“She is a natural leader and role model.”
This comment punctuates all my report cards. However, I never believed it, until an alumnus of my high school was murdered by a maintenance worker for rebuffing his advances. Feeling angered, I spearheaded a plan of action for my poetry club—it was a reflex. I led one group poem celebrating her warmth, which we performed for her parents, and one about the rape culture that killed her, which we performed at a sexual assault awareness event.
Columbia boasts an exceptional culture of students who feel emboldened to call out injustice, even when it’s perpetuated by their own community. From the student-driven Columbia Prison Divest campaign, which successfully led Columbia to divest from the private prison industry, to the recent protests about Columbia’s gentrification of Harlem, the tenacity of Columbia’s Lions reflects my own.
Moreover, as someone from a household of sexual and domestic violence, I feel drawn to activism in that field. As a Peer Advocate for Columbia Health, I would provide support and resources for survivors, protecting them from the environment I was in.
The core of Columbia’s ethos is building trailblazers— I can’t wait to be one of them.