Isis Contreras

Senior Isis Contreras noticed racial disparities in the town, which led her to join many programs in an effort to combat these problems.

This past summer, she participated in the National Student Leadership Conference on international diplomacy. Contreras joined the program after learning that she would be able to understand more about how to be a better leader so she could help fix racial disparities.

“We got lectures on diplomacy and what it means to be a diplomat and communications. For me, it’s about making change. As much as I think protesting makes change, and people on the ground can make change to a certain extent, we do live in a system where to a certain extent you can only make change through policy,” Contreras said.

In addition to participating in the conference, Contreras is also a part of clubs which tackle different social justice issues. She joined and now co-leads Students Against Institutionalized Racism (SAIR) after observing first-hand the racial disparities in course levels. Contreras said that SAIR is trying to set up a tutoring program to aid students who have been affected by these disparities.