Amran Yusuf
Amran Yusuf, a second-year student majoring in education and political science with a minor in leadership, won a micro-grant from the College of Education and Human Development to create a safe, community-centered space. In collaboration with her mentor, Madyson Sklar, a higher education graduate student, Yusuf will host an event on April 30 for Black women to network with one another.
“Being a first-generation student to me means being a dreamcatcher, in a sense. Someone who chases after their dreams and goes and sees a vision and hopes, but actually achieves it.
I’m a Black, Somali, Muslim woman, first gen, and those are all important parts of my identity to me. My cultural identity, of course, is super important to me because my mom is a big part of my life. I come from a single mother of four kids. And so she immigrated here to ensure my comfortability in my future. And so that’s also a big part of why I’m attending college. I am a first-gen to fulfill the opportunity she never had.
A lot of communities here at the U provided me safe spaces with my identity — a lot of Black student organizations, a lot of African student organizations — which is why cultural and racial identity is a big part of who I am because they’ve given me a safe space at this PWI.
Back in the fall semester, I applied for a micro-grant. I believe the prompt was, ‘Creating a safer space or a place where a community you’re part of can feel welcomed.’
Being a first-gen and then also being a Black woman on this campus is very hard because I feel that I’m very enthusiastic, and I’m outgoing, and I can hold real good conversations with anybody, networking has been one of my biggest struggles despite me trying to give all of myself to it.
I recognized, eventually, it’s not me that’s the problem;it’s the spaces that I’m going into that are the problem. I feel that I shouldn’t have to be intimidated or feel uninvited or unwelcomed, and I do feel that way in a lot of the spaces I go in this college and try to network.
And so I said, ‘My initiative and my hope is to create a safe space for Black women to make meaningful connections and authentically network with each other.’ We thought to bring alumni and also Black women who are local community members who are doing really big things and they have ties to us here at the U. We’ve invited some really amazing people who have a diverse range of careers.
It’s something I really am proud of because last year was very difficult for me in terms of being a first-gen. It was super hard for me to find my place and it felt very isolating and lonely. To see myself break out of that, and learn so much a year later and do so much giving back to my community — because last year I felt like a lot of people were giving to me, and guiding me, and helping me and making me feel welcomed — and so this is kind of full circle for me in the sense that I feel I’m giving back to the community.”
Yusuf and Sklar’s networking event for Black women, “Queen’s Gathering”, will take place on April 30 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in room 321 of Coffman Memorial Hall. You can RSVP here.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview by Jessy Rehmann