August 2011, my journey began entering the college life without really understanding the importance of education. I arrived in Jacksonville understanding college is what you do after you graduate high school. I wasn’t aware of the difficulties I would face academically, socially, and culturally. I wasn’t aware of the historic importance of our small private liberal arts college in central Illinois, or the impact it would have on my life.

I soon learned how the support of faculty and peers would build me to be the thriving senior that I am now. My first English professor taught me that everything I learned in high school would not help me in her EN 121 class. My professors guided me in the direction to become a more confident freelancer and the boost to follow my own dreams and aspirations. I was given the correct tools to establish myself as a minority gender, student, and civilian in this world we live in. I would go even further and say that my first few encounters with my English professor had the most influential impact on my undergrad experience.

I was given the guidance to overcome personal and home life problems and focus on what's important to me. What's going to make a difference in my life so that I wouldn't follow into negative stereotypes of my race and gender. I felt like she cared, my entire department cared. I didn't have the extreme personal relationship with every English professor, but they were encouraging. They helped me focus on what interest me through literature and writing. They created courses that focused on minority vision, integrity, history, impact, and literature. My department offered these classes that interest me and ultimately gave me the fuel to focus my writing and my research on. Expository creative nonfiction sort of saved my life. It was my way of sharing all of the positive lessons that they taught me through those courses and connect them to my own life. I wasn't just regurgitating information, I was applying this information.

After taking the time to develop a relationship with my professors and peers on IC campus I realized that this will forever be one of the best decisions I made as a young adult in this society. My liberal arts education is truly one of a kind. The limitless opportunities that was offered to me by just being a student of IC I will forever be grateful for. I appreciate my pursue for my degree way more than I did entering in 2011. It means I overcame every obstacle I made for myself and what others made for me, everyone that tried to talk me out of it and didn't think that English would get me anywhere in life. In spite of all that, it has gotten me pretty far.

Since declaring my major, I have been published in a few local newspapers including Jacksonville Journal Courier, and several websites. I created a personal blog for various forms of my writing. I participated as a Yates fellow and Peer Leader, and received an internship at Lincoln’s New Salem Historic Site where I truly tapped into the gift I was given, to communicate.

IC taught me the importance of humanities and analyzing the society and its’ issues.

My English degree helps me critically think about social issues and cultural criticism as a black woman in this day and age. There are several issues around my childhood neighborhood, and without people attending liberal arts schools and learning about ways to prevent and stop it through humanities, there will be no change. The authors, Laure M. Sharp and John C. Weidman, in their book about higher learning, that their “study explored the effects of self-concept, personal goals, aspirations, academic performance in college, and quality of the institution from which graduates received their degrees on the process of early career attainment among humanities majors.”

And in reality English majors and other humanities majors are trained for diverse concentrations which sets me in the race for any position that I apply for. While English majors learn these skills while analyzing and discussing literature, entertainment and speeches, there is no reason they or I can't apply them elsewhere after I graduation. As a student of the humanities I properly urge and promote the social injustices of my people and other minorities in America.

At this liberal arts institution I have the opportunity to study the languages, literature, history, religions, ethics, and the arts. I believe that these are the disciplines of “memory and imagination, telling us where we have been and helping us envision where we are going.” The humanities have taught me how to deal critically with horrifying situations in life. For that I will carry on after graduation next month at graduation. Congrats to my fellow 2016 graduates, and thank you Illinois College.