Clark College Wa Student Success Story - Cetara davis

When I first started taking classes at Clark it was kind of a negative experience. I just went to classes and went home. I didn't really know anyone. I kind of had a negative attitude because I kind of like, ahh, community college. I kind of had a university mindset. But I think it wasn't until I went to the Clark Club Fair, and I joined the Students For Christ club. And that's kind of where my involvement started at Clark, was through that club. And then after that, I started to get more involved in different activities on campus. I started to meet new people. I started to make connections. It was fall quarter of 2011 where I became a Student Ambassador. That was a really positive experience for me. Vanessa Watkins is an amazing person. She was an amazing boss. She was very helpful, very supportive. She just showed a lot of the leadership skills in me that I wasn't aware that I had. It kind of helped take me out of my shell. I'm very much an introvert, and so giving people tours around campus really helped me just to be more outspoken. Even though I had a lot of positive experiences at Clark, I feel like, when the first year I started going to Clark, there was an aspect of myself that was missing, which was being a student of color. So, I had a friend who attended the Student of Color Conference the previous year, and they said like, oh, you should apply. So I applied for it, and I got accepted. And that was a really amazing experience for me, because I was able to meet people who could relate to me. Instead of reapplying to be a Student Ambassador the next year, I applied to be a Peer Mentor, and I got it. And so, I'm a Peer Mentor right now, and that's been a really amazing experience. My boss, Felis, has been incredible. She just taught me how to be more confident in making my own decisions and things like that. And as a student of color, she really helped me. Especially just having the Diversity Center. I'm really glad that you guys implemented that this year. Because it really has become a support system for me. I'm able to have hard conversations in there. I've learned how to communicate more effectively with people. I learned how to be more open-minded. I was able to attend the Students of Color Conference twice in Yakima which was really amazing. I was able to do the SLiCK Program where I was able to go and help build houses for Habitat For Humanity over Spring Quarter this year. I was able to see a play on Broadway - Beauty and the Beast. That was a lot of fun. And I was also able to go to Seattle through a Model UN class I took, so there's a lot of opportunities through Clark as well as a lot of different activities I was able to be involved in. That was really amazing for me. I'm sad to be leaving this year, but I'm excited because I feel like I'm equipped and I'm ready to go to Washington State University Vancouver. And so, right now I'm pursuing my degree in Social Science, and I plan on helping in the prevention of sex trafficking. And that's kind of my goal. It's something that I learned about and something I'm kind of passionate about. And there's a really big issue going on in Portland. And so I'm going to kind of see where that takes me.