DSF Scholar and now Alum Bintou Diallo is one of the newest committee co-chairs of the DSF Alumni Advisory Committee. She graduated from University of Colorado Boulder and is now a Senior Associate Analyst for Infosys. We were fortunate to have her address DPS and DSF graduates at our 2023 graduation celebration.
Hello Denver Scholarship Foundation and Class of 2023!
Phew! Let’s take a second just to take that in. You did it! You’ve achieved another milestone in your life. You’ve pushed yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically to be here…to let yourself know that your aspirations matter.
It is important that in all of the excitement that you are experiencing that you take the time to reflect on your past, present, and future. How did you persevere throughout the height of the Covid 19 outbreak, how did you make it to today, what are your aspirations for tomorrow?
As I ask you these questions, I think of when my family and I emigrated to the US from Guinea-Conakry, I didn’t know what to expect…everything felt so surreal. I did not know the language or culture. On top of that, my dad had us move to Colorado. Colorado! Not New York, Atlanta, or any other city where you would find a large Guinean population. Also, this wasn’t somewhere warm or tropical…Nope… I had to deal with blizzards. I remember being cold a lot and feeling out of place…uncomfortable in my own skin. It was as if I was always under a microscope.
I was bullied for not speaking “proper English,” being African, taller and heavier than my peers, and then speaking like a white girl once I learned English. At home, I could only speak Pulaar as English was not allowed in the house. I had to make sure that I learned how to cook, clean, and take care of my siblings. My mom would say “what are you going to do when you go back to Guinea and your grandmother doesn’t speak French or English…how will you interact with her, how will you survive there.” I was essentially living two different lives – one at home and one at school.
This created an inner battle within to try to fit in in both settings. There were times that I was able to switch from one culture to another with ease and other times I left exhausted and misunderstood. This exhaustion increased in high school. I sometimes spoke my mind despite any cultural obligations placed upon me and stayed silent when I felt that I would be judged, criticized, or considered less than. It was not until my senior year of high school that I had some type of awakening.
There were so many things on my mind, so many misconceptions of who I was since arriving in the US that I started to listen to my inner voice and tried to express myself. I was met with resistance from my peers and teachers. One day, after the Eid prayer, I decided to go to school wearing an all black Abaya and hijab as I was afraid to miss the entire day of school. Missing one day felt like you had missed two days. When I walked into my AP Physics class, I was met with stares and seeping red rage. My peers had been used to seeing me dressed in pants, a polo, and braids. The color in the room turned to a dark red and the room became icier than ever. My peers started to harass me and call me names.
I spoke up and defended myself immediately, shocking many in the classroom. Rather than engaging further in a never ending back and forth, I walked out and went to the Dean’s office. That was the last time that I went to school with a hijab and abaya. I went back into my shell. The shell quietly started to break when the college counselor, a month later, told me to only apply to in-state universities and colleges while advising my white peers to push themselves further and think about schools out of the state and even out of the country. This is when I peered through one of the cracks that had formed and pushed my hand through it to widen it a bit. I was so frustrated and flabbergasted at her actions that I applied to schools like Davidson College and Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was accepted to Xavier University and started my freshman year there. I felt so powerful.
Unfortunately, this feeling quickly went away. I never completed my first semester at Xavier. Even with academic and financial assistance, I still had room and board to pay. The out of pocket costs were too much to bear. I ended up having to reach out to mentors from the Minds Matter organization to understand what next steps to take and how to regroup. She advised me to attend the University of Colorado Boulder. Before starting my educational journey at Boulder, I had to make sure that I had all the funding I needed to stay at the school. One day, I researched all of the scholarships and programs that I would be eligible for and, rode the bus the next morning to Boulder and literally knocked on some doors. One of those doors was Chris Pacheco’s.
He told me about Denver Scholarship Foundation and many other programs that I did not see during my research. He told me who to contact and where each office was located. Chris helped me fill out the DSF application. It was this guidance that led me to learn about the different spaces on the CU Boulder campus where I could feel safe and at home. Spaces that helped me to break free and appreciate my identities and analyze my life experiences. He helped me whenever I had issues with the bursar’s office and needed some motivation to keep it pushing. It would have been harder to be able to attend CU Boulder and graduate without this experience and support. I challenge you to reach out to your DSF contacts on campus the day or same week that school starts and pick their brain about diverse and inclusive spaces on campus. Pick their brains about DSF scholars who are on campus, different programs that they suggest you take advantage of, and how to get support when you are struggling academically, financially, emotionally, and/ or socially.
DSF is always here to support you. This support does not end after graduating from college, you are now a DSF alum. They want to see you succeed and be your cheerleaders for life. Your aspirations matter to them! Even after graduating from college, I received emails from them asking me to attend alumni events and share DSF scholarship application information to prospective scholars. One day, I saw that they wanted alumni to apply for the DSF Alumni Advisory Committee. There was a co-chair opportunity open. I did not know what to expect and felt a little scared about jumping into the role, so I decided to meet with Stephanie, the College Success Program Manager. She made me less fearful of the opportunity as she and her team have been so welcoming. Almost a year later, I feel welcomed and part of a family…one that has embraced me wholeheartedly.
You are part of the DSF family. You can be an immigrant, speak another language, be of any ethnicity, wear a hijab, be in your shell or not, and be perfectly imperfect. DSF will take you as you are, support you, and challenge you to be a leader for today and tomorrow. They take the future very seriously. Gosh, they’ve even named their mascot Future. They want us all to grow, take the journeys that fit us the best… whether we know what that journey looks like today or not… and want to be our cheerleaders.
So Class of 2023, don’t be afraid to reflect on your past, embrace it…Use the naysayers and haters as your motivation, celebrate who you are and your journey…and stay connected to and motivated by the things and people who want you to lead a life of freedom and choice.
