Personal Statement

I am the Assistant Director of Campus and Community Engagement at Transylvania University, where I oversee community engagement programming and work with student organizations. I became involved in community engagement when I participated in an Alternative Service Break (ASB) program as an undergraduate student. Rather than traveling domestically or internationally, this ASB program stayed local. I learned the value of local engagement while in college and it remains important to me. I am passionate about developing experiences for students to engage in their local community. I believe local engagement can sustain itself after the formal completion of a university-sanctioned experience. Local engagement also leads to strong partnerships between communities and universities. In my Master’s classes at Merrimack College, I have discovered a passion for connecting community engagement theory with the practice of supporting marginalized communities. I believe that theory “works” only when it works for the most vulnerable. I am considering doctoral work to continue to make theory accessible and relevant. As a person who is both Black and queer, my educational, professional, and voluntary activities are tangible ways in which I work toward my vision of a world in which academia is accessible to people who look like me.