Jasmine Everett, senior family science major, said, “I’m really excited to teach kids in Baltimore and I feel like I chose Special Education … because a lot of people exclude them … they have a special place in my heart so I’m excited to teach Special Education.” 

“I grew up in Baltimore, and I was privileged enough to go to the best schools but I don’t feel like it should be a tokenizing system, we shouldn’t be picking people we see as the best and brightest, everyone should get the same attention. I started in high school, we had the Maryland Teacher Academy and then I thought, ‘I don’t want to teach,’ so I started here in government and politics. And somehow, someway, I ended up dropping that and I am in family science now and I will be teaching. So I think it was always meant to be, honestly, I ended up where I started in high school.”

Samantha DeSilva, sophomore neurobiology and physiology major said, “This past spring break I went on an alternative breaks trip … and over that trip you get immersed in the community and you really get to learn why you’re doing the community service and their story and how they ended up in the positions they’re in. And you also learn a lot about each other and I think it’s very interesting… all the little things that happen to people that make them who they are and what contributes to them. And I think a lot of the problems in the world happen because of not understanding each other and not understanding where people come from.”

Max Balagtas-Badoy, junior psychology and philosophy major, said, “So when I saw this board I immediately thought of my roommates, I live with six other trans people in a place off campus and I thought about how we only feel like we can be our authentic selves within the house and not necessarily on campus or the world beyond that. And I want to kind of imagine a world where I can be my authentic self in all my spaces because to not do that makes me feel like there are pieces of me that are cut off and I’m not a whole person.”

Suhayla Ahmed, junior finance and government and politics major said, “I am a female and it’s kind of frustrating to know that women get paid 77 cents per every dollar that a man gets paid. And I feel like I’m no less qualified or no less intelligent than a lot of my male peers in my classes and it’s really … annoying to know they will get better job offers and they will be taken more seriously than I will based off of how I look and how we dress and just who we are-that is entirely based on genetics.”

Grace Toohey, senior journalism and government and politics major, said “With the current political climate and so many different views being expressed in America, which is awesome, diversity is great, but I feel like there’s been a lot of misinformation and intolerance which is kind of frightening for me. I’m a journalism major so I really want to educate people through journalism, through real journalism, that is well reported. And I feel like that could make a difference because when I talk to people who are educated on the issue, it’s a thoughtful conversation so that education is a really important aspect of it.”

Featured Photo Credit: A wall where people entering Stamp Student Union can write about the world they want to live in and what they will do to help create that world (Gabe Fernandez/Bloc Reporter)

Allie Melton is a sophomore journalism major and can be reached at allihiesmelton@yahoo.com.