I was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Currently, I am a sophomore at Brown double concentrating in education and theater & performance studies with the hope of pursuing a career that allows me to use the arts as a vehicle for reducing educational achievement gaps and providing therapy to children. My education concentration is with a specialization in anthropology because I am interested in how ethnographies reveal the daily practices of educational institutions and how the everyday can (re)produce or reduce inequities. One everyday practice I am particularly interested in is arts instruction because I want to use dance education as an equity intervention. Accordingly, my theater & performance studies concentration is on the dance track. I serve as a teaching assistant for Dance Composition and Mande Dance, Music, & Culture in order to foster my love for teaching dance. I am also involved in the dance company, Extension, because it supports my mission of bringing dance to all by working with dancers with Parkinson's and high school students at Central Falls. When I am not in class or on stage, I like to plan events for the Black Student Union, create clothing for Fashion @ Brown, spend time with family and friends, read, puzzle, cook, travel, babysit, drink tea, and of course watch Michigan sports. Go Blue!

Project:

Students' well-being has been negatively affected by the pandemic. While arts education improves students' physical and mental health by promoting fine motor skills and providing a form of expression, arts programs are among the first eliminated from educational institutions. My ethnographic research on project and place based curriculum development at the University of Michigan’s School of Education’s Detroit P-20 Partnership will promote arts programming by informing art based volunteer work at Ann Arbor’s Peace Neighborhood Center. Arts programming aligns with the center’s goals of promoting wellbeing, and their efforts to provide transformative field trips since it will encompass museum visits and live performances.