Alexa Proffitt: How Identity Can Be a Tool for Advocacy
Alexa Proffitt | she/her/hers | CLAS ‘12
B.A. in Women & Gender Studies and Foreign Affairs
Alexa Proffitt grew up less than 100 miles away from UVA in Richmond, VA, but never had the chance to visit the University prior to enrolling. Orientation was the first time Alexa set foot on grounds and it was the first time she was able to see what UVA would be like. As a student who was drawn to UVA by the in-state affordability and the institution’s prestige, Alexa was overwhelmed by the lack of socioeconomic and racial diversity at UVA. The atmosphere on Grounds was very different than the one she was accustomed to in Richmond.
Living in the new dorms with many first-generation college students, Alexa realized how different the first-gen college student experience is. Although she was not a first-gen student, she understood how difficult it can be to navigate a new social landscape, as Alexa herself had to quickly adjust to the way the University functioned. Things like signing up for classes, buying books, or dropping a course were all new concepts she had not personally experienced before. She felt that her high school and others like it did students a disservice by not adequately preparing them for the academic rigor of schools like UVA.
Going into UVA, Alexa knew that it was a good school and that it would be a means through which she could provide for her family in the long run. In addition to her education, Alexa gained a clear understanding of the ways people of color as a community must challenge systems of power. While Alexa was a student, only 3% of the student population was Latinx. Not only was student diversity limited, but there were very few people of color represented among UVA faculty. With few representatives amongst UVA administrators, students of color became their own advocates, a heavy burden to bear.
For Latinx students, it seemed as though they were taking steps forward just to take steps back. The 2008-09 school year was the first in several where the University did not have a Dean representing the Hispanic/Latinx student population. Ongoing conversations about replacing the previous dean went nowhere. Though no Dean was rehired, the Office of the Dean of Students maintained connections with a group of Latinx student leaders known as La Alianza. However, this relationship was not equivalent to having an official advocate. Alianza separated from the Dean’s Office at the end of the school year, and merged with the Latino Student Union to become the Latino Student Alliance (LSA), renamed Latinx Student Alliance in 2017.
During Alexa’s time at UVA, there were two primary issues she and other students were focused on. The first was advocating for a living wage. Alexa recognized the many ways the University dominated the socioeconomic landscape of Charlottesville. There is a stark imbalance between the population of Charlottesville and the UVA student population. Of particular importance to the Latinx student community, was pushing the University to change its policies on admitting undocumented students.
As a Women and Gender Studies and Foreign Affairs double major, Alexa was often the only Chicana student in many of her classes. Her four years at UVA emphasized the way higher education poses a barrier for students of color. The information gaps that posed problems for first-gen students were only exacerbated by the lack of representation in the classroom. In her women’s studies classes, for example, the only perspectives presented were those of white feminists. Alexa was frequently troubled by the way white professors would dehumanize black and brown people. The same lapses in the Women and Gender Studies department were also present in the politics department which at the time had no Latinx faculty. These struggles and challenges with representation led Alexa to a deeply personal exploration of her own identity. She found it burdensome to always feel like a representative, tasked with the responsibility of being a model minority while internalizing and processing other’s ignorance. The questions she kept coming back to were the analyses of who held power in systems of higher education. Her experience in the classroom solidified for Alexa the ways in which her identity could be used to advocate and inspire change in the power dynamics of the status quo.
Outside of the classroom, Alexa sought leadership opportunities and ways to make an impact as a student at UVA. She served as both a participant and peer leader in the Blueprint Emerging Leaders Program. Blueprint was founded to give first- and second-year students an opportunity to work collaboratively on developing their leadership skills. Alexa used her involvement to give other Latinx and minority students exposure to such opportunities. She wanted to see them exploring positions of leadership and making changes at the University outside of ethnic community groups. Though she was actively engaged, Alexa remembers as a student who also had to work part-time, she felt she had to pick and choose which extracurriculars were a priority. Thus, she chose to be involved in the areas she felt she could make the most change and would propel her toward achieving her goals.
“It solidified how I was going to use my identity to advocate in spaces of power that I could get into”
Socially, the University was as divided as in the classroom. Alexa recognized that certain spaces weren’t as welcoming to students of color. She found refuge within the Latinx student community. LSA united students with similar backgrounds and experiences. Her passion for the cause propelled Alexa to serve as both secretary and president of LSA during her four years at UVA. Alexa felt that as minority students, the emotional toll of being isolated in a space dominated by majority culture was a lot to manage. Parties and social gatherings were a time to have and share the joy in a space that often brought trauma and pain. Alexa also found respite in going downtown which was always a soothing escape from the UVA bubble. It offered an opportunity to engage in a world beyond UVA’s cultural reach. It helped that the downtown mall offered an array of great restaurants and the weekly farmer’s market.
“LSA was my tether to surviving that space”
Today, Alexa wants to make sure that minority students like herself have answers to the questions she had as a student. She wants to ensure that they have an understanding of how systems of power in higher education operate. From an institutional standpoint, she hopes to see more proactivity from the administration regarding the issues impacting minority students. Representation means everything to Alexa who went on to become a teacher after graduation and is now completing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Learning & Teaching to become a professor and change the cycle in higher education. By holding positions of power in education, Alexa believes she will have the power to give others access to things that were unavailable previously. Her educational experience is drastically different now and carries a different weight because of the handful of Chicana professors in her Ph.D. program. It has changed the way she engages with learning and recognizes how identity influences the lens through which educators teach. Alexa found it detrimental to go so long without representative faculty and believes that the longevity and prosperity of students of color are dependent upon investments in faculty of color.
“I can’t let future students be in the same position of vulnerability”
Conversations of race and power have evolved in the eight years since Alexa graduated. Since 2012, the University has found itself in the spotlight on several occasions regarding issues of race, power, gender, and climate. The goal for the future is to show the necessary powers that they should care and act because it benefits the student population, not just because of what it means for publicity and image. This is not limited to students of color. Alexa believes that the University has a responsibility to the greater Charlottesville community upon which it has had a huge socio-economic impact. In her vision, this would mean a demonstrated desire to work for and with the community and an institutional prioritization of historically marginalized groups.
