From the president
Dasia Bandy, a junior at George Washington University, emerged as a student leader in her first year at GW in the Civic House Scholars program, an academic residential program focused on service and community engagement. Through Civic House Scholars, she had the opportunity to explore multiple pathways of service, including direct volunteerism, social entrepreneurship, community engaged research, policy analysis, and others. In later years, she went on to facilitate the peer-mentor aspect of the program, planning professional development events and training her peers to be effective mentors to the new class of students. She has also been involved in advocacy and governance, first on campus as a student government senator, and now in Washington, DC, as an elected representative in DC’s system of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. She now represents not only the concerns of GW students but also the other residents in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood (District 2A07). Dasia is committed to a life of civic leadership. She is passionate about racial equity, and issues related to representation for women and people from marginalized racial groups.
Personal Statement
I first became involved in addressing and advocating issues of education inequality by volunteering at my local youth center to tutor younger students that did not have the resources and access to additional help when needed. As I became more involved in addressing the inequities in education, I found a specific interest in racial inequities in the education system for youth and educational inequities for military veterans. On campus, I led a proposal for the addition of a human diversity requirement to the general education curriculum, as a student senator in the student government, to help students understand diverse perspectives by engaging them in a rigorous critical analysis of racial, ethnic, and other identity-based differences. of our student service organizations that raises money and organizes volunteers for the homeless shelter in town. I also am involved in community efforts as an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for the Foggy Bottom area of the District of Columbia to push legislation that would improve racial inequities in the District's public education system and to advocate for policy proposals that would provide greater assistance for integrating military veterans into civilian collegiate education systems.