Voice Project

Savannah Clare

EDHE 671: The College and the Student

Dr. McClellan

November 10th, 2022

Entry #1:

When it came to deciding on who I wanted to do my voice project about, I knew I wanted

to do it about someone who came from a different childhood background and college experience

from me. One’s true foundation of a person begins at childhood but evolves throughout their

development stages. I wanted to choose a voice I would be able to challenge myself to step into

the shoes of someone opposite of me. It would potentially allow me to learn specific things about

my voice that I had no idea they experienced throughout their collegiate career and life. Before I

introduce my chosen voice, I would first like to introduce my own personal voice. I am a white

female born in Jacksonville, Florida and raised there and in Georgia. My mom has her bachelor’s

degree in Elementary Education and my father never attended college. My father works in the

automotive manufacturing field and my mom is an elementary school teacher. Growing up, I

struggled with undiagnosed attention deficit disorder for over ten years and struggled in school

but ultimately knew I wanted to attend college after high school because that is what everyone

else around me did. When learning about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, my physiological, safety,

love, belonging, and esteem needs were met which allowed me the capability to meet the self-

actualization phase. I am now able to acknowledge the challenges and barriers I have faced in

my life so far but be thankful because I could have had worse barriers to overcome. Throughout

the duration of the next eight weeks, I intend to best put myself into my voice’s shoes and record

the findings.

My chosen voice is Mikayla, who is an African American twenty-two-year-old woman

from Columbus, Georgia. Mikayla attended Auburn University and graduated in May with an

undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences, Pre-Dentistry, and will apply to dental school in

the next year. Mikayla has faced various challenges throughout her life and may continue to
experience them in the future. She is an African American woman and unfortunately there can be

prejudice and unconscious bias against her solely because of her race and for being a woman of

color. Mikayla attended a predominately white school and university but cherished cultivating

community with her church family.

My previous assumptions about Mikayla are based somewhat on what I previously knew

about her. Mikayla’s mother had her in college, she was raised solely by her young single mother

with her grandparents help her whole life. Being raised in a single income household caused

financial constraints that led to challenges and forced her mother to grow up quickly and be

willing to ask for help from others so she would be able to take care of Mikayla. I have

previously thought that school came relatively easy to Mikayla but I later learned that is not

entirely true. I previously thought my voice was highly involved in college and high school

because she just wanted to add to her resume but later learned it was because she had a genuine

interest in the majority of organizations she was involved in, adding to her resume did not hurt

either though. I thought Mikayla was a very dedicated and well rounded student.

Entry #2

Enrollment data and theories about college could have definitely had an impact on

Mikayla, maybe without her even realizing. College is always advertised at the best time of your

life and a place where you really begin to step into adulthood and independence. Mikayla was

always pushed from a young age to pursue higher education. She wanted to be successful for

herself and to make her family proud while doing it as well. When it came time to apply to

college, she recalls it was an exciting but also a nerve wracking time. Mikayla applied to four

colleges: Auburn University, University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and the

university in her hometown as her safe option. Mikayla has been raised as a huge Auburn Tigers
fan and wished since she was a little girl that she could attend there and be a proud alumni one

day. She knew Auburn University was the only school she really wanted to attend but they

required high SAT and ACT scores and looked for extensive high school involvement. Although

Mikayla was a great academic student, took rigorous courses, scored decently well on her

standardized testing, and was heavily involved in sports and extracurricular activities she was

ultimately denied admissions to Auburn University, her top choice. This was devastating for

Mikayla. Being denied could have easily been a major setback and could have convinced her to

stay in our hometown or attend one of the other universities she got accepted into, however

neither of those would have made her feel fully fulfilled. Auburn University admissions

suggested that she attend one of their feeder schools and reapply after the completion of her first

year. While this was not her preferred method, she knew if she wanted the opportunity of

attending Auburn that she would do anything she could to make her dreams a reality.

Mikayla had many goals set from the time she understood where she was going to

college. One was making the grades necessary to transfer into Auburn for her sophomore year.

Although, her ultimate main goal was to finish her education in four years and to excel

academically for her future career as an aspiring dentist. Mikayla is a determined and capable

individual and exceeds in everything she does and sets the highest standards and expectations for

herself. She chose a challenging degree program that would then require many restless nights in

the library studying and required immense amounts of teaching herself the materials when she

felt that her professors lacked to explain it. It was important for Mikayla to be goal oriented and

driven so she could see the steps she had taken along the way pressing towards her goals.

Entry #3
 Mikayla’s intellectual background along with her lived experience had and continues to

have an effect on her learning style. There are very many different levels of cognitive

development. Although everyone does not learn the same or at the same pace, it does not

indicate that one is more intellectually superior than the other. Her background has developed

her cognitive skills over her lifetime because she has walked through this world as an African-

American female. The cognitive development that I believe resonates most with my voice would

be Giligan’s theory. In Giligan’s theory I believe that orientation to individual survival best fits

my voice’s situation because she is self focused on her success even if that meant putting away

her desires of having fun on the weekend or having a regular sleep schedule some days. It can be

difficult in he moment to reject those desires but ultimately a career is lifelong and my voice

recognizes the privilege she has to attend college and will not take advantage of that opportunity.

There are certain foundational principles that are learned at a young age that make you aware of

systematic ideals and oppressive perspectives in education. It probably made her more alert to

those things when it came to learning about complicated mechanisms or systems in education.

Mikayla had many blessed opportunities and faculty to support her throughout her

college experience with students with similar voices as hers because of specific systems used to

amplify students of her voice and to have advocates that actually cared about her well being as a

student. Whether it was a paper, email, tutoring, it was a great experience. Mikayla recognized

that there are many students who do not have that same experience at their university or maybe

even did not have her same positive experience while at Auburn.

Questions I would like to ask my voice include:

 1. How do you think universities could improve on amplifying black students voices? I

believe that universities can invite more black and minority students to the table for

important conversations that directly and indirectly affect them.

2. Do you think that people with your similar voice have equal opportunities in higher

education settings? I believe that is not about equal opportunities and access but more

about equity to be successful in the higher education setting. I think there is starting to

become more opportunities for growth for African Americans as successful professionals

in society, especially being able to African American professors teach the up and coming

generation.

3. What is one experience from childhood to adolescence do you think shaped your outlook

on life most? I think seeing other family members be successful in the healthcare field

and seeing their hard work pay off and give them joy each day in their careers.

4. If college was not accessible to you, how different would your life plan look like? I think

without a college education some are able to be successful in nontraditional ways which

is amazing. I am not sure what my career would be if I did not attend college but I

definitely would not be as independent as I have become since college.

Entry #4

Mikayla found herself participating in Greek life at Auburn during her time. An article

from Joy L. Smith discusses the experiences of black women in white sororities at predominantly

white institutions. “Their interactions with the Black/African American students on campus

largely impacted their decisions to join traditional (White) sororities; their experiences with their

racial peers on campus were nearly identical (Smith, 2018)”. I found this study to be interesting

because it gauged the experiences of pre-college students and undergraduate students.

 When thinking about the level of challenge/support that is available to African American

students, there are some college organizations that come to my mind. However on the contrary, I

believe that a majority of these student organizations are not as heavily publicized to students on

campus, unlike white student organizations that are heavily publicized. So many college

organizations are doing amazing work for students and the community but typically only large

organizations are recognized for their contributions to the university, unfortunately. Having

organizations and clubs directly aimed to target the black student population on campus is a huge

need! Black Student Union, National Panhellenic Council/Divine Nine (if students are seeking

Greek involvement) are just two organizations that universities offer that come to my mind, but

there should be more. Another way to find support would be to finding a great mentor. My voice

found a mentor on her college campus during her time there. Mentors can look different and

serve different roles in ones life. Whether the mentor is a professor, faculty/staff member,

alumni, or upperclassmen, it is such an amazing way to foster support and encouragement. This

provides direct personal support when facing difficult situations and challenges that may arise

throughout your collegiate career but your mentor can continue to encourage you past your time

as a student. Your mentor does not have to have to look like you ot come from a similar

background to make a lasting impact on the life of a student.

Entry #5

My voice came from a predominantly white elementary through high school schooling

where she was surrounded by little to no one who visually looked like her. So when she went to

Auburn she expected nothing to be too different from her experience previously. My voice

signed up for Panhellenic sorority recruitment to be able to meet girls, get plugged in with the

university, and build friendships. She went through the sorority recruitment process for a few
days but began to overhear degrading comments from freshmen girls going through the

recruitment process about “why does she not just join a black sorority, they have those for a

reason”. None of these comments were made from the active sorority members that she's aware

of but these hateful comments began to resonate with my voice. She was not well versed in the

different kinds of sororities and that she would be able to connect with people like her. I think

there could have been a lot of ways to have made sorority recruitment a more of an inclusive

experience for her. If my voice would have notified recruitment counselors and the university of

these comments then actions could have been taken to not allow this type of behavior. While

there are Divine Nine sororities that are targeted to the black students on campus does not mean

that they should not be allotted the opportunity to get involved in other organizations even if they

physically look different than the majority. The fear of being a freshman just getting to the

university was a big reason for not speaking up. It could be because she did not consider how

hurtful those comments truly made her feel or could have made to other individuals as well. It

ultimately reflects poor character of those girls making those comments and not my voice.

Entry #6

Who Mikayla is and how she identifies defines everything about her. She is first, a person

of faith and finds her identity in Christ. Who He is and who He has called her to be is very

important to her and she strives to live her life in that fulfillment. Who she is as a black woman

also defines her. There are so many systemic barriers as well as social barriers against minorities.

There are many microaggressions, macroaggressions, and racism that is very much relevant to

our society today. Minority voices like Mikayla’s are many times silenced and have been

silenced for several years within this country. With that being said, they have overcome so much.

That resilience and pride in that is very much a part of Mikayla’s voice and she is proud of that.
 One point about Mikayla’s voice and others that may reflect it also, is that in educational

settings and for those who are in administration connected with students, is to be aware that not

every student comes from a set background because of who they appear to be. It is important to

know those in a student body are not just based on statistics. Those who might have voices

suppressed need their voices amplified with an advocate who cares about the value of who they

are. That can be done by checking in and finding out who your students are, where they come

from, how they are at this point in their lives now, and what you can do to help them along the

way not only throughout their collegiate years but beyond that as well. Mikayla had many peers,

faculty, and administration who took a genuine interest in who she was beyond just a student.

That has stuck with her and continued to encourage her during her collegiate years and even now

after graduation, knowing that she had people in her corner supporting her. She believes

wholeheartedly that people make the difference and that being that person to even one person

could positively impact them.

Entry #7

The gift that my voice, Mikayla, possesses is that she is strong and confident and proud

of who she is as a black woman in today’s society. She is a leader and has a heart to serve others

over herself. Another gift that my voice possesses is that she is very determined to reach her end

goal and see things through with a positive outlook on life. She has a strong work ethic and never

approaches a situation that she is not willing to give 100% to. On the contrary, there are barriers

and challenges that come with the territory of who she is in this society. Although she knows that

there is nothing she cannot achieve because of the spiritual foundation and faith identity that she

has through Christ.

 Mikayla finds college success stories inspiring and believes they will continue to inspire

her throughout her life. Education is an amazing tool to lift those without opportunities to have

chances that they may not have had without it. They apply to her personally as she has seen first

hand the reality of college and its effect on her life and others around her. Schlossberg’s theory

of Marginality and Mattering definitely played a role in Mikayla’s college experience. When

students feel like their success matters to someone else and that they are cared for, it can

typically change their outlook even in hard situations. Another theory is Jean Phinney’s Model of

Ethnic Identity Development and Acculturation. Which is “a multicultural construct, involving

ethnic feelings, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors. (Phinney)” and this affects how individuals

with voices similar to Mikayla’s, influences the way that they view themselves, their values,

their attitudes and feelings, and more. This could have influenced how my voice was growing up

because it could have affected her feelings around being a black individual while being

surrounded mostly white individuals. While Mikayla attended predominantly white k-12

schooling, she found voices like hers in other settings such as her church and also in her African

American sorority once she went to college. These settings allowed her to flourish, appreciate,

and be proud of being a black woman.

Entry #8

I have learned that even though my voice was given more opportunities to potentially be

successful than maybe other individuals with her similar voice, does not undermine the work that

she has had to put forth to be successful. She still has goals and aspirations that she wants to

achieve and those may require her to face some barriers and challenges. But nonetheless her

positive college experience makes her hopeful for her continuing her education. You need to take
the steps required to see growth and believe in your own potential. No one will believe in you,

until you believe in yourself.

I have grown even more respect for the challenges of students with different voices than

mine. Not to say that I have not experienced my own battles and challenges but I have a privilege

that not all students are automatically given. There is much more to a student than who they are

in an academic and professional setting, but being cognizant that individuals go through

challenges that they sometimes will never speak up about. I may not ever fully understand what

it is like to live as a student with a different voice. However, I can possess a deeper

understanding of wanting to help individuals in any way that I am able.

 Work Cited:

Smith, J. L. (2018). Black Like Me: Understanding Racial Identity Development through the

Experiences of Black Women in White Sororities at Predominantly White Institutions

(PWIs) (Order No. 13916813). Available from ProQuest One Academic. (2243144675).

[Link]

like-me-understanding-racial-identity/docview/2243144675/se-2.

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