As a first-gen college Student from Southwest Detroit, Lizette Esquivel has found a safe space in DAAS. While working towards her bachelors degree in Afroamerican and African Studies and Latinx Studies, she acquired context for her own lived experiences, as well as a lens to understand the institutionalization and structuralization of racism in America. The implicit racism in incidents such as having her bags searched while attending Detroit Public Schools or her community being selected for a major development project became important. Her DAAS classes fueled her academic career by giving her the tools to understand the racist social constructs that she was positioned in. She is thankful that her education gave her the language to call out these constructs.
My DAAS major has been helpful in my professional career because I am now able to identify how mechanisms of implicit and explicit bias are implicated in our everyday lives. I am able to overcome these biases and promote inclusive work environments by challenging notions of implicit bias and racism.
Lizette has been able to utilize these skills to help others in previous professional environments. She spent several years in the banking industry, with a focus on mortgages. Here she used her position to educate people on how to access and utilize credit, which has historically been used to put people of color at a disadvantage. Her goal was to counter this by teaching people how to navigate the complex credit system and help them to understand their rights as a borrower. This experience has given her the chance to plant seeds of change and opportunity for others.
After arriving in Ann Arbor in 2013 to begin her undergraduate studies, Lizette fell in love with the city. She has since stayed in the area, and enjoys spending time reading and doing arts and crafts with her daughter. Being back at the University has reminded her of how far she’s come, and has given her a new perspective on the way the department operates. This new view has made her excited to be a part of DAAS once again. Her affinity for the department stems from the way she was treated as an undergrad.
In undergrad, DAAS felt like a safe place to come to. A department where I felt that I was seen as more than just a student that needed to produce intellectual works but as a human being that was also navigating newly adult life […] It was the first time I felt seen for more than my production and it empowered me to strive for success in anything I decided to do.
Lizette hopes to be able to give back to the department and help others receive the education and experience that she was given. One of her goals is to change the way that knowledge is centralized within the department. Much of her work with this has taken the form of the DAAS portal, which she hopes will create a new home for the department’s policies and procedures. Her organizational skills will help to make DAAS more streamlined and accessible for all.
As a first-gen college Student from Southwest Detroit, Lizette Esquivel has found a safe space in DAAS. While working towards her bachelors degree in Afroamerican and African Studies and Latinx Studies, she acquired context for her own lived experiences, as well as a lens to understand the institutionalization and structuralization of racism in America. The implicit racism in incidents such as having her bags searched while attending Detroit Public Schools or her community being selected for a major development project became important. Her DAAS classes fueled her academic career by giving her the tools to understand the racist social constructs that she was positioned in. She is thankful that her education gave her the language to call out these constructs.
