Inclusive Excellence Fellow, Cohort 2
In October of 2021, I joined few other dedicated, passionate, and change driven individuals from Swarthmore College to form part of the second Cohort of Inclusive Excellence Fellow of the office of Inclusive Excellence and Community Development. Our induction was the beginning of the implementation of different campus projects to support the campus goal of having an inclusive, diverse, and well rounded students body.
BELONGING AND MENTAL HEALTH PROJECT
Built on my desire to contribute to the growth of the Swarthmore campus community as well as seek the well being of my colleagues, my project with the office of Inclusive Excellence and Community Development focused on Belonging and Mental Health. My project sought to harness issues of Belonging and Mental Health that student experience on campus, create a safe space where students can express vulnerable stories and receive acceptance, maintain the unique sense of belonging gained during orientations throughout their four years of studying at Swarthmore, and create room for additional resources that can minimize academic stress which poses threat to students mental health and imposterity. With the guidance of my project advisor – Dawn Philips (Swarthmore’s acting CAPs Director) – I worked with International Students and First Generation Low Income Students. I believed that these two groups were essential to my project as members of one or both groups were either transitioning into a different culture for the first time, or adopting to what it means to live in an academically rigorous and elite college community. By holding different focused group discussions, the project uncovered some factors that led to students feeling not belong to the community and how it affected their mental health. Additionally, through the request of the focused group participants, we coordinated a story event as a safe space where students could share issues of belonging and mental health problems. The final presentation of my project to the campus community contained recommendations as it relates to how Swarthmore can incorporate additional methods and assistances into the diverse and inclusive world class education it seeks to provide to this generation.