Student leaders Dylan France and Andi-Rose Oates discuss what fueled their involvement as student leaders, how they hope to inspire other students to become agents of change and what their Black heritage and Black culture means to them.
黑料不打烊 has a proud and storied tradition of honoring through a series of engaging and thought-provoking student-run programs, events and discussions occurring through March 3 on campus.
The theme for this year鈥檚 celebrations is 鈥淓xisting Outside the Lines: The Colors of Resistance,鈥 and through a lens of intersectionality as art, student organizers like Dylan France 鈥24 hope to express both the rich diversity present within the Black community, and the broad spectrum of color that Blackness holds.
Dylan France
鈥淚f you look across campus, there’s so many students from so many different backgrounds doing all these amazing things. To highlight that creativity and the different leadership efforts from students, that鈥檚 the goal: to showcase all these different avenues and outlets while demonstrating how we鈥檙e existing beyond the lines of what, traditionally, blackness is looked as,鈥 says France, a dual major studying finance and real estate in the .
France and sophomore Andrea-Rose Oates 鈥26 are among the many passionate and talented Black student leaders who have become agents of change for their peers during their time on campus. And France and Oates are committed to helping train a new generation of student leaders.
France serves as the comptroller for the Student Association, is one of two undergraduate representatives to the , belongs to both the and the , and is a member of the Black History Month Committee.
Oates is an energetic leader of , a peer-to-peer mentoring program geared toward self-identified women of color. Ever since she was a child, Oates has been inspired to do good and make her community a better place. But that drive intensified in the summer of 2020 after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Andi-Rose Oates
鈥淭hat’s when I became passionate about my advocacy work, whether it was talking about the issues affecting the Black population within America and the world, really focusing on that and getting more involved with not only my advocacy, but my direct action to bring about change in these issues,鈥 says Oates, who is studying both public relations in the and policy studies in the .
On this 鈥’Cuse Conversation,鈥 France and Oates discuss what fueled their involvement as student leaders and how they hope to inspire other students to become agents of change, explore what their Black heritage and Black culture means to them, share how they found community on campus and offer up their highlights from the Black History Month celebrations.
Check out featuring France and Oates. A transcript [PDF]聽is also available.
France: 鈥淢y ancestors came through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. My parents are both Howard University alumni. I am highly integrated in different local and national organizations that celebrate Blackness. I grew up having a very high perception of what Black excellence is, and it means a lot to exist beyond the lines because I knew Blackness to be one thing, and I’m existing in a completely different way now than I ever expected. I had so many different role models and examples of Black excellence in my life.鈥
Oates: 鈥淢y Blackness is definitely not something that can be ignored. At 黑料不打烊, it has worked in my favor because I鈥檝e had the opportunity to be part of these cool organizations like Dimensions. Being Black definitely has its ups and downs. 黑料不打烊 does a great job of welcoming different organizations and student-run clubs, and we鈥檙e definitely a culture-friendly University. The fact that we have these successful Black History Month events on campus shows how proud people are to not only show off their heritage and their culture, but to share that gift with the 黑料不打烊 community. It鈥檚 great to see.鈥
France: 鈥淭he Barner-McDuffie House [119 Euclid] played such a large role in my development here at 黑料不打烊. When I came to campus at first, I didn鈥檛 get to meet that many people because we were in the middle of the COVID pandemic. 119 Euclid really meant so much to me during this time. That鈥檚 where I met the founding members of the Black Student Union, where we realized, 鈥榟ey, there wasn鈥檛 an organization that represented the entire African diaspora on campus. Let鈥檚 try to make that happen.鈥 That was all centered around 119 Euclid. It was much more than a meeting place. 119 Euclid was such a welcoming place where I met some of my closest friends.鈥
Oates: 鈥淥ver the past year and a half I鈥檝e learned a lot about myself in the sense of how I interact with people, how I learn and what I want to do with my life moving forward. Through 黑料不打烊, whether it was my classes or the activities and organizations I鈥檓 involved with, I’ve learned a lot about what I want to do in the future. 黑料不打烊 has helped give me real world opportunities and experiences, allowing me to try new things. That鈥檚 the beautiful part about 黑料不打烊 and colleges in general: it gives you this space to meet different people and throw yourself into different experiences that you never would have thought of before. I’m very grateful for that.鈥
Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.
