Being in college, we are bombarded with a plethora of options of campus organizations to get involved with. At the beginning of the year, you sign up to various emailing lists and attend a few meetings and events here and there, but actually choosing a few organizations to dedicate part of your free time to can be difficult. I have seen this firsthand as Vice President of an organization, and as a result I have slowly stopped going to meetings for some organizations, but that does not mean that I no longer support their missions. I believe this is also true when it comes to supporting various causes in general for people from my generation.
Looking back in the past, my main focus was raising awareness about mental illness in my community, and it still is. Now, I have grown to feel more passionate about other issues such as sexual assault, wrongful imprisonment, gender inequality, and poverty to name a few. Sometimes, I feel the pressure to be more of an activist for one cause over another, but I realize that this is impossible for me and that I should not have to choose anyway. The reason I can easily support multiple causes is because I see the risks that each have on someone’s mental well-being. Surviving a sexual assault can leave a person with not only physical but emotional/psychological scars as well; serving a prison sentence of 30 years for a crime you did not commit is mentally taxing; living below the poverty line or constantly being surrounded by people who belong to the upper class can affect someone’s self-esteem and cause them to be more self-conscious.
I bring this up because I see the growing support of my fellow colleagues in fighting sexual violence in this country. This is a great thing. It lets me know that even my “apathetic” campus can get behind some cause. Now, we have to take this support a step further. What can we do on campus to raise more awareness about these issues? How can we keep this as a top priority in our lives besides academia? Many people are vocal about their disapproval of sexual violence, but only few will actually take action. One of the sororities on my campus has fundraisers to directly support the Center For Prevention of Abuse, but only a few of those girls will go on to volunteer at the Center and have a more direct impact on supporting the fight against abuse. What can we do to get more people to volunteer at centers like this or to spread the word among friends?
I’ve been writing for Leila Grace for a year now, and my passion for this cause has grown even stronger. I write this blog to challenge all of you readers to think about what we and all of our friends and family can do to make a difference. As the great saying goes, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”.
