B3
DECEMBER 1, 2016
COLLEGE HEIGHTS HERALD
WKU group fights to help spread solidarity BY MILES SCHROADER
HERALD.FEATURE@WKU.EDU In response to present tensions between different cultures and social groups, one organization started a movement. WKUâs Intercultural Student Engagement Center started a campaign during November to promote solidarity among students. ISECâs mission is to assist WKU with the recruitment, retention and graduation of underrepresented students, according to the groupâs website. Some events ISEC has hosted in the past include a âUnity Walkâ where speakers shared their views on coming together as people, a âSocial Justice Paintingâ session and a âPreparing for Finalsâ session. The campaign encouraged students, faculty and community members to wear red socks and/or red shoes in honor of the Hilltoppersâ prominent color for the remaining Tuesdays and Fridays of November. The campaign is titled âPeace, Love and Sole,â with the goal being to demonstrate a common interest in connecting, practicing civility and treating those within the WKU community with a spirit of compassion and care, according to a Facebook post created by ISEC in early November. Martha Sales, ISEC executive director, explained the idea began to bubble in late September, when she and her coworkers were challenged to bring forward an idea that would
bring unity among the community. âI want us to be unified on something, even if itâs something as simple as socks and shoes,â Sales said. âWe spend so much time focusing on things that divide us, so I thought our office could do an initiative that would be something that would bring us together.â Sales said the reason ISEC chose to spread its message through socks and shoes is to show people that âno matter what you have going on, we all are walking through something, but this is a time where we can all identify with one another.â The movement garnered participants across campus, including President Gary Ransdell. On Nov. 18, Ransdell tweeted a photo with himself wearing red socks with a caption supporting his stance on solidarity. âI personally felt like I needed to get involved because I am an international student and of a different race,â said Omolewa Oyekola, a junior from Lagos, Nigeria. âI wanted to get to know about other peopleâs cultures.â Stone Mountain, Georgia junior Blake Bowden felt it was necessary to get involved with the campaign from the start. âI joined just to show people that theyâre not alone; solidarity is a pretty big thing,â Bowden said. âThis is something small that we can do to show people âhey, weâre together.ââ Bowden addressed the election results protests at Pearce-Ford Tower as a time where he felt people werenât addressing their concerns in a proper
Angie Link, the office coordinator for Intercultural Student Engagement Center, is one of many to participate in wearing red socks and shoes for The Peace Love and Sole Campaign. Faculty and students wore red socks every Tuesday and Friday of November to show solidarity for students during Student Activism month. Kathryn Ziesig/HERALD
manner. âPeople have to learn that we agree and disagree,â Bowden said. âToo often, people take offense when you disagree with them, and thatâs just life. Not everyone is going to see things the way you do.â Bowden said he thinks the root of a lot of misunderstanding and hatred is simply ignorance. âTake the time to actually research other cultures, so you can understand maybe why people feel the way they do,â Bowden said. âThat way you can build empathy instead of tearing
something down that you just donât see.â To promote understanding, Sales recommended coming to the ISEC office and communicating with people and getting to know different cultures. âThere is no dumb question when it comes to cultural relationships if you want to grow,â Sales said.
Reporter Miles Schroader can be reached at 270-745-2655 and miles. schroader178@topper.wku.edu.
Single mom raises daughter, works for degree BY SAVANNAH PENNINGTON
HERALD.FEATURES@WKU.EDU
Each time she walks into her apartment, WKU student Ashley Cummings passes a wide variety of photos of herself and her 3-year-old daughter Adalyn placed on the walls and on her refrigerator door. Now, with the holidays nearing, a Christmas tree stands near the wall and stockings hang over the fireplace. When looking for an affordable place to live as a full-time student and single mom, Cummings found Bowling Greenâs Scholar House, a low income housing community for fulltime college students who attend WKU, Bowling Green Technical College and Daymar College and have a child. âItâs like a little community,â Cummings said. A lot of the neighbors in Cummingsâ building hang out or talk while the kids play on the playground. Two girls upstairs in her building even work with her at OâCharleyâs, Cummings said. The neighbors at Bowling Green Scholar House try to help each other out, like when they need someone to babysit. Cummings said she takes care of a boy, Gibson, for his mother while sheâs at her night class on Mondays. Angel Shoemake, a neighbor of Cummings, has a 13-month-old daughter. With being a new mother herself, Cummings has helped her with any problems she has had, she said. âSheâs been great at helping me out,â Shoemake said. Shoemake said she and Cummings often get together with their
My family was the number one thing that kept everything together.â WKU student Ashley Cummings daughters. âAdalyn is her big sister,â Shoemake said. Many undergraduate students today are raising children while earning their degree. In the U.S., 4.8 million undergraduate students are raising children; 2 million of those students are single mothers, according to the Institute for Womenâs Policy Research. Cummings found out she was pregnant at age 23. Cummings said after finding out, she called her mother, saying she needed to talk with her. Together on their front porch, Cummings told her mother she was pregnant. Both sobbed together, realizing a lot was about to change in their lives. With the biological father not in the picture, Cummingsâ family as a whole tried to do their best to support her. âMy family was the number one thing that kept everything together,â Cummings said. Her mother Kathy Garrison was a big help in her journey to becoming a mother. âGod doesnât make mistakes; there is a purpose for this baby,â Garrison
said. At Cummingsâ first doctorâs appointment, with her mother by her side, the doctor noticed pre-cancer cells in her cervix, Garrison said. The doctor told them if she had not come in, the cells would have gone unnoticed and she would have had cervical cancer. The doctor told the two women that the baby had saved Cummingsâ life. They couldnât do surgery until she had the baby, but once Cummings had her child and was healed from giving birth, she underwent a successful surgery to remove the cancer cells. âWe call little Adalyn our miracle baby,â Garrison said. Now, 3-years-old Adalyn has shown to be a kind, well-mannered and, energetic child, Garrison said. While Adalyn goes to her daycare, Cummings spends her day either doing laundry and homework or going to her classes for her elementary education major. Cummings found her love for teaching from her mother, who was also an elementary school teacher. Growing up as a child, she would pretend she was a teacher and even-
tually found a passion in it, she said. After switching schools from WKU to Bowling Green Technical College in 2012, then back to WKU in 2015, the 2016 Bowling Green Scholar Houseâs Patty Beasley Scholarship of $1,000 will help her complete the last year of classes she has to finish her degree, Cummings said. With classes, being a server at OâCharleyâs and taking care of Adalyn, Cummings hasnât found a lot of time for anything outside of her usual tasks. âIâm a home body; I used to party, but not anymore,â Cummings said. On typical nights Cummings spends her time playing with her daughter, doing crafts, watching movies or playing Frozen. Playing Frozen is one of Adalynâs favorite things to do. Adalyn will wear her light-up Elsa dress and run around mimicking Elsaâs movements in the music video played on Cummingsâ phone while she sings the movieâs hit song, âLet it Go.â Although time to time the days can become more stressful to Cummings, she copes with it, Katan Parker, Cummingsâ boyfriend, said. âNo matter what, she wakes up in the morning and gets the work she needs done, even if she clearly doesnât want to do it,â Parker said. Parker has two boys of his own, who come over a lot and play with Adalyn, Parker said. With the end of the fall semester nearing, many students may find themselves under stress with the responsibilities of school, work and home life. âItâs stressful, but at the end of the day you know you have to do it to make a better life,â Cummings said.