Achieving the Dream’s Post

I was one of the seven students selected from SUNY Westchester Community College to represent and participate in the prestigious annual Achieving the Dream conference, held in Philadelphia, PA. I was very fortunate to attend the “More than a buzzword: Student Success, teaching and learning, and driving whole college transformation” with guest speakers Dr.Marisa White, Dr. Mary Grady, and Erika Fenik. Their presentation taught me how to create a sense of belonging in others, how to understand and progress further, most importantly how to listen and atone to people’s feelings and concerns. Something very valuable they taught me during this session was how to learn and apply leadership techniques within the places you are in. I learned important skills on how to create a sense of belongingness for others in any situation, this is a skill I believe is very important in any setting you are in, the mindfulness techniques I learned in this session will help me become a better, more understanding leader. In the afternoon we had a plenary session that was very informative, featuring speakers such as Jacob Fraire from the ECMC Foundation and Dr. Gregory D. Williams, the Achieving the Dream board of directors. This event also hosted many other great speakers, those being Francesca Carpenter and Denice Frohman, their focus was on poetry surrounding Puerto Rican and queer identity. A speaker that stood out to me personally was Megan Red Shirt-Shaw, Director of Native Student Services at the University of South Dakota. She gave a beautiful speech about connectivity with others, the importance of preserving indigenous culture, as well as that you belong where you are in life and to be proud of where you are and the journey you have been through. This was an opportunity I will never forget and I am extremely grateful for SUNY Westchester Community College and it's Student Involvement, SGA, and the Division of Academic Affairs for believing in me and allowing me to be one of the seven students selected. This was truly a blessing and I am so grateful for all the great people I have met and the amazing leadership techniques I learned. I look forward to applying these leadership and belonging techniques to my school to create a safer and more enjoyable community at WCC! I was able to become closer with my fellow students at SUNY Westchester Community College  -Emily Lopez - Kaysier Brown - Bianca Couto - Lukiea Thompson - Marilin Rivera - Nahesha