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Kristina Weems at Wari Co-op.

Lindsay France/University Photography

Major: History and Africana studies
College: Arts and Sciences
Hometown: Atlanta

I wanted to attend a university that would challenge me intellectually and provide a strong foundation for my future educational endeavors.

Being president of Wanawake wa Wari, a cooperative house for black women established in 1968, has truly opened my eyes to the importance of committing oneself to one's community. Through Wari, I have volunteered at the Lansing Residential Center, where we have mentored young incarcerated females. I have also had the unique opportunity to develop a scholarship through which Wari House funds secondary education for a young girl from the Humjibre Village in Ghana. Wari Cooperative has been a home away from home and has helped me become a better leader, woman and sister.

Spring semester of my sophomore year, my younger brother passed away, and never before had I felt like my world was literally falling apart right in front of my eyes. I remember not knowing whether I would come back to Cornell because I really wanted to be with and closer to my family in Atlanta. Yet, the immense amount of support and encouragement I received from my friends, housemates, professors and deans helped me to get through that difficult time of my life and back on track academically. I am forever grateful to all those people who were a light to me and my family during all of our darkened times over the years.

The professors at Cornell are truly phenomenal. Courses with Professors Margaret Washington, James Turner, Fredrik Logevall and Daniel Magaziner encouraged me to look at the world critically and to recognize the effects that historical events have had on the present.

Volunteering at Lansing Residential Center and Cornell's service-learning course "Women's Activism in the 20th Century" have engendered my interest in the prison system and how it affects the lives of people of color both directly and indirectly. I was shocked at how normalized incarceration is in American society, although it no longer serves as a place of reform but is primarily a place for "punishment." I plan to continue my involvement with incarcerated youth, particularly young black and Latina females, after graduation and am looking for opportunities to work with juvenile centers in my hometown.

I am forever grateful to Cornell Tradition and financial aid for making it possible for me to attend Cornell without accruing tons of debt!

Late "study nights" with my friends in Ujamaa Residential College's Unit 3 during freshman year.

Next year, I will be working with Teach for America in Atlanta, teaching elementary school. I am extremely excited about this opportunity for I will be able to give back to the public school system that I am a product of.

In 10 years, I hope to have completed graduate school in education, women's studies and/or history. I also want to be married with children and finished with my first work of fiction.