Action, as defined in the Oxford Dictionary, is the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim. If I was asked to choose one word to describe my studies at SUNY New Paltz, that word would be ‘action.’ As a Black Studies major, I was taught that there were three major components at the core of the major: subject matter, perspective and goal. The subject matter of the major, the people of the African Diaspora never changed. The perspective, which changed often, referred to the different approaches, which included The African Centered Approach and the Black Radical Approach to interpret the subject matter. Lastly, and arguably the most important component was the goal: to improve the lives of people of color through the knowledge we gained and actions that we took thereafter. …show more content…
Achieving the goal, was challenging for me, as I was unsure of how to move forward as an individual. To gain clarity, I joined numerous student groups on campus such as: The Black Student Union and The African Women's Alliance. For the most part, I joined, these student groups with the intention of working alongside people that I admired, whom were also working toward ways to make a positive impact in our respective communities. Other student groups I became a part of, provided me a sense of community a home away from home. Soon enough, I was organizing workshops, campus wide events and leading protests on the declining black admissions and the failing recruitment of students of color on