In October of 2023, UNC Greensboro was awarded a Mellon Grant to fund student interns for community outreach projects. The grant description outlined efforts to develop curriculum for educators and community leaders that would address gaps in Black history education and fill needs that UNCG can provide to “Grow the World We Want.”
This semester, the student intern projects are underway. Together, they illustrate the significance of UNCG’s African American and African Diaspora Studies (AADS) to its students and their future careers.
“We are so proud to see our student interns really digging into these community projects,” says Director of AADS Dr. Noelle Morrissette. “Each brings their own perspectives and interdisciplinary studies to their unique tasks, but all provide solutions that will make the paths for those who come behind them a little easier to navigate.”
Growing Solutions for Hunger
Quinrose Mvuri is a fourth year-student on a pre-medical track whose AADS internship is literally growing a solution to address food insecurity in Greensboro communities.
Mvuri’s family moved to the United States when she was twelve. Her African roots and motivation to serve others brought her to UNCG where she is combining an AADS major with a chemistry minor.
“I grew up in Zimbabwe and we used to have a farm there,” Mvuri explains. “That’s where my passion for fresh food comes from. When I learned more about how many people in our area suffer from food insecurity, it motivated me to help.”
This garden project combines all of her passions, but it’s not your typical community garden. Mruvi is growing fresh vegetables and fruits in a hydroponic system on the third floor of the Curry building. In addition to learning how to use the system, her project will include a curriculum that communities can use to start their own garden and distribute harvests to feed the hungry.
She says that studying AADS will make her a doctor who can improve health care gaps in Black communities. Mruvi hopes one day to provide medical care for countries in crisis. Her education is a personal and professional quest towards that goal.
“Knowing more of my history and where I came from and how to navigate society as a Black person gives me confidence,” she says. “It helps me understand why there are inequities in the Black community and how I can make a difference.”
A Conversation Starter
TaLiya Edmonds is a third-year student from Halifax, N.C. majoring in AADS with a minor in psychology. Her internship will create a curriculum of community-based conversations around Black mental health.
“I want to dissect theoretical frameworks in psychology to understand cultural nuances in mental health,” she explains.
Inspired by a social justice class in high school, Edmonds hopes these community conversations will provide better understanding of mental health problems found in Black communities that are difficult to talk about.
“Awareness is really what’s needed to make things better,” she says. “Cultural actualization will help us build a better and stronger unit as African Americans.”
Her Black history classes color her understanding of psychology and she hopes the internship will give her a glimpse of what it will be like to work in private practice, counseling across different demographics.
“I was raised to see the sky as the limit, so I’ll take this project as far as I can,” she says.
Putting the ‘US’ in History
Another Mellon-funded community project organizes field trips for local high school students to come to UNCG to learn about how Black history influenced the University and formed the AADS program.
Undergraduate Drayton Coleman and Masters’ student Cedrick Brown are working with the high schools to plan the tours and design breakout sessions about the Black experience.
“Getting these students on campus and demystifying the college experience is so important, especially for students who are aspiring to be the first in their family to attend college,” Morrissette explains.
Coleman has always loved history. They came to UNCG as a music major but after taking a Women Gender and Sexuality Studies class their first year, everything changed.
“The class was a simple freshman elective, but I loved it,” Coleman says. “I could see a future merging this with history and educating others about how minorities have helped to form what society looks like today.”
Now Coleman is a fourth-year student with a double major in WGSS and History and a minor in AADS and hopes to be a historian and professor in queer American history.
“African American studies allow us to tell the American story fully,” says Coleman. “It all works together. You don’t have queer culture without Black folks, and their influence made American culture at large.”
Coleman wants to encourage students to consider humanities degrees in college and hopes to inspire them to think about what they are interested in and how to turn their passions into careers.
Justice for All
Na’Kenya Braddy, a political science and AADS double major, is also interested in helping young students find educational paths that suit them. Her project is building a social justice capsule for UNCG undergraduates interested in pursuing pre-law.
She says that when she arrived at UNCG from small town Roxboro, N.C., she didn’t have any guidance for this career path.
“I really just lucked out,” she says. “If I hadn’t taken Dr. Morrissette’s class, I would have never pursued this career. It opened my eyes to things I did not learn about where I was from. AADS allowed me to look at the law in a different way and understand how I could help people with this knowledge.”
In addition to sharing her experience with others, the internship is giving her “actual hands-on experience” that should set her apart when she applies to law schools later this year.
Reading and Writing for Change
Last year, English major Imani Tailly took an AADS class in her first year at UNCG, which set her on a career path of journalism and African American advocacy work.
She loves reading and writing, so journalism was on her mind, but attending discussions at the 2024 Conference on African American and African Diasporic Cultures and Experiences (CACE), unlocked a passion she didn’t know she had. This year, she’s blocked her schedule for the conference February 17-20, which is free and open to the public.
“CACE opened my mind up to so many new things,” Tailly shares. “I immediately had a desire and a hunger to know more about this program, this world, my culture, what I’m connected to, and what I want other people to learn about – people who look like me and people who don’t look like me.”
Tailly is already taking that next step in her internship: working with AADS and WGSS to organize a book club and monthly discussion group about race and sexuality.
“Especially with our current world today, I want to make sure certain things aren’t forgotten,” she says. “Changing stereotypes takes so much work and time!”
Her plan is to share a favorite book, “Black Girls Rock,” a collection of quotes and works from Black women that she hopes will be conversation starters.
“I want it to be an open space for an open discussion. If we start with the book and then end up in a completely different place, that’s completely fine as long as we can have discussions that have deeper meaning and get people thinking,” Tailly says.
Dr. Morrissette is pleased to see students like Tailly inspired by AADS classes and CACE events. She hopes that even more will feel empowered when they attend this year’s conference.
“Growing the world we want takes open hearts and minds,” Morrissette explains. “These student interns are perfect examples of the leaders we need in professions like medicine, law, education and journalism. I am inspired by their ideas every day.”
Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications.
Photos by Sean Norona, University Communications.
