Video Transcript – LeaderShape at Boise State

Video Transcript

[Esperansa Gomez, School of Social Work student]: I am extremely thankful to be able to say that I’ve had multiple experiences to shape my college education because for me, college is definitely a time to develop as yourself, and so during my third year of university I definitely blossomed and took the step to get more involved. I’ve gone to a leadership development conference, which is called LeaderShape, and it’s a six-day trip that approximately 60 students get to attend. While there, I got to interact with students that I feel I would have otherwise never met, and so it was an awesome networking opportunity and it definitely made me get out of my comfort zone, but I’m happy I went because I feel I was able to get new perspectives from other students and I was able to give insight as well. And through that and all the networking I did it opened so many other doors for me.

And so, for example, I thrived better in my position as being a peer mentor for first generation, limited income, underrepresented students because of all the resources I learned about. I also got to join the student government here through the Associated Students of Boise State University, and during my first year, I was just in the assembly where students meet up to vote on policies, talk about what’s going on on campus, but I realized I kind of wanted to be involved more, so then this past year I ran and I joined the executive team and now I’m Boise State’s official first Vice President of Inclusive Excellence. So, through those experiences, good and bad, I’m now moving forward to be a part of the process of creating a positive change here at Boise State.

And then just tying back to everything I’ve learned about for the alternative Spring Break I went on, I went to Los Angeles, California, and my topic was access to opportunity. And so we really got to dive into analyze the youth and families within underserved populations there, and so I really learned more what marginalization was and how I could better use my privilege to like serve those communities. And so overall, just like really awesome experiences.

[Title: Bronco Giving Day, Sept. 13, 2018. #BRONCOSGIVE]