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Nyisha Causey, a fourth year at the University of California, Santa
Cruz is pursuing a Bachelors Degree in Psychology, which will aid
her passion to pursue a career in community psychology and social
activism. Throughout her four years at UCSC, Nyisha was heavily
involved with Oakes College government and programming, and therefore
was not as present within the African/Black community as she would
have liked to be. However her involvement within organizing and
with other Oakes students prepared her to branch out and get involved
with several organizing spaces outside of the Oakes community. Her
involvement within these spaces was strictly as a participant and
observer, but her active support and observation for and within
these spaces allowed her to adopt several leadership skills, knowledge
of important resources and an ever-increasing passion for student
activism. Her growing awareness for issues effecting students of
color prompted her interest in reconnecting with the African/Black
community and becoming more socially and politically evolved and
involved.
Nyisha is now involved in the Chancellor Undergraduate Internship
Program as the 2006-2007 Umoja Coordinator. Umoja is the student
run, student initiated retention program geared toward advocating
on behalf of the African/Black community to secure resources and
provide a sense of community and academic and social programming
that will successfully retain African/Black students until graduation
and life thereafter. The potential Umoja possesses as an influential
constituent on the African/Black community, drew Nyisha to the position.
She felt her work with Oakes college, other organizing spaces and
passion for student activism prepared her take on this position.
This year Nyisha has created the first Umoja mission statement,
five year strategic plan and several other projects that have helped
to define the structure and purpose of Umoja.
In conjunction with working with Umoja, Nyisha also works with three
other retention coordinators forming the coalition Ch.U.C.K: Chale,
Umoja, Community Unified Network (CUSN), and the Kuya Ate Mentorship
Program (KAMP). Together Ch.U.C.K assesses and attempts to collectively
address the needs students of color on the UCSC campus. Ch.U.C.K’s
success lies in the fact that it has the potential to empower the
students of color community through activism, academics and community
building. Over the past year, Nyisha has had the opportunity to
actively engage and learn more about the respective communities
Ch.U.C.K works with. The work that this years Ch.U.C.Ksters have
started and completed will allow next years Ch.U.C.K coalition to
mobilize and provide more effective programming and resources.
Being a part of the CUIP class helped Nyisha understand the bureaucracy
and inner workings of some of the most important units on the UCSC
campus. The class gave Nyisha and the other Ch.U.C.K. interns the
capacity to inform the class and top administration of the importance
of their internships as well as the need for active retention and
subsequent outreach of students of color.
The future seems bright for Nyisha Causey as she continues her path
to obtaining a higher education and working on behalf of students
and her community. Her CUIP internship has aided Nyisha in her quest
to critically challenge the systematic racism and oppression she
and other students of color face at UCSC.
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