“I’ve felt insecure about being inside my skin, being the color that I am, being a dark skin young lady in a society that’s never deemed my ethnicity nor identity as something important. In general, I feel like... As I’ve grown, I’ve had to kind of find that self confidence within myself to be more confident to display. I’m an African American female and I’m confident. I don’t have to look like this person and that person because I am beautiful . One moment when I really felt I could relate to somebody in my school environment was when Ms. Luke joined our faculty. ”

“With English being my second language, sometimes I would, and still do, pronounce words “incorrectly” or pronounce them with an accent. Sometimes kids would laugh at how I said words like “error.” I remember also having people point out that I said certain words in an accent made me uncomfortable. After hearing a Spanish-speaking teacher talk to us about her own experiences with being made fun of for speaking a certain way, I felt like I was seen.”

“Representation does matter, it does show in the classroom. It’s important for students to look up and see teachers that look just like them. [If representation isn’t possible] it’s important that they [teachers] learn about our culture. They’ll say “I don’t see color,” but it’s important that they do see color. It’s important that we learn the difference between equity and equality. It’s important for teachers to educate themselves about their students.”

“I learned about some of the demographics of our leadership and I learned that like our leadership was... predominantly homogeneous white and it was one of those things where I realized I was like it clicked together. And I was like, maybe that’s why I don’t really like rallies maybe that’s why all the leadership stuff always seems like it’s for this one specific group of people and not for the other 50% of people on campus.”