From the president
Ashley is a Junior, Music major at Furman, with a passion for community engagement around equity and inclusion issues. For the last two years Ashley has served the campus community as a Title IX Peer Liaison and through “Paladin peer Support”, through which they support other Furman students through one-on-one mindfulness and mental health-focused coaching sessions. Ashley serves as Vice President of the national Service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, which has been actively working on urban housing and equity issues, as well as urban sustainability issues in the Greenville community. In their role as President of the Furman Pride Alliance (FPA), Ashley started by reaching out to other LBGTQIA+ organizations in the Greenville community. This approach has been positive for FPA with growing membership (now over 100) and increasingly active participation. Expanding their community network has improved the support FPA can deliver to its members, built new university connections with our broader community, and highlighted some gaps that need to be addressed on the journey to more inclusive communities. Ashely is a developing leader in an area of critical need. I look forward to hearing of their continued success and its benefits to the Furman community and beyond.
Personal Statement
I approach leadership through a lens of connection and understanding. I connect through direct communication, allowing me to understand the motives and actions of others. When I first came into a leadership role in the Furman Pride Alliance (FPA), I realized the disconnect and lack of progress across the LGBTQIA+ advocacy groups on campus. I reached out and connected with faculty and students working on their own to make a difference. I facilitated a meeting with all parties to discuss how we could work together and support each other’s efforts. I also make a direct effort to reach out to other leaders from different advocacy groups on campus to help them fight for justice. I’m dedicated to listening and learning from people that are different from me in any aspect of their identity. At Furman, I’ve worked hard to establish collaborative relationships between FPA and other marginalized groups. I plan to make these differences on a larger scale, bigger than Furman and bigger than South Carolina. I want to be a part of the global movement of change makers in my generation who are fighting for equality, justice, and a kinder world by bringing people together to make that change.