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Hey #Changemakers,
This week our Campus Organizers are releasing their capstone projects digitally! These end-of-semester projects aim to bring awareness and information to their communities around topics such as menstrual equity, abortion, and how students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and the environmental disaster this year. Each Campus Organizer has a unique story and comes from a different background, and the semester brought different challenges for them that many of us were privileged not to have experienced, especially during our own college years. Despite the ups and downs of the challenging circumstances this year, our Changemakers have continued to organize their campuses and keep their chapter members connected. In their capstones, they are bringing new ideas to raise greater awareness and understanding of the issues that still impact many of us today, and it really started by identifying three key issues our youth want to see progress on— healthcare, racial equity, and gender equity.
The problems in our healthcare system have never been more apparent than during the COVID pandemic. However, the inequities of healthcare access, especially financial access, is what keeps many away from our hospitals. In turn, barriers to care affect our Black and brown communities the most. Of course, this was a problem long before the pandemic, however, we have collectively failed to highlight the ways COVID-19 exacerbated the impact on these communities. This gap is what encouraged our Changemakers, especially from our chapters at Huston-Tillotson, Prairie View A&M University, and the University of Texas at San Antonio to focus on this for their capstones. Deeds at Huston-Tillotson will host registration drives to get more folks vaccinated, where the resources have been scarce for years through injustices such as hospital deserts. Kierra Jones-Jackson leads this effort in honor of their late chapter member Natalia Cox who fought hard to provide more resources to her neighbors and had high hopes of being able to distribute more vaccines to her community. At Prairie View A&M University, we will continue to learn about these disparities by hearing the stories of students at HBCUs and learning how their lives were impacted by factors surrounding the pandemic, led by Amorae Times. We dive further into a healing effort as Jasmine Taylor leads our battle at the University of Texas at San Antonio to create safe spaces and build support resources for Black students. Together, these are the stories of students working to heal at a time when they felt forgotten.
Gender equity has been a foundational element of our organization, but also of our lives. However, many issues still impact us today and the fights we ‘won’ long ago somehow seem to always make their way back, such as abortion access. Since Roe v. Wade, little has been done to support access for everyone to have safe and legal abortions. Worse, as we watch the Texas Legislature focus on denying access at a time when we need healthcare resources more than ever. Even beyond abortion, menstrual equity, sexual harassment, and even stigmas around sexual health have been issues at the forefront for our Changemakers. This is why our students at Texas Christian University, the UT at El Paso, the UT at Dallas, and Rice University have dedicated their capstones to sharing information regarding each of these topics. Led by Diana Do, Monet Woodhouse, Carla Ramazan, and Allison Johnson respectively, we take a dive into the tampon tax, the stories of survivors of sexual harassment, the harms of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, and how to find trustworthy abortion resources. Together, our students represent the spectrum of what gender equity encompasses and how we should build safe spaces for our reproductive health and for ourselves as individuals.
United, these issues encompass the change we wish to see— healthcare, racial equity, and gender equity. Most importantly, we have to recognize the intersections between each and how their interplay collectively affects our lives. With great honor, I invite you to peek into a few capstones by our Changemakers and know that as long as we move together, we can foster a future where we’re all FREE.
In Solidarity,
Natasha Acevedo, Deeds Not Words
Youth Outreach & Organizing Manager
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