Larry Roper - Words of Wisdom
From Natalia Fernandez
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From Natalia Fernandez
Like I said, I joined the Black Student Union really early on, because one of the things that I was really afraid of was that if I got too much education, that I would stop being black enough, right? And so I tried to find my tribe, and so that for me was a really important community to have. I was also, grew up with church attendance being a really important piece of my life and so I worked with a couple other people and we formed a chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And so, I really wanted to have a group of people that I could meet with regularly and do bible study and to really sort of hold on to that value that I had. As I said I developed a relationship with my Dean of Students, and so I found somebody who I could sort of meet with and talk about with, about things that might be challenging or troubling for me. And good thing, or the other thing about the Black Student Union was that there were some upperclassmen who were there, who were really strong and really solid mentors, and really took it seriously their responsibility to help, help people to adjust. So, those for me are the really important resources. I also, I ran cross country and track and my coaches were really important people who I spent lots of time with, and so I would talk to them about things. And so, looking back on it, I probably confided in them a lot more than I did anybody else, but I never sort of thought about that in the same way as sort of intentionally going and seeing the Dean of Students about things.