VITALLIA WILLIAMS ’22 HOMETOWN: GARNER, NC MAJORS: GOVERNMENT & SOCIOLOGY
“I never would have thought that Dartmouth would be interested in a student like me,” says Army veteran Vitallia Williams ’22, “but when Dartmouth considers a person, it considers the whole person.” Vitallia acknowledges that she has grown a lot since arriving in Hanover. “The military’s relationship to nature is very adversarial,” she muses. “I used to view nature as something I had to make work for me, rather than finding a way to operate in that space.” That all changed when she took two classes at Dartmouth: “Ecopsychology” and “Race, Space, and Nature.” “I’ve really restructured my relationship with nature,” she says, attributing her evolution to the liberal arts environment. “The liberal arts degree is meant to facilitate curiosity. It’s a thing you can taste and touch and smell and feel and engage with.” After her time in the military, Vitallia realized that international relations and foreign policy were her driving passions. “I’m interested in learning how government interacts with social norms and stigmas. To me, politics is somewhere in the middle,” she says. “That’s driven mostly by my experiences in the military, but also as a queer Black woman.” Vitallia’s experiences have ignited her fascination with what motivates people and what produces conflict. At Dartmouth, she’s found mentors like Associate Professor of Government Julie Rose, Assistant Dean of Pluralism and Leadership Angela Brizant, and Rabbi Moshe Gray, who she says don’t just share her interest in decision making and coalition building, but practice those ideals every day. “If you say something unusual, they’re more interested in why you said it than in condemning your perspective,” Vitallia says. “I think we have to be careful not to give harmful ideologies a platform, but we do have to discuss them. My professors have found a way to have conversations in class about justice and morality without dismissing any individual point of view.” The work Vitallia’s proudest of is focused on the community. An advocate for accessibility on campus, owing in part to her traumatic brain injuries and her late ADD diagnosis, Vitallia has been a vocal changemaker. “I started leveraging my advocacy and my autonomy, and people met me where I was.” Her advocacy has helped lead to the creation of the Embattled Fund— $15,000 set aside by the Office of the President and the Office of Undergraduate Life specifically for the creation of events and resources for the prevention of sexual assault. “If folks want to have a conversation about what it’s like to be queer or where to find the right mentor, for example, we can help them with that.” Vitallia’s personal mantra comes as no surprise to those who know her: What needs doing, and how can I help get it done? “While it can be difficult,” she says, “Dartmouth helps students make change.” —Caroline Cook ’21
30 | admissions.dartmouth.edu
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