Meet Jenny.

Jenny's a nursing student at Grand Valley State University.

We talked about her experience growing up in Chicago and moving to Grand Rapids for nursing school.

"Growing up in Chicago was all I knew.

I think my mom did a great job at teaching us how to treat everyone the same

regardless of race, job, appearance.. even if they were dirty/ugly.

My mom would smile at the homeless. 

They would ask, 'Do you have change?' She would say 'Nope!' 

Then she would bring them a loaf of 'Lou's homemade bread'."

-Lou was a lady in the neighborhood who baked. 

"It was nice to grow up with people who had such different family than yours."

"Another thing I remember most about growing up was 'the van'.

She would take all of the neighbors to school.

She would say 'I am not leaving them', so we would all be banging on their doors like 'C'mon!'

She helped all families.

I think that she felt comfortable with my dad's income,

so she was in the best position to help everyone/anyone."

(My Family:)

College:

"It was kind of exciting looking into schools, but I would cry a lot.

The hardest thing about adjusting to college was being alone, because at home I use to never be alone.

It got better once I had friends, because got to hang out more and be happier."

Chicago vs. West Michigan:

"In Michigan, everyone goes to church. It's weird on Sundays.

In Chicago, our family were the only ones we knew that went to church every Sunday, besides our friends from church.

Also, in Michigan, people weren't used to being in classes with people who weren't white and didn't look like them.

In Chicago, race was more celebrated.

We would have 'international days.'

We had over 30 different ethnic clubs and everyone performed a dance and had a booth.

Minorities weren't minorities, they were just people. 

We were just all kids just going to school together."

 "I remember sophomore year here in Michigan. We were in Sociology class, we were learning a lot,

and we watched a social experiment where there was a white guy stealing a bike, then a black guy, then a girl stealing a bike.

The white guy got asked, 'what are you doing?'

The black guy got held down and a group of people were ganging up on him.

And for the woman, people were helping her steal and cut the chain.

A kid in class made a response that the reasoning behind it was because the black guy was wearing a hat and had baggy pants.

I turned around and said, 'I think it's sad that we allow this to happen.

Letting blatantly racist situations happen and blaming it on a hat or the way someone is dressed.

It's obvious that the reason is because of their skin color that they are being treating differently.'

He told the teacher that 'she was attacking him and he has his own opinion and so do she.'"

"Another time we went to this neighborhood where the demographic was predominately black.

All of the kids were so cute. Just wild kids after school.. free from school.. in a gym.

And this girl commented, “I have never been to a place with so many black people.

Where I went to high school, there were only three black people.”

Later the girl commented, 'They didn't listen, Oh my gosh these are the worst kids that I have ever been around.'

I told her, 'They are just being kids.'

The girl responds,'Regular kids don’t act like this. If you tell them what to do, they listen.'

I said: 'WHAT, they are like any group of kids I've seen after school.'

The girl says, 'They are rowdy.'

I asked, 'Do you mean because they're black, they are rowdy?'

She said, 'obviously NO' really defensively.

I thought to myself, 'That's what you meant.'" 

She describes how she feels when she runs into these situations.

She says, "My heart starts beating, I start to get sweaty from being so nervous and

I just feel the urge to have to speak up.

It's a mix of being nervous and angry and its hard to keep my cool 

because I am in the best position to speak up because

I am white and I look like them." 

"I feel that pressure that if I don’t speak up, I'll feel guilty.

And I think of how staying silent is just taking the side of the oppressor.

It's uncomfortable and you have to or you feel this thick layer of guilt that you can't get past.

I remembered learning about white privilege at the age of 17, at my first job.

I was working as a swim lesson teacher at Goldfish Swim School, and after 2 weeks, I got moved to the front desk.

I remember the other kids asking, 'What, you get to work the front desk?'

I went home to tell my dad that I had already got promoted. And he responds, 'Jenny that's good, but that's white privilege.' 

That's when I first learned about it. It's real, I have seen it. I know its true."

The Future:

As she enters her last year in nursing school. I asked her "how she feels getting ready to be thrown into the 'big girl life'."

She says "it's mostly excitement and she is ready to be able to focus on one thing instead of balancing work and school,

and to also to be a good nurse."

"People say you learn everything once you start working in real life and see everything first hand."

"This is going to be me next year", she says.

xOxO

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 Random shots:

 I had so much fun with my cousin Jenny. Visiting, encouraging, talking, catching up, and getting a small dose of the college experience. ;)

College food

Stu the cat and $70 non refundable Kanye West T-shirt

"These are my three roommates."

Room mate Julia, Marketing/Pr Major, shares her excitement about her first day at her internship doing what she wants to do for the rest of her life.

College days