Tag Archives: leadership

Looking For More Ways to Get Involved on Campus? Join Student Clubs!

By Alyssa Delarosa

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

During my final semester here at USC (and as an undergraduate) I did a considerable amount of reflection on my time at USC. In that reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that carrying over my student club and organization involvement from my time at community college to USC resulted in a time of new growth, relationships, learning, and experience. Even amidst a virtual learning experience, I was able to keep pursuing my goals and forge new connections through involvement and leadership.

Photo by Antenna on Unsplash

A community college is a two-year college where students complete their general education and lower division courses. Students have many options available to them as to where they can obtain an associates degree (two-year lower division degree), professional certificate, or other certification. Or, they can choose to transfer from their community college to a university – which was what I did in 2020. This was during the onset of Covid-19, which greatly impacted my educational experience.

Before the pandemic, I was determined to be involved as much as possible on my community college campus. I joined and led several clubs and student organizations, as well as joining a newly founded faculty committee on civic engagement. In this club, I was able to develop an internship program for student advocates. When the pandemic hit, it was during my last semester at my community college. I remember how faculty were unsure of the future of student clubs and organizations on campus continuing due to the pandemic, yet I was able to continue my involvement in these clubs remotely. I was even able to adjust my proposal for the student advocate internship program to a remote format accordingly. Though I have long been graduated from my community college, I continue to mentor students and work with faculty through this program.

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Malala – A Beacon of Hope and My Inspiration

By Meghna Sathiapalan

Imagine being on the hit-list for one of the most ruthless organizations in the world. Now imagine being a fourteen-year old on that list, a young girl fighting for female education in rural Pakistan. How would you react to being targeted for speaking up about the lack of education, what some would call a basic human right?

During an interview with Jon Stewart, former host of The Daily Show, Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani girl who actually had to survive the hypothetic question above, gave the following answer:

I started thinking about that and I used to think that the Talib would come and he would just kill me, but then I said if he comes, what would you do Malala? Then I would reply to myself, Malala just take a shoe and hit him, but then I said, if you hit a Talib with your shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty, you must fight others, but through peace and through dialogue and through education. Then I said I would tell him how important education is and that I even want education for your children as well and I would tell him, that’s what I want to tell you, now do what you want.”

This quote not only left Jon Stewart speechless, but also enticed me to read more about this amazing girl. I learned that, after posting on a global forum about being restricted from going to school, the Taliban actually threatened to kill Malala for her simple words. Her first instinct was to fear for her parents’ safety because, as she later mentions in her interview, she didn’t think any group would be capable of killing a child. However, one day on her way to school, Malala’s bus was stopped by Taliban militants who swiftly boarded and demanded for the kids to reveal which of the bus-riding girls was Malala. In terror, a few of the child passengers looked hesitantly at Malala, at which point one of the militants walked up to her and shot her in the head.

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