Student Profile: Djenabou Diallo
From Debate, to Student Council to working a job, Djenabou (pronounced Jen-a-boo) Diallo leads a busy life. But as a Social Change Intern she took on another commitment because of how programs like these can impact both her future and the future of her community. We caught up with Djenabou to see what life is like for her now, and how the Social Change Internship program is impacting her life and future.
Djenabou and the Interact club.
Q: What’s going on in your life right now?
A: I'm involved in a lot of school activities. I'm a sophomore representative for the Student Council. I'm a part of Speech and Debate as an officer. I am also a team officer for Interact Club, which is like a student-led volunteer club. As for my job, I work as a soccer referee at Sporting Brookside.
Q: What do you want to do after high school?
A: My goal is to become a lawyer and I feel like Speech and Debate will help me a lot. I’m not entirely sure what kind of law I want to practice but I feel like that’s where my skills could best be used. I like to write and read and help people and I feel like it's important to really build relationships with your community and be involved. You're not just there, you're actively getting people, helping them.
Q: What led you to apply to the Social Change Internship?
Debate and other activities offer chances to improve skills and win competitions.
A: It was actually my Debate coach who recommended it to me. After looking at it, I saw that it was about social change. I just felt like that was different from regular internships and I can actually create change. There are things that are important to me but specifically racism and xenophobia. Coming from a family of immigrants – black immigrants – I understand that struggle and how it directly impacts people.
Young people are the future. The earlier we get people involved the better it looks for us in the long run. We're going to be the next leaders so it's best to learn more about these issues and actually have a say in what’s new and become more involved. I'm going to develop that mentality from a very early age. We offer a different perspective and that’s one worth hearing.
Everybody has a different mindset and perspective. I think they're all important to take into account, especially young people because we do make up a large amount of the population. A lot of these issues do actually affect us.
Q: How has SCI impacted your life?
A: SCI has kind of opened my eyes and I feel like I have a new way of thinking. Design thinking, that's a new way of thinking. That's one thing I've learned from it. I also got a lot of relationships and connections through it and honestly, it's just been really great. Those relationships and connections are important to me because I honestly feel like that's the best way to keep moving forward. You can't really realistically do everything by yourself and just having a community you can rely on to help guide you is incredibly important. Nurturing is something that every leader should do.
Djenabou and some other STUCO members
Q: Tell me about the project you and your team worked on for SCI.
A: Our solution was to have a job fair specifically targeting immigrants with developing English skills. That wasn’t actually the problem we were initially trying to tackle. At first we were talking about housing and considering things like a language service and stuff, but we realized that a lot of those things were already taken care of and we couldn't really handle that ourselves. I think we were brainstorming one day and someone mentioned something about a job fair, and we thought it was a really great idea so we built on that.
We talked to immigrant community business owners and we talked about it with our families. Talking to them motivated us to keep the idea community based. Now we’re talking about contacting people we met at the showcase, our networks and planning on trying to do the job fair in the spring or summer.
Q: What would you say to encourage students to apply for this internship?
A: I think it’s a stepping stone, a great place to start. It’s something that you genuinely care about. You choose the topic you want to address and you choose the solution you want to do. You work with people who have similar goals. You have a lot of say over what you do. No one is telling you to do this or do that. You have creative authority to fully flesh out what you want to do.
Q: Why is it important that young people see adults investing in them?
A: I think it builds and shows that people actually do care. That adults, people you look up to, take you seriously and that you do have someone who can help and guide you. Being taken seriously matters. Seeing adults who are willing to invest their time into these ideas tells us that this is something we CAN do, it helps you think about your potential like I can be what I want to be.
Q: Tell me about a time that you were recently inspired by someone or something.
A: I saw a video about a girl who started a business. She just went ahead and did it. She didn’t kid around or whatever. That fired me up because I also want to start a business and I think that has me fired up to just stop being in my head about things and just do things. Just do it. I want to start a jewelry business and she has inspired me to stop thinking about it and to just do the thing.
Q: What’s your favorite type of Pop-Tarts?
A: The cookies and cream one!
