1. What social identities do you need to work on being an ally for?

How are you

going to do this?

Social identities based on race and sexuality are groups that I could be better at

being an ally for. In my past experiences with high school, I’ve had a reduced amount of

experience with marginalized identities of these groups such as black people and

homosexual people. Thus, I would benefit from a lot of interaction from these groups to

gain a better understanding how to be available and provide assistance to them. I would

do this by stepping outside of my comfort zone of my normal friend group to interact with

POCs, gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals. I could do this during the first weeks of the

school year when many people are making new connections in the residence halls and

classes as well. With these interactions, it is important for me to walk into the

conversation with no assumptions about these individuals based on their identities.

2. What are the areas of allyhood that you can be a resource to others on? How will

you be that resource to others?

I can be a resource to others with a background in small towns with smaller

school systems which are often marginalized through underfunding and not being

considered important in the broader conversation. In a place like U of M, where many

individuals have a significant amount of wealth to their name, people with not so wealthy

backgrounds may feel alienated and not able to have the same enjoyable experience at

U of M. I can be a resource to these individuals by quickly establishing myself as

someone who struggled with the fears of this large school, got help and guidance for it,

and eventually coped by using those resources that were there to help me. My own

‘success story’ can be a motivating force for other individuals to seek the same help I
 did, and I could be that resource for them this time.

3. What support do you need around being an ally?

To be a sufficient ally, I feel I would need to have knowledgeable individuals

around me who can fill in the gaps for me when I’m the initial contact point between

residents and the resources they need to succeed. I may not always have all of the

knowledge to help these students succeed off of the top of my head, so having a

network around me of fellow ResStaff would be vital for the overall success of the

resident.