This past weekend, EV! student leaders joined faculty, staff and students from Elon and surrounding North Carolina colleges to discuss the intersections of leadership, service, and social justice at this year’s Intersect Conference. In addition to engaging with various presentations and round table discussions, a few of EV!'s student leaders also presented. One of them, Sarah Holdren, gave a presentation called, “Our Polarized World- Different Definitions of Doing Good” alongside peers Rob Bullard and Halaj Mack. If you missed the presentation, don't fret! This is what Sarah had to say about her presentation at Intersect:
We live in a world with very visible and tangible problems. Many avid volunteers- something I would consider myself to be- find that the best way to solve these issues is to “do.” Volunteering, after all, is often a very action-oriented service. However, when we really begin to look deeper at service, we find that some service isn’t always the best way to fix the issues at hand. In collaboration with DEEP, Elon’s social justice student organization, we began to pull apart these issues in a 50-minute interactive presentation. Service-learning and civic engagement, when utilizing a social justice lens, can be a very powerful force of change, but it is important to consider the components necessary to make service good service. The active citizen’s continuum, produced by Breakaway is a great resource to show what is necessary to do service in a way that produces justice. We ended our presentation with a discussion about what types of service we are all comfortable with and uncomfortable with. For example, are you more comfortable challenging a friend’s biased views of a particular group or working with campus kitchen to help with food security in Alamance county? The answers to this question can be varied, but they are certainly attributable to the amount of privilege we bring with us when doing service. That is something worthwhile for us all to consider as we work to move service from fixing a need to the complete elimination of it. Amy Belfer also contributed to the Intersect Conference in leading a discussion in collaboration with the Hall for Change. Belfer noted the accomplishments and significance of Keynote Speaker Kat Blaque, a YouTube personality and transgender rights activist. EV! collaborated with the Hall for Change, the student directed living learning community committed to social justice to present a round table on the intersections of poverty and diversity. I, alongside Sophia Diaz, led a discussion on disparities in healthcare, education, housing, and political representation. The table discussed the interconnectedness of these issues and the many systemic barriers individuals face. One example discussed was that if a child does not have access to food or secure housing, it may be harder for them to focus or succeed in school. Participants specifically touched on how people of color and immigrants (and especially immigrants who are undocumented), often have higher rates of poverty and lower rates of access to adequate health care or educational resources. To end on a note of hope and an action plan, participants discussed things their communities are doing or systemic changes that need to occur to work to alleviate poverty and end these disparities. This year’s keynote speaker was Kat Blaque. Kat Blaque refers to herself as an “intersectionality salad” and she identifies as black and as a transgender woman. During her keynote address, she discussed many transitions throughout her life including her gender transition, and her transitions into college and the workforce. She spoke about how she tried to be “stealth” (pretend she was a cisgender woman and not a transgender woman.) She bravely shared many obstacles she overcame in her life, including being outed as transgender to her peers and being kicked out of her home for being transgender. Despite people not taking her seriously and not believing in her ability to succeed in animation, she continued to follow her dreams. She has now worked on several high profile videos, and she shared a video about inclusivity she collaborated on. For a long time, Kat feared Google searches would out her. However, after working on a Buzzfeed video where she shared her experiences as a black transgender woman, she realized that even as people found out she was transgender, she still had her friends, family, relationship and career. She has let go of her fears of being visible, and serves as an inspiration to many by openly sharing her experiences and identities. Sarah Holdren and Amy Belfer are EV! student leaders at Elon University who participated in the Intersect Conference this past weekend. If you are interested in being a guest writer for EV!'s blog or know someone who would be, contact [email protected].
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