By Gabrielle Ogunfeitimi, Junior

My name is Gabrielle Ogunfeitimi, and I am a junior at Worcester Academy. I co-lead the Black Student Union, as well as the Diversity Committee. My presence at WA as a student of color aids greatly in my leadership of the committee. Being a Black student allows me to experience the life of a person of color on our campus, while simultaneously being able to make changes that positively impact the experiences of other students of color.

This is my first year as a leader on this committee, so my contributions are not vast. I have helped launch the #WeAreWA campaign, which the entire committee is very excited about. I have also been a contributor to a new initiative called “Monthly Recaps,” where the committee does a presentation on current world events that relate to our mission and purpose at WA. It is a way to reach our community and deliver facts that everyone might not have the same type of access to. 

Our #WeAreWA campaign was influenced by Harvard’s campaign about microaggressions—we thought it would be a great idea to bring something similar to WA in terms of a campaign about awareness surrounding the conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion. This campaign is important to our community not only because we intend on spreading general awareness about these topics, but we also want to use it as an opportunity to hear the stories of more people on our campus and within our community. At WA, there is a lot of conversation about the power of one’s story, and #WeAreWA will be a great reinforcement of that portion of WA’s mission.