Sense of Belonging: Students' Challenges Should Be Effortless Joys | Angela Richard | TEDxBU
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMLNUQ_xMXE Video ID: GMLNUQ_xMXE ============================================================ foreign as I was getting ready to apply to college I thought to myself it would have been really helpful if I had gone to sleep away camp at some point in my life I remember touring my first campus Boston College and feeling so out of body and place yet so whole the bright vibrant campus the picturesque Library the beautiful amenities and academic buildings the ability to overhear conversations between students The Pride bellowing from the tour guide for her campus I was ready to buy a piece of merch and Shout go Eagles I didn't get in that's beside the point the point is a sense of belonging on college campuses is often cultivated through strategic marketing beautiful amenities and show-stopping initiatives but is it truly created for every student is there space for students to gather to be themselves and to escape a place where they may feel isolated the truth is college is often marketed as being for everybody but it's just not designed for everybody a sense of belonging particularly social and Community acceptance just isn't cultivated for everybody the right people are often asking the wrong questions higher education staff and faculty create with the best of intentions space for students to come together and build community from Career Services where I work to student engagement to residential life events of all kinds are put on for students to come together so why then according to this year's sales force connected student report did only 12 percent of students report that they feel they totally belong to their University and why did only 58 percent of students report that they feel some sense of belonging to their University a sense of belonging is one of the most pure yet most challenging feelings to secure especially on a college campus higher education faculty and staff attempt to the nth degree to create belonging-centric spaces and Community focused opportunities for students to engage with you've likely seen Multicultural centers at universities like Bentley and Sacred Heart our own Boston University has the Newberry Center dedicated to supporting first generation students and their unique lived experiences some of our neighbors UMass Amherst and Northeastern have latinx cultural centers separate from larger student-focused diversity and inclusion offices despite these efforts however a couple of questions remain how do students feel a sense of belonging and more importantly who is a sense of belonging cultivated for belongingness has been identified as a fundamental human need most notably by Abraham Maslow this fundamental human need affects cognitive and psychological processes and has an impact on human behavior this emphasizes the fact that how you perceive your belonging in a space will affect your output in a variety of ways from your ability to respond to a question in class to your mood as you leave the office for the day I remember when I first stepped foot on my college campus I'd only been there once before on a brief campus tour and I hadn't gotten a chance to see my dorm before moving in I remember seeing students whom I vaguely recognized from the first year Facebook groups and I thought to myself a how on Earth am I going to move all my stuff in and be how am I going to fit in this mindset set the tone for my first introduction to campus but I had to remember however despite those uncertainties that I was enough because belonging starts from within as you become comfortable with who we are what our values are what we want to put into the world and get out of it and where we want to be we can begin to build community that blends experiences shared and different and that derived meaning from our being and our desires college campuses need to hear their students and Empower them to be the center of their Journeys you might be asking yourself well what more can student affairs professionals do to build community among students it may seem that fun events and programming are enough to sustain community and build those much needed connections student affairs professionals need to ask themselves what do students need rather than what can we do for students Bingo competitions and movie nights and activities are only as helpful as the student needs and voices that guide them student created spaces have an immense impact on continuous sense of belonging and feelings of acceptance as seen in bu's United Rhythm and the chapter of if you're reading this a few weeks ago as part of my Master's research I spoke with two first-generation students who attend a historically women's Institution they're both heavily involved on campus from student leadership responsibilities to affinity group participation and they both had a similar message regarding sense of belonging it happens when students are the drivers of community and spaces it happens when students gather and Foster conversations that make them feel safe it happens when students enter and claim spaces that support their identities identity Centric spaces are necessary across college campuses big and small in order to uplift the many individual needs and honor the lived experiences of all students now students may need these initial opportunities and spaces curated by student affairs professionals to come together to meet one another and to learn about each other outside of the academic environment but once this happens students can build and catalyze meaningful relationships that lead to a positive sense of belonging across campus as a first generation college student myself my college application and acclimation process was anything but smooth my affiliation with campus and happiness related to being a student grew over the years I didn't feel a true sense of belonging until I got to know really no my peers and their stories I didn't feel a full sense of belonging that fundamental human need that Maslow describes when I was at orientation or when I went to student engagement events or when I decided to sign up for intramural sports I did feel a full sense of belonging however when I could easily meet up with peers across campus when I would go and grab food with friends on a whim when I walked downtown with a few people whom I'd only met briefly just to have those few hours written into my memories as some of the most seamless Carefree moments of my life when I got to just be me becoming whole and belongingness are not all that different they are ever evolving continuous processes that we engage with each and every day as we navigate the world our sense of self helps us to figure out where we may best belong how to do so and what that may look like we are already whole and enough in so many ways but how we Orient ourselves in search of a sense of belonging entails communities conversations inquiries and opportunities that change with our own personal growth and journey when I learned that I'd be able to give this talk I reached out to my community to gauge their perceptions of sense of belonging by asking this simple question what does sense of belonging mean to you and a few thoughts stood out a colleague from my first job said that it feels like she can be who she truly is no matter the circumstance said it's being vulnerable experiencing comfort being heard and being seen a friend from my time abroad said that it's more than acceptance of Who You Are but support and celebration of Who You Are family members said that it's important in framing the meaning that we have for our lives it's the onus of colleges and universities everywhere to hear their students and to support them through their greatest successes and largest challenges fostering a sense of belonging it requires everyone's commitment students faculty staff the larger campus family everyone's commitment to building a strong community I don't think belonging in all of its differences and expenses can ever be defined as fully whole but as long as it's progressing in that direction we're taking the right action thank you [Applause]