Alumna starts new chapter

When COVID brought many things to a halt in 2020, students at Messiah were still attending classes online. Something English major Annabelle Dionisio ’23 had to figure out was a way to get more student engagement through social media as a member of the Multicultural Council (MCC).

So, in order to create a sense of community online, she started doing weekly Instagram lives to connect with her peers through the MCC Instagram account. Almost three years later, she sat as the MCC chair.

Being a Martin Scholar, she says the multicultural programs and multicultural scholarships influenced her decision to come to Messiah.

“Multicultural programs are important at universities because they exist in a space that strikes such a delicate balance between being a safe space and being an educational resource,” she said. “MCC is a student-led club that is community-oriented. This includes being a familiar familial space for multicultural, international and students of color, as well as a welcoming space for the cultural majority of campus. Multicultural programs are often the lifeblood of global majority communities on university campuses. It is where students, advocates for themselves, may hopefully be heard and prioritized.”

Her work for MCC as a freshman and sophomore led to her election as president of the Asian Student Association (ASA) and eventually her position as MCC chair her senior year. As chair, she planned events, attended cabinet meetings and met with student groups.

Her goal for MCC this past year was to figure out what multicultural students are still wanting out of the program.

“I saw this year as seeing what we have done; what has worked; and either holding onto it and improving it; or moving on from it,” she said. “We were also seeing a rise in student engagement in MCC events, and there’s an increase of multicultural students coming to Messiah. We saw that there was more of a need of MCC.”

Dionisio also wanted to see more engagement among the clubs under the MCC umbrella: the African Student Union (ASU), ASA, Black Student Union (BSU), Caribbean Student Association (CSA), International Student Association (ISA) and La Alianza Latina (LAL).

“I wanted there to be more connections between cabinets and club members,” she said. “We’ve gotten to a really good place where you can go to a club member’s meeting, but around the room it’s a beautifully diverse group. That’s brought me a lot of joy, seeing the support that these clubs have for one another. We’re starting to develop traditions that we didn’t know we had.”

In addition to majoring in English, she spent four years studying to be a teacher through the teaching certification program. “I feel passionate about education,” she said, “and I feel called to education, but with English, I just love it. I’m also passionate about it but more in a sense of a personal growth thing for me. Teaching is a bit more of a vocation.”

She says her philosophy of education is based around a culturally sustaining pedagogy. Centered on the histories, languages, literacies and cultures of Black, indigenous and students of color, the philosophy indicates that those aspects of their lives are not just an addendum, but something that is relevant and active in teaching and assessing.

Inside her future classroom, she hopes to foster a creative, playful, but respectful environment. “I think that the classroom is kind of the rehearsal before you go on stage of real life. What happens in the classroom is still real and power structures outside the classroom are replicated inside the classroom. But it’s a bit safer, a bit more insular, a bit more private. I think the classroom is a place where students can try,” she said.

She says an English classroom should be more than just teaching students how to read Shakespeare. “It’s not just telling them synonyms and antonyms, SAT words. It’s meant to teach students how to converse with one another and how to express themselves and do it well,” she said.

After shadowing and student teaching in urban schools, she looks forward to working in a Harrisburg school after graduation. Mostly, she’s just excited to jump into working as a teacher full time. “When I’m in the classroom amongst my students, I get really excited,” she said. “Even if I’m exhausted, even if it’s a really hard day. At the end of the day, I have this experience with other people, and we are going to learn something whether we like it or not.”

— Molly McKim ’23

 Sidebar:

What’s new for the 2023-2024 academic year

As the new chair of the Multicultural Council (MCC), Kiersten Gilmore ’24 will oversee the cabinet members of the African Student Union, Asian Student Association, Black Student Union, Caribbean Student Association, La Alianza Latina and the International Student Association.

“For me, MCC can be easily described in one word, and that word is ‘family,’” said Gilmore, who previously served as the president of the Black Student Union. “Our job on campus is to create a safe space for students of color to thrive.”

Gilmore started at Messiah in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, when MCC wasn’t able to meet and operate at full capacity. In light of watching the MCC regain its footing during her college experience, she came up with a fitting theme.

“We will be focusing on the word ‘legacy’ for the duration of this year and how we can actively be the change that we want to see on campus and in our society. This theme came about because we quickly realized that every student that is now involved with MCC doesn’t know what the organization looked like prior to the pandemic. This year will be the year that we create the foundation and set the trajectory for the years to come,” she explained.

In addition to a summer renovation of the MCC office/safe space and the planning of the International Gala, Gilmore has a lot of plans.

“Some things that you can expect from MCC this year are open council discussions that are based on current events that are happening around the world, members meetings focused on educating our student body and events that have been created to celebrate and appreciate the legacy of each of our cultures,” she said.

Getting involved in MCC is easy. Students can follow @multiculturalcouncil on Instagram, and each club is listed in the highlights of the main page.

“Everyone is invited to come to our meetings and events, regardless of race or ethnicity,” said Gilmore. “I think that parents of potential students should know how family-oriented MCC is. We are going to be in their student’s corner for the entirety of their Messiah career.”

— Anna Seip