She would like to thank the women and gender studies department, and specifically Dr. Celeste Montoya, for their time, dedication, and patience, and for demonstrating to her just how personal the political truly is. She would also like to thank her family, born-with and chosen, for guiding her with love, strength, and compassion. She writes, “Every ounce of me that is good is because of you.” 

Also completing the Major in Women and Gender Studies, but not in attendance:

Morgan Buchanan

Audrey Anna Jorgensen

Amanda Xavier Trejos

[video:https://youtu.be/4gAWSw9kTxE]Video: Commencement 2018

[video:https://youtu.be/i8deGq8zYfo]"Utopian Futures": Josh Kirby

[video:https://youtu.be/vkeYOhBYccU]Student Address: Zoe Nefouse

[video:https://youtu.be/SPGDdqSKmiI]Student Address: Adriana Portillo

[video:https://youtu.be/NRL1gYtwRU8]Student Address: Jacqueline Tillman

[video:https://youtu.be/hKKWFnoxJwE]Student Address: Katie Wallace

[video:https://youtu.be/3LNV-TqVCMs]Commencement Address: Dr. Celeste Montoya

For the Minor in
Women & Gender Studies:

Faye Green
Faye has earned a bachelor’s degree in economics as well as the minor in women and gender studies. She is a member of the Triota Honor Society, a MESA Hotline Volunteer, has been on the Dean’s list, and is a Colorado native.

Tyler Pelkey
Tyler is earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies as well as the minor in women and gender studies. She plans to pursue a master’s in public policy focused on gender violence. Tyler would like to thank everyone in the women and gender studies department, as well as her friends, family, and partner.

Shoshana Pollack
Shoshana is graduating with a degree in sociology, a minor in women and gender studies, and the certificate in LGBTQ studies. She has been awarded both the Jim Downton Award, and the Lasting Legacy Award. After graduation, she plans to spend some quality time with her cat.

Bex Schmelzel
Bex has earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology, a minor in women and gender studies, the certificate in LGBTQ studies, and they made the Dean’s list multiple semesters. Right after graduation they are starting a job as a tour actor/director with Missoula Children’s Theatre, where they will be traveling to a different U.S. city every week to teach children the art of theater and how to continue to find their voice beyond the stage. Bex would like to thank their family for constantly supporting them in their identity and their passions. They would also like thank Shoshana Pollock and Sam Bullington for radicalizing them and activating their hunger for social change.

Taylor Strub
Taylor is graduating with a degree in international affairs and minors in business and women and gender studies. She is a member of the Delta Gamma Fraternity, and studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After graduation, she plans to soak up some sun in San Francisco and enjoy freedom from homework but eventually continue her education. She is interested in inclusive immigration law reform and the study of gender, conflict and peace.  She would like to thank her family for encouraging and supporting her education and the faculty that inspired her to become a more intersectional and thoughtful feminist.

Danny Ronan Sussman
Danny has completed dual degrees in both psychology and sociology, the women and gender studies minor, and the certificate in LGBTQ studies. They are the founder of the campus BYOG (Bring Your Own Gender) student group. After graduation, his two-step plan is to co-teach feminism to beluga whales with Dean Spade, and then to ruin the sanctity of marriage. He would like to thank the Gender and Sexuality Center, Scarlet Bowen, and Morgan Seamont for their continual support and opportunities to get involved.

Also completing the Minor in Women and Gender Studies, but not in attendance:

 Krystle Michelle Aaraas

Katherine Lee Andrews

Abbigail Arneson

Riley Eizabeth Barr

McKenzie Berke

Clare Marie Daley

Zoe Elizabeth DeBrohun

Gabrielle Egger

Ashley A Garg

Gabriela Glumac

Rachel Nicole Grammes

Eliza Mary Granahan-Field

Joseph James Hearity

Carly Noelle Herrmann

Lacey Marriah Lucas

Cassandra Jane Rippy

Rosellen Mary Sell

Ana Paola Solorzano

Kaitlin Anne Starr

Aleela Taylor

Zoe Elizabeth Whitley

Taylor Yaw

Completing the
Undergraduate
Certificate in
Global Gender &
Sexuality Studies:

Kayla Marie Hardin-Lawson

Shelby Hardwick

Stuart Rayne Matson

Jordan Karron Romick

Nicole Marie Rosato

Allegra Torkelson Twichell

Completing the
Graduate Certificate in
Women & Gender Studies:

John Goldsmith
John has completed a master’s degree in English literature as well as the Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies. He notes that the certificate has allowed him to effectively question the methodologies and theories practiced in English literature research, focusing not only on how feminist readings shape our relationships with texts, but how we can impact communities outside of academia as well.

Ximena Keogh Serrano
Ximena has completed the Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies while earning a PhD in Spanish and Latin American literature, with her dissertation “Embodying the In-between: Queer Subjecthoods and Imagined Be-comings in Transamerican Narrative and Film”. Ximena notes that the WGST graduate certificate has deepened her knowledge of critical theories and feminist practices, invigorating continuous trans-disciplinary movement and reflection in her work. The dedicated mentorship and intellectual rigor of the WGST faculty have facilitated ever-dynamic modes of reading, teaching, and being in the world—elements which spill into her current writings and visions of future scholarship.

Hillary Steinberg
Hillary is on the PhD track in sociology, and has completed her master's thesis this year: "Taking Risks and Taking Care: Identity Formation in Young Adults with Chronic Health Conditions".  Hillary writes that the certificate program has given her an ability to recognized gendered patterns of micro-relationships, such as embodiment, and larger structural forces. It has also exposed her to feminist methodology, which has proven very helpful to her work.

Also completing the Graduate Certificate in Women and Gender Studies, but not in attendance:

Bonnie Cox

Kristin Peterson

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The Department of Women and Gender Studies is proud to offer several scholarships and award recognitions to our students each year, which were presented at our annual Commencement ceremony in Old Main on Thursday, May 10th, by Dr. Emmanuel David and Dr. Kristie Soares.

Brit Nuckles, accepting the Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Scholarship

The Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Scholarship
      2018 recipient: Brit Nuckles

This scholarship honors Lucile Berkeley Buchanan, the first black woman graduate of the University of Colorado, who graduated in 1918 with a degree in German. This year is a very special one for this award, both for marking the 100^th anniversary of Lucile Berkeley Buchanan’s graduation, and for being the first time the �鶹ӰԺ has publicly acknowledged the wrong done to this extraordinary woman by the university. When Buchanan graduated with honors in 1918, she was not allowed to accept her diploma on the Macky Auditorium stage alongside white graduates of her cohort, nor was she included in the yearbook. She sat in the auditorium, but her name was never called. She lived to be a 105, and yet her remarkable place in CU’s history was never acknowledged until this year, thanks to the efforts of media studies professor Polly McLean, who was the first black woman to receive tenure at CU.

The Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Scholarship is awarded to a student who demonstrates a commitment towards social justice and who may be the first generation in their family to attend college. This year’s recipient is Brit Nuckles, a double major in Political Science and Women and Gender Studies. The scholarship committee was impressed by Brit’s statement, which reflected on their journey to college within a clear intersectional framework. To quote from Brit’s moving statement: “As someone who is bisexual and genderqueer, I feel the injustices faced by the LGBTQ+ community the most personally. While academia and social activists often codify the injustices faced by those not in power, law is how a society puts these understandings into practice. That means that one of the best ways to help many those who face injustice is in the practice of law. After my studies I want to use my academic knowledge of oppression to navigate and change the law in ways to promote justice for those who face injustice.”

Jackson Reinagel, accepting the Jean Dubofsky Scholarship

The Jean Dubofsky Scholarship
      2018 recipient: Jackson Reinagel

This scholarship is given in honor of Jean Dubofsky, the first woman to serve on the Colorado Supreme Court and a �鶹ӰԺ attorney who has worked tirelessly on civil rights issues. It was generously funded by the late Dr. Joanne E. Arnold, professor emerita in Journalism. Jean was unable to join us for Commencement this year, but we very much appreciate her long-standing involvement and support of our department. This award is given to a Women and Gender studies major and is based on academic record, education and career goals, community and campus service, and a demonstrated commitment to raising awareness of and combating oppression in all its forms.

This year the award goes to Jackson Reinagel, a major in Women and Gender Studies, also pursuing the LGBTQ Certificate. An outstanding student, Jackson has nevertheless made the time to pursue a range of activities at CU. This year for example, he led a workshop at the TRANSforming Gender Conference called “Navigating Intersectional Transfeminism”. In his application, Jackson wrote: “I’m particularly committed to anti-racism and bringing together students from across campus to be part of something radically inclusive.” To that end, Jackson was recently active in strategizing with faculty, staff and other students to plan a positive and inclusive celebration of community, at a time when our campus has seen a series of visitors who espouse openly hateful ideologies in the name of free speech. The committee could think of no better candidate for the Dubofsky Scholarship.

Maren Rosenbach, accepting the Joanne Easley Arnold Outstanding Senior Award
photo courtesy Faith Ninivaggi

Joanne Easley Arnold Outstanding Senior Award
      2018 recipient: Maren Rosenbach

Every year, the faculty of Women and Gender Studies has the challenge of determining which student we should honor with the Joanne Easley Arnold Outstanding Senior Award, an award named in honor of a professor emerita of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the �鶹ӰԺ, for her long-term support of Women and Gender Studies. This award is indeed a very special one, given to a graduating women and gender studies student to recognize them for outstanding leadership and service to women and gender studies. It is to be awarded to someone that the faculty and staff have admired for their commitment to the program, and for whom there may not yet have been any formal recognition through one of our scholarships or award nominations.

This year’s Outstanding Senior Award was given to Maren Rosenbach. Maren is a “nontraditional student”: a mother who has worked as a nurse then owned and sold a small business. She is committed to social justice and describes her life as a struggle to get to a place where she could choose—and when she returned to college, she chose to major in women and gender studies.  In all her roles in life, she believes in not just showing up, but really being present. Although we cannot always prevent human suffering, she never wants to see anyone feel there is no way out of that space. As a means to further her social justice work, she has chosen to study law in the field of ethics and compliance. She has been accepted to the master's program at CU law school and will return to campus next year as a graduate student.

Selena Wellington, accepting the Women and Gender Studies Excellence in Inclusion Award

Women & Gender Studies Excellence in Inclusion Award
      2018 recipients: Lauren Arnold & Selena Wellington

This award recognizes outstanding student projects that explore issues pertaining to diversity and inclusion at CU-�鶹ӰԺ or in the U. S. more generally.  It is designed to help foster an inclusive and welcoming campus climate for historically underrepresented groups in the field of education. Students from across the campus are invited to submit research or creative works for consideration by a committee made up of faculty, staff, and students from our department.

Lauren Arnold’s submission, “What It’s Actually Like to be Black at CU” was read with admiration by many of us when it first appeared in the CU Independent several months ago. The article offered a critical and personal look at the experiences of Black students, particularly Black women, on our campus, from the classroom and the dining hall to student parties. For example, Lauren writes: “In class, race is brought up more often than I expected. … Part of me is overjoyed that these important topics are discussed, but another part leaves class disgusted at conversations we’ve had.” The article concludes with a call for “diversity in both the student population and the faculty.” Lauren is studying Communications and English, with a specialization in Creative Writing.

We also recognized Selena Wellington for their performative piece “when my body becomes the art,” a moving and poetic reflection on the artist’s decision to go on testosterone. In the artist’s words: “The incorporation of my physical body in the piece demonstrates how the ritual of gender is enacted on my physicality. My body cannot be separated from the art.”  Selena is in their senior year studying Composition in the College of Music, with an additional major in Psychology, a minor in Creative Writing, and they are earning certificates in Music Technology and LGBTQ Studies.

Their winning projects can be viewed at: /wgst/2018/05/25/excellence-inclusion-award-winners

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Selena Wellington receiving the 2018 Excellence in Inclusion Award from Dr. Emmanuel David and Dr. Kristie Soares.

The Women and Gender Studies Excellence in Inclusion Award recognizes outstanding student projects (research or creative works) that explore issues pertaining to diversity and inclusion at CU �鶹ӰԺ or in the U.S. more generally. This award is designed to help foster an inclusive and welcoming campus climate at CU �鶹ӰԺ for students of all backgrounds, including first-generation students, minority students, women, LGBTQ, and other historically underrepresented groups in the field of education.

This year we awarded the prize to two outstanding students: Lauren Arnold and Selena Wellington.

Lauren Arnold is a Senior at CU-�鶹ӰԺ double majoring in Communication and English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Lauren's submission, “What It’s Actually Like to be Black at CU” was read with admiration by many of us when it first appeared in the several months ago. The article offered a critical and personal look at the experiences of Black students, particularly Black women, on our campus, from the classroom and the dining hall to student parties. For example, Lauren writes: “In class, race is brought up more often than I expected...Part of me is overjoyed that these important topics are discussed, but another part leaves class disgusted at conversations we’ve had.” The article concludes with a call for “diversity in both the student population and the faculty.”

For the second award, we recognized Selena Wellington for their performative piece “when my body becomes the art,” a moving and poetic reflection on the artist’s decision to go on testosterone. Selena is in their senior year studying Composition in the College of Music, with an additional major in Psychology, a minor in Creative Writing, and they are earning certificates in Music Technology and LGBTQ Studies. In the artist’s words: “The incorporation of my physical body in the piece demonstrates how the ritual of gender is enacted on my physicality. My body cannot be separated from the art.”

My father warned me about racism. If that makes me seem naïve, it’s because I was. He warned me about the world and the way people see color — the assumptions they make about you. When I was younger, he taught my brother and I to keep our hands out of our pockets when we were in stores, how to dress right and do our hair, how to talk to policemen, how to talk on the phone.

Because, he told us, almost everything is about race — and you have to do everything you can to combat it. He told me it would affect my career, my interactions with teachers and peers, and maybe even my grades. When he told me this, even when I was a high school senior old enough to know better — when he warned me about the conservative nature of college and the lack of diversity — I didn’t believe him.

This man, who lived in the `50s and `60s in Compton, California, during flares of racial clashes and the Civil Rights Movement, was the naïve one in my mind. It wasn’t that I didn’t think racism existed or that I didn’t stand behind movements like Black Lives Matter — I did. How could I ignore it when I witnessed George Zimmerman’s trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin or the discrimination and hate our first black president was met with, among other racial tragedies?

I guess I just thought that racism was an issue previous generations are perpetuating. I thought that our generation — liberal college students, at the very least — were different. I came from a high school that was 71 percent non-white, and race wasn’t something we really bothered to care about. Everyone was friends with everyone. At least, that’s what I thought.

Since graduating from high school, I’ve seen many of my “friends” expose themselves on social media as supporters of the confederate flag, Donald Trump and All Lives Matter. Looking back, I tolerated so many comments that were blatantly racist, but I wrote them off as distasteful jokes I could look past. I see now how race did, in fact, matter at my high school. How most of the AP class population was that other 29 percent — white students. I’m ashamed to say that none of this struck me as odd.

Then I came to CU. The racial demographic breakdown from my high school was flipped on its head with CU’s student population sitting at an ironic 71 percent white makeup in my freshman year. I was not prepared for what a 71 percent white campus would look like or, more importantly, feel like.

The moment I set foot on this campus, I knew I owed my father an apology. The race issues that were always around me became apparent now. He was right: everything is about race.

When you say that, people will tell you it’s in your head like I thought it was for my father, but it’s real, and it affects some part of my life every day.

�鶹ӰԺ seemed like a good choice for college because it gets a good reputation for being liberal, but what I’ve noticed is that the campus isn’t as socially liberal as people make it out to be. The reality of CU is that it places token minorities on its ads around campus and its brochures for prospective students and calls itself diverse. I remember being in the stands of Folsom Field on my first day as the whole freshman class cheered when the chancellor read that horrific statistic of “diversity.”

The reality of CU is that as minorities, we walk around campus feeling quite literally like the black sheep in the white herd. I cannot and do not speak for all minorities, but what I can speak to is my own experience and the experiences of my friends and those I’ve talked to.

One of my best friends avoids parties because she feels that as a Mexican woman, she is fetishized by white men. Others have gone to parties and were denied admission. Others, still, have been told by white men that they’re “pretty for a black girl.”

I myself have dealt with the blow to self-esteem that comes with seeing very few people on this campus that look like me. I feel inferior some days walking around, seeing that what most people want on this campus is blonde hair and blue eyes.

I’ve both witnessed and used code-switching in class, at work, and while talking to people on campus because I feel a need to make them feel more comfortable with a skin tone they probably rarely see here. I’ve been confused on several occasions for the only other black girl in my dorm hall, who looks nothing like me. I’ve had to wonder if having open seats on both sides of me in class was a race thing or just a coincidence. I’ve heard so many white people use the N-word. I’ve had to realize that people in �鶹ӰԺ are afraid of people of color when I was walking with my friends and two girls crossed the street actually saying aloud, “black people!”

When I got box braids, I had a conversation with nearly every black girl I worked with or had class with about how there are no salons in �鶹ӰԺ that do black hair — people even stopped me to track me down and ask where I had gotten mine. I experienced interactions that baffled me: a white boy called my hair “fly,” a word I know has never come out of that boy’s mouth before, and my friend immediately asked me if I had seen “that Queen Latifah movie where she does hair.” They meant well, but I think they felt like they had to make it known that they were accepting of my black culture by presenting the only connection to it that they knew.

In class, race is brought up more often than I expected. That has a lot to do with the majors I’m in (English and communication), but even my classes like film or discourse discuss it at length. Part of me is overjoyed that these important topics are discussed, but another part leaves class disgusted at conversations we’ve had.

I’ve had a corner of white men snicker at me when I’ve defended peaceful protests for the Black Lives Matter movement and explained why racist jokes aren’t OK. I’ve heard BET called racist in class and heard someone ask why we even need to talk about race.

Inevitably, there will be disagreement, but what bothers me most is being one of very few minorities, if not the only one, in a classroom of white students with a white professor discussing issues from only a white perspective. College students have asked what lynching is, and brought up painful topics like Emmett Till that have had nothing to do with our discussion. When we talked about the adversity black women have historically faced, the conversation somehow turned into a session of white students going around the room and each sharing their one experience of going to “soulful” black churches.

My experience at CU highlights the fact that education on race is integral to changing race relations in America, but sitting in my seat deciding whether to let it go or become the “angry black girl” — the residential minority of the class — is an uncomfortable experience. One black woman came up to me after class and thanked me for my comments, telling me that “it’s been a lonely road” in her academic career as one of very few women of color in her English major.

These are not empty complaints but rather a call for diversity in both the student population and the faculty. When the faculty at CU is 76 percent white and the only positions the university seems to give to minorities are in Housing and Dining Services, the message that gets conveyed is that minorities can serve white students but can’t teach them.

Systematic racism is a tough battle to take on, and, unfortunately, it will take time to eradicate it, but while the fight is ongoing, we can all do our parts to fight interpersonal racism. The bread and butter of CU is pale skin, and that’s not just an institutional issue but a human one.

To white students: examine your privilege, check your actions, check your biases and try to open your minds when it comes to race issues. I know it’s hard seeing from another perspective or altering the values you may have been raised on, but I implore you to start the change with yourself because if you looked around — I mean really looked around — you would see that change is necessary.

To students of color: I know racism cuts like a knife and that sometimes people even consider switching schools or dropping out, but our presence here is the start of change. I hate being counted in that 29 percent minority category because I feel like the university uses us as a feather in its cap, but we’re here for our education, not for them. Don’t let others dictate who you are or how you’ll live your life.

I’m so sorry that our parents were right. I hear you, and your voices matter.

to read the article in its original form on the CU Independent website

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