Orezi: Helping first-generation Black students apply for colleges where they’ll have the best experience.
Choosing a college is a difficult choice, but for Black students, especially first-generation Black students, choosing the right school can feel like an even harder feat. To earn her Gold Award, Girl Scout Orezi made it her mission to ensure Black students have as much information as possible about prospective colleges and their racial climates. Knowing the difficulties Black students face, she also set out to prepare them to stay safe on campus.
Orezi was drawn to her project after realizing Black students, especially first-generation ones, face the concern of not really knowing if a school’s culture is a safe space for them. She says, “According to the U.S. Department of Education, 41% of African American students are first-generation [and] according to the Equal Justice Initiative, hate crimes are at a 12-year all-time high, which puts additional stress on students of color. So, now more than ever students are putting diversity and equity at the forefront of their college research process.”
Her main goal was to connect prospective Black students to the resources they need to pick a school. She wanted to show the real experiences of Black college students and provide a place for them to learn and share. Orezi continues to note that the main cause of this issue is the lack of information surrounding how universities treat students of color. Even though most schools have a Black student union, they fail to address and speak to the culture of Black students at the start of the school year. Orezi says, “A school's racial culture goes beyond the availability of Black student organizations and some resources may be harder for students to find (or less visible)."
Orezi felt the best way to reach the most people was to create a website, called A Different Narrative, for prospective Black college students to reference before starting their next chapter. Her website serves as a school rating resource for Black students, where they can tap into a supportive community and plethora of knowledge, including firsthand accounts from Black peers at different colleges and universities across the country. Orezi explains that highlighting the experience of Black students within each school can help prospective students during their college search by giving them a more accurate review of the school’s culture.
Once gathering enough contacts, including the emails of Black student unions, Orezi started to see an improvement in her website's success and community involvement. The numerous stories from Black college students she gathered and features, gives prospective students more insight on the racial climate of different colleges and universities. She says, “I can personally say that some preconceived notions about which schools would have the most positive ratings were changed. The knowledge on each specific school includes if schools are cliquey, resources available, advice for Black students, and if students felt represented.”
Not only does the website benefit prospective students in their academic endeavors, but it also serves as a healing opportunity for previous college students. Orezi explains, “I also believe that the people who wrote the responses felt a sort of catharsis in knowing that someone was hearing their experiences.” The combination of resources and catharsis were refreshing to readers, and many participants say they were shocked this website hadn’t been created sooner.
The website will continue to support prospective students. Orezi taught the student equity club at her high school how to monitor and maintain the website, handle new submissions, send out appropriate emails, and utilize a $1,000 grant she received from the Denver African American Philanthropists (DAAP) to keep the website running. She adds, “my original grant request was $384, but because the DAAP saw so much value in A Different Narrative they increased the amount.”
Orezi notes that it took a bit of time for her website to launch. Besides her minimal coding knowledge, it was difficult to gather as many stories as she wanted and Orezi “sent emails to over 600 different organizations often several times.” After overcoming these obstacles, she discovered useful skills and learned how to step outside her comfort zone along the way. As a leader, she worked with a team of individuals to help set up her website. In doing so, she learned how to communicate clearly, layout user-friendly design systems, problem-solve with confidence, collaborate, and reset when obstacles arose.
While Orezi brought knowledge to prospective students, she learned a lot about herself during the process. “Although at points I let social anxiety get the best of me, I learned that I can work through it to still get to the place I want. I had to increase my timeline a lot which created more and more anxiety, but I have learned to be proud of myself for overcoming my fear of emailing and speaking to strangers.”
As student stories continue to roll in, Orezi’s efforts and website will serve as a viable resource for every college student in the U.S. Gold Award Girl Scout Orezi took a problem facing many and created a nationwide community where students can share their stories. Thanks to Orezi, Black students have more resources and can more easily find information to guide them along their college journeys.
