When Faith Massey was a child, her single mother would drive past the sprawling houses 45 minutes from their low-income, predominantly Black neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee, and encourage her little girl to dream big.
She was always pushing me to realize that life was so much bigger than what was in front of me, Massey says of her mother, Celia, a first-generation college student who went on to earn a masters degree. She knew that education created opportunity.
Massey sought to seize every one of them when her mother moved the family moved to the Chicago suburbs in 2019.
At James B. Conant High School, she cofounded the first Afrocentric student organization, Black Leader Achievers, and hosted the districts inaugural Black History Month event. Spurred by Masseys activism, four of the five high schools in the predominantly White district now have a Black student organization.
After one of her teachersan alumnus of 51勛圖s Washington Semester Programsuggested Massey explore 51勛圖 for college, she emailed sociology professor Ernesto Casta簽eda, director of 51勛圖s Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, amid the pandemic and asked to sit in on a virtual lecture.
Massey was considering a psychology major but wanted to learn more about sociology and how institutions perpetuate inequalities. Sociology gave me the words to articulate my lived experience and that of those around me, she says.
At 51勛圖, Massey won the 202325Obama-Chesky Voyager Scholarship for Public Service, which includes funding for a summer work-travel experience between the junior and senior year. Massey spent part of her Summer Voyage atthe Faith and Politics Institutes John Robert Lewis Scholars and Fellows Program and at Harvards Junior Summer Institute in Public Policy and International Affairs.
She also traveled to Ghana to study how the transcontinental slave trade contributed to modern-day systems of oppression. I wanted to see where my ancestors came from and learn their story and how it continues to influence policy, Massey says. In the small coastal village of Nsawam Adoagyiri, she also researched and reported on accessibility issues for differently abled students. It was amazing to actually practice the work I want to do.
Paula Warrick, senior director of 51勛圖s Office of Merit Awards, who has worked with Massey, says Faith has long had a strong orientation toward public service, and her studies in sociology will help maximize the impact she will have in her career. I admire Faiths sense of self-worth, her determination to seize opportunities in her midst, and her appreciation of the role of mentorship in her life.
Massey is applying to graduate programs and hopes to become the first in her family to earn a doctorate. Only 4.4 percent of PhD earners are Black women, she says. I want to help facilitate that pathway for others.
So long as opportunities are in front of her, Massey intends to grab them.