Leadership and Awareness | An Interview with Raven Wilson

My name is Raven Wilson. I am a Junior, and I am majoring in English. I am chair of our Student Activities Committee. I am the president of a new organization that was formed this February, called AREA. I am in Gospel Choir, and I work for the Learning Hub. I am from Decatur, Illinois.

I was born with—it's very rare—it's called optic nerve coloboma. And so basically my optic nerve in both eyes wasn't formed all the way. When I was little I had some sight and I could read large print, I could see color… But as I got older it lessened to where now I can see light and shadows, and that's pretty much it.

AREA, it stands for awareness, respect, education, and ability. And what we do is we spread inclusionary attitudes about people with disabilities. We do this through activities that allow people to kind of experience how it feels to have a disability. And we really focus on the abilities, rather than the limits, of people who have disabilities.

At the end of the day, people who have disabilities, they want the same things. They have the same abilities, they just have to do it in a different way. And so it's just trying to get people to understand that different doesn't mean less able, doesn't mean anything bad or negative. It just means a different way of doing things.

There are a great amount of leadership opportunities, I think. And I think it's great. I really feel like I've grown because when I first got here, I was shy. I just did homework and that's about it. Maybe went to a couple of events. But I think being able to have these leadership opportunities, it's broken me out of my shell. You know, I feel like I'm getting a lot more out of my college experience, and I felt maybe, you know, my first semester of college when I was just doing work and trying to get a feel for everything.

UIS has taught me that being a leader isn't about being perfect, isn't about doing everything completely right all the time. But it's about giving your all. I would still choose UIS because it's a community. It's more than just a school; it's a community where people are allowed to grow and to develop. Everyone is very helpful, and everyone has the same goal and mindset. And that's really rare to find in any other places. So that's why I would do UIS again if I had to make the choice again.

Transcribed on 2/25/2023