​I was a kid that grew up in the Valley and didn’t have a lot of black friends. I always hung around the same people. The biggest difference I noticed was socioeconomically. I wasn’t able to get the things that my peers got. I attended two independent schools. One in middle school and one for high school. Prior to high school, I would have described my independent school experience as a pretty good one. But, at that time, I lacked a sense of self as a student and didn’t necessarily know certain things were wrong. My experience changed during junior and senior years of high school. The socioeconomic differences (my mom was a hairdresser) became very apparent as students became old enough to drive. In addition to the class disparities that I witnessed, I experienced challenges racially too.

I was a cheerleader and ambassador for the school. While looking for leadership opportunities during my senior year, my friend and I went to talk to the school’s administration about establishing a Black Student Union. I remember vividly how resistant the school’s leadership was to that idea. “It [Black Student Union} was too harsh of a name!” So, instead of creating a space for black students, we ended up creating a club called Students For Diversity that’s still a part of the school community today. Unfortunately, there was a lot of resistance to any of the programming that we thought would shine a light on the experiences of black students and students of color. After we attempted to plan events for Black History Month, there were even awkward and uncomfortable articles and op-eds written in response to our efforts in our school’s newspaper. Those experiences made me think about who I was and who I wanted to be.