What makes you a Difference Maker?
What makes me a Difference Maker is that I dedicated my time at the University of Michigan-Dearborn getting involved and leaving my mark. I did this through two main avenues. First, I was an orientation leader for two summers in a row. I enjoyed telling incoming students everything I knew about campus and being a leader they could look up to. Doing this a second year was even more rewarding as we entered the pandemic and shifted online. I was still able to spread my love for UM-Dearborn while helping curb the fears of online learning. Second, I was a Supplemental Instruction for a COB course for four semesters. It really made me feel like I had an impact on students when I saw them start to understand the course material. If I could help just one student understand a difficult topic, it made my job totally worth it.
Tell us about your leadership experience.
Upon attending UM-Dearborn, I was awarded the Chancellor's scholarship. I have made the Dean's list every semester I have been here in both the College of Business and the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters. I have gotten University Honors, the William Branstrom Freshman Prize, and the James B. Angell Scholar award twice. Most recently, I have been awarded the Chancellor's Medallion for the College of Business. Additionally, I have held multiple committee chairwoman positions sometimes even multiple positions at the same time in my sorority as well as serving as the Vice President of Chapter Development on our executive board for a year. Lastly, I am a member in Beta Gamma Sigma which is the International Business Honor Society.
I served as a campus leader by being an orientation leader and teaching incoming students about everything campus had to offer. I was often the first impression of UM-Dearborn a lot of the incoming students had to go off of. I also was a leader while being a supplemental structure and engaged students to work together to tackle difficult concepts from a rigorous course. I led study sessions, made example problems, and held discussions to encourage learning. I have also assisted my church's youth group in various fundraising events including bake sales, pancake breakfasts, and a spaghetti dinner. I also served many leadership roles in my sorority including the vice president of chapter development where I was in charge of hosting weekly meetings and educating chapter members on topics relating to character, sisterhood, knowledge, and service.
What is your dream career or goal?
My dream career is being a lawyer. I can happily say that will come true as I went through the process of applying to law school, and I will be enrolling somewhere in the fall to begin law school. My long-term goal is to always make sure I am helping people. I would love to either start or partner with an innocence organization. One of my passions is reforming the criminal justice system and helping those wrongfully convicted by that system and working with an innocence clinic would be perfect for that. Second to that would be becoming a judge where I have the ability to enact real change by writing opinions and rendering certain decisions.
What is your most defining moment?
My most defining moment at UM-Dearborn was actually seeing I made an impact. This happened during my time as a supplemental instruction. It was always satisfying to hear the students say they are understanding the concepts and that the worksheets I created helped, but I usually never knew if it made a difference in their course grade or their learning moving forward. However, I received a few emails after exams where students expressed their excitement detailing how they received a way better grade than expected and it was all because of the help and support I provided. This has also been supplemented with people telling me I explain things really well and it made more sense after I went over it. This really made me feel good because I was actually helping people and actually making a difference.