Adriana Carolina Suarez: Struggling to Find Support
Adriana Carolina Suarez | she/her/hers | CLAS ‘16
B.A. in Spanish and Psychology
Adriana’s journey to UVA echoes the sentiments of many other interviews--she didn’t know anything about the University going into her college admissions process. Born in Venezuela, Adriana and her mom moved to Miami, FL when she was nine years-old. Her mom wanted to give her a better life and a better future, and always encouraged her daughter to be a good student. Her mom believed that education was the avenue to better life opportunities, but she was generally unfamiliar with the higher education process in the U.S. and couldn’t help Adriana as she searched for her next step.
It was Adriana’s high school guidance counselor who was able to introduce her to the Questbridge Scholars Program, and through that program she was able to apply to over 20 schools. When she got a full-ride to UVA, she committed without thinking. The full-ride took the pressure off of her single mom who couldn’t afford to help with tuition, but she didn’t recognize how rewarding or prestigious the academics would be until she moved in later that year.
Transitioning into life at UVA wasn’t easy, though. With her mom in another country at the time, she had to move into her dorm completely on her own. The culture shock was real, too. Feeling more comfortable speaking in Spanish, she found herself using Google translate in the dining hall to tell them what to put on her sandwich, forgetting some words and terms and generally feeling like she couldn’t express herself. Noting the general trends around her, she tried to adapt by first trying to fit in. She is a little embarrassed about it now, but she even bought boat shoes to mold herself into what she saw other UVA students wearing--she remembers how painful they were to break in, but they were part of her effort to find a place. But then when she returned home during breaks, her family made fun of her for not speaking Spanish as well as she used to after her brain had gotten so used to working and thinking in English.
There existed a tension between the identity Adriana tried to carve out for herself at UVA, and the one she felt she might be losing at home. She noticed a lack of Latinos on Grounds, and she remembers feeling lonely because of it. She thought taking Spanish classes would revitalize part of her heritage, but found it had almost the opposite effect. She was often the only Latina in the room, and the other students often looked down on her for being there because they thought her presence would demand a higher caliber of work from them. Adriana scoffs at this, as the class was a grammar course and she didn’t necessarily have complete confidence in her grammar, but the experience was very hurtful for her.
In terms of her involvement and friendships outside of the classroom, Adriana remarks that you have to find your people at UVA in order to get through it. For her, finding that community happened naturally. Feeling as though she didn’t have a lot in common with the others in her dorm, Adriana attempted to find a home by going to Latino parties and LSA events, but during Spring Blast of her first-year, she met a third-year who told her about a sorority, Sigma Lambda Upsilon/Señoritas Latinas Unidas Sorority, Inc. (SLU), that she founded the Alpha Rho chapter with three other women. Adriana remembered fondly hearing the Señoritas at the Fall Activities Fair blasting music from their table, so during her second-year she joined--and says now that it brought her the Latino world she hadn’t yet been able to see.
Becoming part of this sisterhood was a “complete 180” for her. She went from feeling somewhat lost in her identity to being surrounded by women of a similar background with similar difficulties. She saw how strong-minded they were, and alongside them found a sense of purpose and mission within herself. She began to recognize that she wanted to change the circumstances around her. She thought, “I am not okay with how UVA treats minority students...but what am I going to do to change it?” and felt there was a power in thinking about how she could take action to bring awareness to the experience of students like her.
The campus climate at the time was “intense for a number of reasons.” Adriana attended UVA during a tumultuous time, especially in the ways certain events disrupted student life. She says the student sense of security and safety vanished after Hannah Graham’s disappearance and murder. Beyond Charlottesville, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was also growing, and at UVA there was palpable tension between supporters and non-supporters. Minority students, Adriana says, were unapologetic about what they stood for, but the more general population didn’t seem as receptive to the cause at the time. She remembers marching for the Living Wage campaign, pressuring UVA to pay its workers and uncovering the history UVA was “hiding for all these years.”
Most poignantly for Adriana’s experience was the infamous, and now retracted, Rolling Stone article on a sexual assault case at UVA. This case precipitated a number of difficulties for Adriana’s sorority, because before the details of the article and the case were uncovered, the administration cracked down on all Greek life, not taking into account the differences that existed between the different councils.
She felt like SLU got the worst of everything during that time. At UVA, four greek councils make up the 30% of students who get involved. The Inter-Fraternity Council and the Inter-Sorority Council are historically and predominantly white organizations, and they are also the organizations that tend to have houses off of or farther down Rugby Road.
By contrast, the National Panhellenic Council (NPHC), which are historically black organizations, and the Multicultural Greek Council (MGC) do not have houses off-grounds. This is mainly a result of lack of funding and resources, and when organizations from these councils want to host social events or off-Grounds parties they often have to rent space from one of the IFC fraternities.
This led to a lot of tension after the Rolling Stone article, because despite the fact that the negative culture in question was a prominent issue at IFC parties, sororities like SLU were also held under fire. Across the board, the effects were asymmetrical. Administration was doing what it felt needed to be done in response to the horrific allegations, but in doing so it disproportionately affected its more vulnerable multicultural spaces. These organizations tended to focus more of their energy on community service and outreach, but the probation on greek life meant their plans for that year couldn’t be carried out.
In an effort to push back, Adriana took part in a meeting with then UVA President Teresa Sullivan, and found out that Sullivan wasn’t aware many of these nuances even existed. Whereas more established, longer-standing greek organizations could weather the storm surrounding the article, SLU didn’t have as many resources to do so as a younger sorority.
With regards to institutional history, Adriana recognizes the importance of advocating for student spaces and remembrances for diverse history. She remembers clamoring around the stairs by her first-year dorm, Dillard, in order to see a tiny plaque acknowledging enslaved laborers at UVA. She didn’t understand why conversations around those issues weren’t centered, and why some histories were considered more important than others. She expresses gratitude for the student efforts of today, including the efforts to collect histories like her own, but she wishes it could have been sooner so that students like her could have felt welcome and included sooner, rather than needing to force UVA to see them.
Kayla and Adriana share a moment of celebration for the opening of the Latinx Student Center on the third floor of Newcomb Hall earlier this year. The original Multicultural Student Center’s location in the basement angered her--it made students feel hidden from the public eye and from the prospective students they wanted to attract, and it also simply wasn’t big enough to accommodate all of their communities. Adriana is excited for what the new Center means for new students, and how it can help them believe they truly belong at UVA.
Adriana believes there were a number of ways UVA could have better supported marginalized students while she was there, and her ideas for first-generation students revolve around engaging parents more--whether it be with increased effort to expand Spanish-language materials, or helping take pressure off of students by engaging with parents. In the future, she hopes there can even be a Latino Alumni Weekend, and that academics can expand to further integrate multiculturalism.
She also hopes academics can expand to further integrate multiculturalism. She especially enjoyed her course with Allison Bigelow on Indigenous Studies, and thinks it was the first time she was challenged to change her perspective on how history is taught and how important it is to centralize the voices of marginalized identities.
Her favorite memories at UVA include Lighting of the Lawn and spending time there in general--all the warm days where Lawnies would have their doors open and it would feel like a big family party.
Overall, Suarez emphasizes that her time at UVA expanded her horizons professionally and personally. She expected to attend college to get her degree, and that was it. For one, she ended up learning so much more about her culture, something she took for granted in Miami. She also felt challenged by her courses and the issues that defined her advocacy.
She still uses the “absorb as much as you can” learning mentality that UVA gave her when she thinks about her identity as a POC, a woman, and an immigrant, and credits that critical thinking for where she is now. Today, Suarez is working as a program coordinator for an immigrant affairs unit. She essentially helps the DA’s investigate ways immigrants are being targeted, and in that role she brings the same passion and knowledge she refined as a UVA student.
