What makes you a Difference Maker?
I just want to help people. I want people to feel safe, heard, and accepted around me. I work hard to make sure that the people I work with have a voice, and feel like they matter. I love working with the UM-Dearborn community, and it makes me happy to see that they seem to be happy to work with me! I don't know exactly what makes me a Difference Maker—but I sure am glad to be one.
Tell us about your leadership experience.
My biggest leadership accomplishments have been with that of PRIDE and Lyceum. I've been with PRIDE since I was a freshman, and even from the first meeting I ever had with them, I knew I wanted to be part of it in a more intimate way. So the next year, I ran for Secretary. The next, President. It was such a wonderful experience getting to head up PRIDE, to work with people who were like me, who looked like me, who loved me for who I was, and being able to take a leadership role in this group has been a priceless experience. I organized and hosted events around queer holidays, I worked with outside organizations to foster collaborations, and I hosted weekly meetings to touch base with members every week. I first became President of pride when the pandemic hit, so it was a hard transition from in-person to online, especially when it was my first major leadership role. But I'll be forever grateful for the experience.
As for Lyceum, I had the pleasure of being the Managing editor of Lyceum for a year, and being able to physically choose the works that go into the literary journal, as well as actually help put the journal together? It was so satisfying being able to hold a physical marker of my effort in my hand, and that's a satisfaction I don't think I'll ever be able to replicate.
I've worked in CAPS and DA services for a long time as well, and being able to help host events, mentor students, and work in the mental health and disability field has been the type of hands-on experience I've always wanted. I've always wanted to work one on one with people as a career, so being able to do this as a college student is a great segue into that. I'm grateful for all the opportunities UM-Dearborn has offered me, and I know I'll be using those skills in the future.
What is your dream career or goal?
I used to think very ambitiously. I've wanted to be all kinds of things: an actress, a motivational speaker (I was 13, please forgive me), a veterinarian, an oncologist, a nurse--but I realized as I grew up that I truly just liked talking to people. I liked being one on one with people, and I've spent a lot of my life trying to make people feel better, to help people cope, to be THERE for people. And being able to have experience in the mental health field these past years has helped me cement that. My dream at this point is to get a Ph.D. in Social Work, and then pursue a career in counseling, hopefully at the college or high school level. I want to talk to younger people who need someone to tell them the kinds of things I needed to hear at their age. I want to be that person. It's something that I truly enjoy doing, and I hope to use the skills I've learned to help people in the future.
What is your most defining moment?
My most defining moment was the semester that my father passed away. It was January of 2019. It was my second semester of college, during the first week of classes when I got the news. I rushed home from college to be with my family and spent time with them while we all tried to heal and cope with the reality of what was happening. But I was overcome with anxiety at this time--not from my father's passing, but from the fact that I had to miss school for his memorial. I was scared of falling behind in school, and so despite my grief, I forced myself to do homework, to attend class, to take notes, and simply wait for the time between classes to cry. At the end of the semester, I was gifted with a report card of all A's, as my father's urn sat feet away from me. I felt so guilty. I felt so dirty. It was then that I realized how much I had allowed work and school to overtake my life, my mental health, and at that point, my family. I realized how horrible this was for my mental health, and how horrible this was for my relationships. From then to now, I've been working incredibly hard to not prioritize this unreachable standard of perfection when it comes to school and work. I've been working on self-care, on mental wellness, on building relationships, and on creating a work-life balance that was much healthier than it used to be. I still have problems with school-related anxiety, as I was obsessed with being perfect in school all throughout elementary, middle, and high school. But that moment of guilt and grief gave me the reality check I needed that what I was doing wasn't healthy, and that school wasn't everything.
Since then, I've done the mental health work to realize how unhealthy I was, but at the time it was hard to notice. However, this realization changed who I was, and despite the guilt, I feel it made me better. I now make my relationships more important than my schoolwork, and the benefits have been phenomenal. Yes, I have a few B's now. But for the first time in my life, I can truthfully say: I don't care!