Student Spotlight: Fatimah Majors ’19

Fatimah Majors is a third-year student who is working with CCAR on a project surrounding food insecurity on college campuses — something that’s not really talked about, but definitely should be. Read more to learn about Fatimah and her work in the community.

Year of Graduation: 2019

Major: Applied Psychology

 

Being involved in my community made me realize that there are so many opportunities I can take part in that will help me in the future…

 

What exactly do you do with CCAR?

I basically work with them to research topics. Right now I’m doing food insecurity on college campuses.

What exactly is food insecurity? Can you explain that a little more?

So basically college students are known to not eat as healthy because they don’t have enough [money] on their meal plan or they’re not making enough money, household wise, so they are starving themselves and not buying textbooks in order to buy food instead. They’re making big sacrifices in order to eat (or not to eat).

That’s something I didn’t even realize had a term. We’re so used to it that we just accept it and think, ”Oh well, this is just a part of college and being a college student.”

Yeah, most people don’t realize but it’s pretty bad.

How did you get involved with CCAR?

I got involved because I started volunteering with them at their events so I got a background about what they do. I was very interested so I applied for a job.

When you applied, did you apply for this position in particular or did you apply for something else and this was something that came along instead?

I applied for the administrative coordinator position which is basically the job where you sit in the office and do the background work for programs and events. Since I didn’t get that position, this position fell in place of that.

What does being involved in your community mean to you? How important is it to you?

I think it’s very important to me. I didn’t realize that before I came to Pace. Being involved in my community made me realize that there are so many opportunities I can take part in that will help me in the future, especially in my field of psychology [when it comes to] interacting with people and understanding them and their behaviors. Being a part of my community helped me gain those transferable skills.

What does CCAR itself mean to you?

I think [the values of CCAR] go hand in hand with my personality because I love giving back to the community that I’m in. I like interacting with people on different standpoints which is cool because CCAR does events on politics. I have experience with those types of things and it goes hand in hand with my personal goals as a psychologist and understanding different people’s opinions and beliefs.

What are some things you’ve done with CCAR or on your own time as a student leader and advocate?

I try to participate in [as many] Common Hour Conversations as I can but sometimes my schedule doesn’t permit me to do so. I do go to the programs like when we went to the Pleasantville Cottage School. That was fun, we got to interact with the kids and play games with them. We were decorating for Christmas so it was very cute. I interact with CCAR not just for my position but for the volunteer opportunities too.

Last year, I was the Vice President of Martin Hall. This year, I’m a programming member. I’m also the Vice President of the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH). I volunteered at Hope’s Door, a domestic violence shelter. I worked as a child-care provider — basically, my job was to babysit the children while their parents go to counseling — and that was a lot of fun. I also volunteer at soup kitchens back home.

 

Keep an eye out for the results of Fatimah’s food insecurity project coming soon!