Sigma Phi Epsilon - Drake University

Winter • 2019 I came to Drake from Southern California, where I was able to encounter a variety of cultures and beliefs. I saw many different people, and each was difference in appearance, size, race, and backgrounds, but to me, they were just regular people living the daily grind. e first time I had to identify myself as a Latino was when I arrived at Drake. When I was put into my orientation group, I was the only person of color there, besides my orientation leader, yet, I still didn't feel out of place. I heard things like "Drake is one of the most diverse campuses in Iowa" and "Our student body president is actually a Mexico City native" as if they were to pride themselves on that. I was still confused and oblivious to what it meant to identify as Latino. I knew I was Latino, but why did I have to state it all the time… or at all? Later, I met with my now group of friends who all are people of color — the Crew Scholars, a program designed to help students of color with academic excellence, leadership skills, and com- munity building. Here, I met many people from many places all trying to build a community with each other to strive in college these next couple of years. e question was still… "why?" Move-in day occurred, and the Crew Scholars are the only ones moved in besides the football team. We move in earlier than everyone else to 1) build a sense of community with each other, 2) get a better feel of college and the program, and 3) learn about what we will face as students of color on campus. Drake University has 81.4% White identifying students. at leaves 0.2% American Indian or Alaskan native, 3.3% Asian, 3.3% Black/African American, 3.6% Hispanic/ Latino/a/x, 2.1% two or more races, 1% ethnicity unknown, and 5% international students. I was not accustom to this environment. I was more accustom to reading things like the Los Angeles Times article in 2015 titled, "It's official: Latinos now outnumber whites in California." I was able to communicate with a multitude of students during my first few days at Drake about their experiences, their backgrounds, their trials, and their cultures and beliefs to learn more about this new environment. I soon found out that similarities existed within our differences, but our "diversity" wasn't so profound as it seems. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "diverse" as: composed of distinct or unlike elements or qualities. I thought to myself, "Well, that's very vague." I spoke to more people and asked them their definition of "diversity" and they responded relatively the same. I concluded that the diversity I encountered in Southern California meant that all the people per- taining to different race, gender/gender identity/ gender expression, sexuality, religion, emotional/ mental/emotional ability/disability, nationality, citizenship status, economic status, and more coexisted and interacted with each other. On Drake's campus, I did not see that, and I decided to fix that. I get the question "What made you choose Iowa?" so frequently and most of the time I say, "Drake did," but now I know that I mean that. I wanted to show the people of Drake who is on this campus and how there are similarities within our differences. I used the only platform that I knew how to use to catch college students' attention: social media @PeopleOfDrake was created on Instagram shortly afterwards, although I like to call it POD. A pod is a social group of whales traveling together (usually far distances) to protect each other regardless of their species, size, age, and disability. ey do this to get from point-A to point-B in a safe manner. My hope is for POD to learn from this interaction in nature; point-A being move-in day, and point-B being graduation. A lot of people fail to realize that people of Drake does not only mean students, but faculty, staff, alumni, and school allies, because without them, the school would not function. erefore, I try to feature them too. In each of the post, I ask them to answer a few introductory questions, but most importantly, the question, "What makes you, you?" I generally ask them to touch on one of the following topics that I stated with my diversity comment. You can see and read about many people with different stories and see how the student body shows their support. As a very recent prospective student, I always checked social media to see what Drake was up to. I wanted to know what the organizations were doing, who the people in the pictures and videos were, and so much more. Although, I never got to see first-year experience through a first-year student perspective, I have featured first-years for prospective students to see this process first-hand. is also helps them witness the sense of commu- nity within Drake's campus. Overall, my goal for POD was for people to be heard. rough this process, people start to feel included, they feel aware, and informed. ese three things I hope to portray all over campus throughout my time at Drake. I need only to keep taking one step forward. People of Drake: The Voice of the Students Anthony Adame '22 Creates Instagram Account Highlighting the Student Body at Drake University sigepiadelta.weebly.com WELCOME TO THE NEW MEMBERS OF 2018 Class of 2022 — Anthony Adame, Austin Ash, John Bassier, Lucas Botten, Ryan Christensen, Wesley Cutler, Wil Dublin, Dylan Gadberry, Collin Griffith, Tanner Halleran, Grant Hollar, Max Hoxie, Chris Jachimak, Anush Jain, Zachary Johnson, Skyler Kaiser, Kellen Karls, Will Keith, Noah Kepros, Louis Luong, Tyler McGuire, Declan Merbeth, Ben Rowray, Kyle Tekautz, and Will Tsai Class of 2021 — Brady Bjorkman, Cole Pelegrino

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