STUDENT STORY

“The imposter syndrome was a struggle for me when I came to Michigan Tech. Growing up I heard lots of stereotypes, and you see them on TV – the idea that people who are black are not as smart as people who aren’t black. Coming here, if I get a C on an exam, and my white counterpart gets an A or B, I’m sitting here thinking, “Dang am I really supposed to be here? Am I really as smart as my peers?” If I did get a good grade, and my friends didn’t, sometimes they’ll say, “They took it easy on you because you’re black.” I’ve gotten that before, but talking to professionals of color, they say they’ve gotten the same comments – just know that it’s not true. That really helped me a lot.

The first couple years I heavily depended on the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI), and I have great bonds with each person there. The director of CDI, and I call her my mom – she’s my maternal figure here. She helps me through a lot of things, I babysit her kids, and whenever I’m having a tough week I’ll text her and say, “Hey, can I talk to you please?” and she’ll say, “Yeah, come here.” I really depend on that, but I also have people in student affairs that I talk to – it’s so great.

Professionally, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has helped me. Going to these NSBE conferences you see professional black people, you see professional Hispanic people, you see professional Native American people, and it’s really nice seeing that. They give you insight and have gone through the same experiences you went through, but still made it. That’s helped me grow and think bigger.

Now I would say being a mentor to others has helped me grow even more. Last year I had 8 mentees – all first years and all but two of them were of color. I plan on going into nonprofit work and helping the less fortunate, and I think having the experience of being a mentor for students now can help me on a bigger scale in the future.”

(Logan, Michigan Tech)