lonely campus podcast

Episode 5: lonely campus podcast (Campus Forum Edition)

Mary Grace Almandrez 00:11
Hi, I'm Mary Grace Almandrez is the vice president for diversity and inclusion. Welcome to the lonely campus podcast as presented by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. This show is hosted by our administrative fellow Amy Messersmith. And feature students just like you who share stories about the challenges and triumphs that come with trying to find your place on Syracuse University's campus.

Amy Messersmith 00:43
Hi, everybody, this is Amy Messersmith. I'm an associate director for a GOP and SSS to Opportunity Programs here at Syracuse University. And I am also an Office of Diversity and Inclusion administrative fellow. My project is a pop up podcasting studio and I've been doing this podcast series called lonely campus where I collect stories from across campus from individuals who are willing to share the steps that they took to go from loneliness to finding community on campus. This particular episode is a little bit different because it was recorded during the spring 2024 campus forum sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion that took place on Monday March 4. Each semester vice president for diversity and inclusion Mary Grace on mantras holds a forum to share information about diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility work being done throughout the Syracuse University community. This year's campus forum had an interactive component to it. And so they invited me to come and join them in the Regency ballroom, pop up the podcasting studio and invite attendees to sit down and have a conversation specifically about why they came to work at SU, where they found on campus the most sense of belonging and any suggestions that they had to continue to create sense of belonging on campus. My first brave soul who approached the table and was willing to sit down and have a conversation was Christina Papa layo, who is a DEIA Learning and Development Specialist for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. And so I just want to say number one, thank you to Christina for being the first who approach the table and be willing to put on a set of headphones and have a conversation. And number two, because this was recorded in a larger room, you're going to hear some background noise but as you're going to be able to hear Christina has a fantastic podcasting voice and so she comes through really strongly. So without further ado, here is our conversation with Christina Papa Leo. So here we are at the spring 2024 campus forum very excited Office of Diversity Inclusion. So we have three questions. The theme of my ODI administrative fellowship is inclusion and belonging. And so we have a podcast called lonely campus. But today we're going to do it a little bit differently. We're going to ask three pointed questions to anybody with enough courage to sit down at the table. You're the first Oh, that's fantastic. So number one, if you don't mind sharing what made you want to come to work at SU.

Christina 03:26
So I actually was not going to. I was in the middle of a job search after my first job coming out of grad school, I was ready for a transition working at my alma mater, I needed to change. And as you kept coming up, and I was so used to the smaller institutions, and I'm like Su is too big. I've heard about it. It's great campus just not for me. And low and behold, this position came up I worked in the Center for Disability Resources is my first job here. And I love their social justice approach to disability that really is what drew me in because growing up with a disability, I always saw it as a diagnosis saw it as a deficit, but CDR and just as she was a whole embraces disability as a culture, and as an integral part of diversity. So I decided to take a risk, put my resume in and my cover letter. And it ended up working out because I got accepted and it was actually one of the only jobs I got a job offer four out of 100 of them. Not kidding. I have a spreadsheet to prove it. (Amy: It was meant to be) it was meant to be and I have not looked back since I've really felt that it was a transition for sure transitioning even from a public institution to a private, but I really enjoy the opportunities that there are professional development for connection for community that aren't necessarily available in other places. So I'm very blessed to be here.

Amy Messersmith 04:54
And what year did you come?

Christina 04:57
August 2019. So it'll be coming up on I years in August, which is hard to believe, so I was in CDR for three years and I just made my one year mark. Last month in ODI.

Amy Messersmith 05:10
Congratulatuons. Where on campus? Would you say that you feel the strongest sense of belonging?

Christina 05:17
That's a good question. Because I haven't really been able to explore a lot of campus until this past year, I really got to go out connect with people on campus partners. I love just I would have to say where there are community gatherings like this, like campus forum, growing up Italian food was always a great way to bring people together, you know, you had the Sunday pasta dinner. So it's like family, it's like family coming together. And always having something to talk about. No, there's no language barrier with food. There's no barriers in general with food. And just people could not necessarily always talk about work, you could share a connection of oh, hey, I had this dish before, or this dish reminds me of my grandmother. And that really starts a good conversation of going beyond just the average workday?

Amy Messersmith 06:10
And then, do you have any suggestions to how to help build community on campus?

Christina 06:17
Yes. So something I would always tell my students, when I worked as a residence hall director, my previous job, previous institution, was find a club. So to translate that to professional staff, and faculty, and anybody else who's not a student is finding a group that you can really connect with, for me, born again, Christian, my faith is very important to me. So I found out there's a Christian staff and faculty association on campus, I was even able to connect with some of the chaplains. And I'm helping out with volunteering to the Christian group student groups. So even building community beyond just my own peers and my colleagues, but helping to bridge the generational divides that often come with higher education or anything, that it's not about this hierarchy that, yes, we're professionals, and we hold a position, but it's really we're here for the students. So what better way is to connect with the students and say, Hey, I'm here, you know, the world keeps giving us labels, but we're also given a name first. So it's important to know who our name is before our title, they even comes up first on our name tags, I got my name tag, my name is first and it's an orange as you orange, and then it's my title in smaller print. So even thinking of that way, going into community building is getting to know people by their name. And then a lot of times the first thing we tell people, when we introduce ourselves as Oh, I do this, I insert job title here, right? For me, it's you know, I love connecting with people and learning about their stories, and building those connections through creative arts or any elements of creativity or finding out who they are beyond what they do.

Amy Messersmith 07:56
I think that that is so powerful, I think about how just to have that genuine commonality, yeah, can can help make connections in such an authentic way. And it's not performative. It's not exactly it's not just because you have to, it's because Oh, my gosh, should we have this in common? And that's what? That's a great foundation to build on. Yeah, we get to be in community together. Yeah. That's a gift. Thank you. (Christina:Thank you).

Christina 8:27
The second part of the podcast features three graduate students who just happen to be all from the School of Education, and two of them happened to be international students. We have rose Mustapha Shuki, from Egypt, Kendall Edwards, who is local, and then Wei Jun, who is from China. And so they all three sat down. And all three of them provide some great insights in terms of how they found their sense of belonging on campus, as well as some suggestions on what the university can do to facilitate community amongst graduate students across schools and colleges. So take a listen.

Rose 09:11
So my name is Rose. I'm an international student from Egypt. And I'm doing my master's in Cultural Foundations of Education here at SU. So

Kendall 09:18
my name is Kendall Edwards, I'm a second year masters student. I'm getting my master's in teaching and curriculum writing through the School of Education.

Wei Jun 09:26
My name is Wei Jun. I'm also a master's students, but first year in Cultural Foundations of Education, that School of Education.

Amy Messersmith 09:36
That's fantastic. So the first question we have today is what made you want to come and study at Syracuse

Rose 09:44
So my focus was very strongly on disability studies and disability justice, but more so than that the intersection of disability and queerness and race in education and I think the Cultural Foundations of Education The Department here at SU really is excellent in terms of getting to do that intersectional work and not necessarily feeling like you have to be doing work on a specific axis or within a specific body of work or field of study.

Kendall 10:14
So for me, I was actually presented an opportunity in my undergrad at Oswego, where they said, I work at Syracuse City School District currently. And they said that they would give me they would pay for my masters through SU, if I gave them five years, which I said I would do. But the reason why I chose teaching and curriculum writing was because I'm very passionate about books and writing. And I've always been like a lover of books and reading and writing. And I feel like our curriculums, there's a lot of struggle, and primarily minority struggle. So I want to create a curriculum where kids can fall in love with reading and still see themselves but see themselves as like dreamers, and smart and innovative versus I'm going through this struggle, time and time again, this is somebody else going through a struggle, I'm just tired of seeing them going through a struggle daily, it needed an escape, and if reading is that escape, and so be it. So

Amy Messersmith 11:11
that's really powerful.

Wei Jun 11:14
For me, it's the first time for me to leave China for study coming here. And I came here because I'm very interested in disability related issues. Because I'm blind I, myself, I'm a person with a disability. And according to my experience, I found that there is still a lot of space for improvement in China, in terms of the education for people with disabilities. And someone told me that it's well to be in comparison with China, it's well developed here, and I just come here to learn some advanced experiences and to find if there are anything that I can take back to China to improve our education for people with disabilities.

Amy Messersmith 12:06
It just so happened that all three of you sat down and our graduate students in school event that's really interesting. Where on campus, do you feel the strongest sense of belonging which you say?

Kendall 12:20
For me, honestly, in most of my classes, but I would say like the Masters only instead of the undergrad and masters combined classes, because my situation was extremely different than a lot of master's program, I came into this I was pregnant. My first master's classes ever I was pregnant, and I actually gave birth, my second semester, first day of classes second semester. So it was weird for me being pregnant. And like going through my pregnancy and seeing kids that are like 18, or 19, even though I'm only 24, it was still just a weird dynamic, because I'm like, I'm in a completely different space, than from what you guys are in. And then also just because it's different for me, because I teach all day versus traditional masters students that are in classes all day, that's a different space that I feel like in genuine masters classes, we all have our own lives, we understand we treat each other like adults, the maturity levels are there. But I think that's where I make the like the strongest connections and even from like, my previous classes, I still text some people, even my professors, I think the professors are more understanding and they teach you more like colleagues versus that student teacher relationship.

Rose 13:35
I think I would agree with that. I think our classes are, are really where I feel the most sense of belonging because we tend to be working on really important projects together when it comes to like Inclusion and Social Justice. And I think that desire to do work really Bond's us like that effort and that knowledge that we're all striving towards the same goal. But other than that, I I'll be honest, it's been kind of isolating being on here. I think just being not only a graduate student where I think you have slightly fewer opportunities to meet other people as when you're in your undergraduate program. I think a lot of undergraduates can really bond a lot more across disciplines. Meanwhile, I think in graduate school, everyone's really found their niche and so you have people who are wildly different in age and experience and what their day looks like some people are working full time some people have, you know, assistantships here it doesn't feel like quite as cohesive a community I think I have an extra layer of that just because I'm depending on how it present I can read as visibly disabled. So I use a cane or eye mask in public and I think sometimes people find me slightly more unapproachable because of that. So I think classes where we're really working towards a common goal or I found most of my sense of belonging here on campus.

Wei Jun 14:56
For me, I live off campus so Well, I come to campus mostly because of the classes. But in addition to the classes, I, the place that I visit most would be the barn center at the arch. And I sometimes I use the treadmills and the swimming pool there. And when I used them, I feel some kind of sense of belonging, because that's what I was familiar with in Beijing. I mean, before coming here, I worked in Beijing in the NGO, and every day, even sometimes, after work, I just visited a gym to use the equipment. And so yeah, that experience brings, to me some kind of sense of belonging. I mean, I'm familiar with this sense,

Kendall 15:50
I just wanted to add on, I do feel like I agree with both of you guys. It can be isolating, but it also is a community in a sense, especially in the School of Education, because like Rose said, it is like one common goal that we are, all are working towards. And that is the betterment of education. So I think the professor's the students, everybody that's within the school from a top down are friendly, you know, are approachable, because to be a teacher, you kind of have to be approachable, right? Or even just work in education, you have to be approachable in a sense. But I feel like, just when you walk into classes, when you walk into like Huntington Hall, you actually get that like feel of like academia, and this is where I belong, like, I'm supposed to be here, especially as a teacher, because that is a very hard profession. To feel like you belong. So if you can find a place where you get a quality education, and that you can still feel like you belong, even though we have here life can be completely different from the person that's sitting next to you. But you can still bond over something like, to me that's beautiful, in a sense.

Rose 16:54
Yeah, absolutely. I think there's also a sense of belonging that comes from having your ideas valued, and really genuinely taken up and having people interact with them and engage with them and discuss them and give you feedback. I think less so than than geographical places where I felt a sense of belonging, I think I felt like I most belong, when we're all kind of going around our circle sharing ideas, and they tend to be very different working towards the same goal. But people actually kind of respect you as, as a scholar, as a researcher, someone who has built up knowledge of your field and has something valuable to say.

Amy Messersmith 17:32
So the final question is, what suggestions do you have to perhaps help the university build community on campus?

Kendall 17:40
I do think they try. I just feel like there aren't a lot of opportunities for grad graduates students and strictly graduate students like me, and Mangle and, you know, get us out the house because they were June was saying, like, I live off campus, he lives off campus, and I'm not sure if you do rose, but I think majority of graduate students do live off campus. So to actually get us to come to campus for something that's non class related, you know, you got to put a little bit of effort in to make it worth their while, but I just think, you know, doing more events like that, or even, I don't know, I feel like the school itself. Like I said, there's just not a lot of things afforded to the graduate students, like graduate housing, like, or even just a hangout spot where like, you know, just older, more mature where maybe like, that's not the library, but you know what, I mean, just something for us kind of like a hangout spot, but like, more mature like, it'll still have like academic maybe like a computer like a computer lab kind of thing, where you can do work at but also like it's a place strictly for graduate students to hang out get resources, like how can I navigate this space? How can I navigate financial aid parking because su parking I don't know if you guys know that's a whole nother realm that you have to delve like dive into or even just like when I started coming here, I didn't get like the tour I didn't get like this was I had to figure it out on my own like I'm looking at I googled the map of Su and I'm like, Okay, this is this I still don't know where every building on campus is. So even just like having somebody who like okay, this is this if you need like, not an advisor, but an advisor in that sense of if you need anything in navigating this come to me anytime you need some like here's a hotline come to me, I can help you on how to, here's how to, here's the bus piece or parking, here's the bus food place, because you have people coming from all over. And they may just not know.

Wei Jun 19:35
For me I think the best way for us to build a community. My mind is that more events like this, I mean to to record a podcast together as an international student, and also as a student or with disability. For me, it's of more importance and also would have more difficulty for me to find My mean peers. And so events like like this can give more opportunities for us to get together and just speak out. Just speak, just talk around some issues some topics. And and that's the best way for us to get understand of each other.

Rose 20:22
Yeah, I think third spaces is really valuable, as well as having I guess, let's superficial ways to meet people. Because I think a lot of the campus events where you're supposed to meet people, especially at the graduate level tend to be like, networking events, and mixers, and then all they offer you is like, come talk to people and get cookies. And I'm like, Well, if I have nothing better to do, and I'm already in the area, maybe. But there's no kind of draw to meet people, there's nothing to do. And I feel like very few people want to meet people just for the sake of meeting people. It feels like either recognizing, like, oh, I need acquaintances, or oh, I need professional connections, which I think maybe isn't the most authentic way to build relationships to go into them being like, oh, I need a person to fill the role in my life versus kind of naturally going to something that gets you to care about it and put effort into it and, and build community, I think like the podcast that we're doing here, right now, to get to engage with something thoughtfully and then have relationships formed out of that.

Kendall 21:24
And I'm wondering, too, if we can do something to highlight like each school, like a celebration each week, or each month, we're like, May is like School of Education, and just highlight that where you throw events strictly in School of Education for things like that, or like new houses like July, you know, things like that, where people come out and celebrate what they're doing. And then also other people from other schools can see, oh, this is what your major looks like, or you know that things like that. And then you can have like high school students, or even undergraduate students that aren't too sure what they want to do to further their career come to these events. And then see, okay, maybe I do want to take journalism, you know, or class in this or just dabble around. And I think that'll, you know, get people more interested in education and also build that community because if we work on something to build up our program, people are going to want to do it, I think.

Amy Messersmith 22:34
All right, so that concludes this special episode of lonely campus recorded at the spring 2020 for Office of Diversity and Inclusion campus forum. Again, I want to thank Cristina Papa Leo, Rose Mustafa Shuki, Kendall Edwards, and Wei Jun for giving their time attention, thoughts and reflection on how they found community on campus and suggestions on how to increase sense of belonging. So thank you again. Bye, everybody.

Armando Martinez 23:12
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Lonely campus Podcast. I'm Armando Martinez, Director of inclusion and belonging. If you found this podcast helpful, let us know and feel free to share other ways we can make campus more welcoming and inclusive to al.l