| An interview with a winner by Keme Hawkins |
| Quilen Blackwell recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with comprehensive honors in history. Keme Hawkins recently sat down to talk with Blackwell about his UW experience. |
| TCCH: Tell me about graduation? |
| QB: I am a history major graduating with comprehensive honors. [He did it in 3 years] |
| TCCH: What are comprehensive honors? |
| QB: The highest academic honors you can get from the College of Letters and Science. |
| TCCH: What do you have to do to get that? |
| QB: You have to do honors in the major, write a thesis, and take 24 credits of liberal arts honors courses humanities social science and the hard sciences. |
| TCCH: What was your thesis on? |
| QB: My thesis is exploring the topic of community organizing and its historical impact on the American political landscape. I am kind of hypothesizing that these broad base community organizations have had a significant impact in terms of engaging and empowering local communities. An example of a broad-based organization would be DaneCounty United here in Madison. They take different institutions in the city, so churches, neighborhood associations, planning councils and work together and develop an agenda that is representative of that community. Some communities may have education as a priority and another may have crime [as its priority]. The whole point is to get this community to represent self in municipal politics or state politics. |
| TCCH: That is a lot of community educating. |
| QB: Well, yeah. I mean it is a very specific type. I kind of got trained in the Saul Linsky tradition of organizing. I don't know if you are familiar with him. |
| TCCH: Do you work for a community-based organization for extracurricular activities? |
| QB: Yes. I started a group here on campus called People Opposing Prejudice (POP). It is based on the Saulalinsky model and it has been going on for two years now, since 2004. We've been doing pretty well. We work with about 20 different student organizations on campus. We have addressed a few issues during our tenure and I'm pretty happy about that. |
| TCCH: Are you still going to be involved after you graduate? |
| QB: No. A woman named April Anderson is going to take over it. (Paraphrase) |
| TCCH: Tell me about your decision to go to college? When did you first decide to go? Where did you apply to? What did you want to study? |
| QB: I applied to here [UW Madison], Michigan, and Minnesota. Originally I wanted to be a business major. You know because you get it hammered in your head "make that money," "get a job" that type of thing. But then I changed to history after we went on this trip called the Freedom Ride, where we [visited various] cities in the South. We helped organize the archives at the National Voting Rights Museum. We also had to convert an old car dealership into an elementary school. They really wanted us to appreciate the trip. |
| TCCH: Are you a first-generation college student? |
| QB: No. My dad graduated from EdgewoodCollege and my mom went to MATC. |
| TCCH: When did you first know you wanted to go to college? |
| QB: It has always been expected. When your parents are educated, it is pretty much expected that you are going to get educated as well. So it was more what are you going to do when you are in college and what college are you going to go to. |
| TCCH: Can you think of a time when you first began wondering what college would be like? |
| QB: It was probably my junior year when my brother got into school. He is a year older than me. So that's when I probably started thinking about what's it like to be in a dorm, be free for the first year of my adult life. You know things like that. |
| TCCH: What was your first year like? |
| QB: In some ways I was more fortunate than others because I was lucky enough to get selected to be in a summer program, where they took 40 minority students and we came the first summer. The idea was to try and assimilate us into the college atmosphere and life so we would be more successful. I met some good people there and it helped me along the way. My first semester here, it was a big challenge academically. It's not like I sucked. It's just that I had high expectations, naturally. And I didn't meet those expectations so it was kind of frustrating. And then the whole idea of trying to find a place on campus, I struggled with that my freshman year. There were times when I thought I would transfer and things like that. It wasn?t necessarily because of the poor campus climate but I didn't think I was a good fit for this campus. |
| TCCH: Why not? |
| QB: I didn't really have a lot of close friends then. Then I got involved in some of the student organizations. But I never found one that I felt like I could dedicate my time and energy to. I didn't feel like the professors cared about my education. And at that time I had no interest in doing research. And since this is a research institution I thought that I should go somewhere else. But I talked to some advisors, especially my scholarship advisor, Mercile Lee. She basically talked me into staying here. And life has been good ever since. |
| TCCH: How was your social life your first year here? |
| QB: I kind of got into the party scene my first semester, like any other freshman here. I was not as involved in the church [Northside Christian Assembly of God] as I would later become. |
| *****One of the things I prayed for is to be a blessing to as many people as I can. |
| I pretty much grew up middle-class. At first we were poor but I was too young to know it. |
| I had straight As in high school but it wasn?t because I was gifted. I just had more support and opportunities to let my talents come out. I found what my niches were and I just really worked hard at those things. |
| My older brother is graduating from Plattville this summer. |
| The thing I really like doing most is community organizing and community work. I really do like just general politics. I like combining what I read with real life. I would categorize myself as an intellectual activist. |
| I see that as a case for humility. In my opinion you're never too smart for God. That's who you get your knowledge from, that's where you get your wisdom from. When you know where your bread is being buttered you're not going to get too intellectual. |
| TCCH: What do you say to kids who don't think they are college material? |
| QB: Get yourself hanging around people who take college seriously. I've seen a lot of talented kids of all races and creeds who just fell between the cracks because they started running with the wrong crowd. So if you hang out with someone who is more ambitious then naturally you are going to take on some of those traits. That's what happened with me. A lot of my friends are motivated. They're always in the library. They're doing a bunch of research. You know they're doing big things. So that pushes me even harder. |
| We take groups of kids from the church and bring them on campus every other Saturday or so to expose them college life and to demystify the college experience. |
| TCCH: What are you going to do after graduation? |
| QB: I got accepted to a summer program at Harvard University for Public Policy in June. I am also going to go to RochesterNew York to do some research on community organizing. And I am going to Thailand to visit a friend. And I am going to end the summer at Berkeley. I got a research conference there for the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program. |
| Depression by Pamela Pfeffer |
| Many people suffer from depression in our society and unfortunately it often goes undiagnosed, this may largely be due to the stigma and shame associated with it. Depression left undiagnosed and untreated can be the hidden cause to a lot of drug and alcohol abuse. Many people of color are reluctant to discuss depression and other forms of mental health illnesses for a variety of reason, but I suspect shame to be one of the top five reasons. Anyone can become depressed, our elderly, men, women and children. What I can tell you is that many young people are under tremendous pressures and these pressures can cause stress, which is one of several triggers for depression. With many young people headed off to colleges far and away it is important that the adults in their lives understand that depression can happen to anyone and if they notice any behavioral changes in the young person they should address them to make sure they aren't something more serious then growing pains. In addition to our young people being impacted by depression are women. What has been attributed to women and depression can range from stress to hormones but it has been estimated that women are twice as likely as men to experience depression. |
| Signs of depression vary from person to person but some common signs are; a change in eating and sleeping patterns, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, neglecting self and responsibilities, and feeling of helplessness. This list is by know means a way to self diagnose but hopefully if someone is experiencing many of these feelings they will be able to seek help and began taking the necessary steps to heal. It is also important to note that an individual can be genetically predisposed to depression. |
| Perhaps if we can begin to remove the shame associated with mental illness we can began to heal our community from the abuses of drugs and overuse of alcohol. Many people who self medicate with drugs and alcohol have know idea they are indeed doing this. Depression is far too serious to put on the back burner because it can destroy individuals and families. Monitor your young those still at home and those off to adulthood because what may appear as normal teenage behaviors may be something far more debilitating. If you or someone you know is experiencing depression please seek medical care. |
| Campus Community Connection |
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| Keme Hawkins |
| Pamela Pfeffer |
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