The 2020-2021 school year has been a learning experience for all of us. Amid the chaos, senior Onose Ijewere has used her inspiration from family and life experience to build a positive community here on campus.
Ijewere is pursuing a degree in nursing, as well as minors in biology and chemistry. She has plans to pursue medical school in the future, but is also interested in spending a year as a nurse before attending.
On top of her academics, she is President of the Multicultural Student Council (MSC), serves as VP of Diversity and inclusion for SGA and holds a seat on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion council, a campus wide initiative founded last summer to address discrimination on campus.
Ijewere is also an active member of Omicron Delta Kappa and Sigma Theta Tau, honor societies that recognize academic excellence. Ijewere can be spotted giving tours as a Southern Ambassador or working in the Simmons center.
Ijewere shared how important her work on campus is to her, explaining it has a lot to do with helping people and giving voices to others. One thing she is particularly proud of is the forming of the Black Student Union at FSC.
“Seeing Black people come together on campus has been so powerful and beautiful,” says Ijewere.
She went on to share that she strives to create a community for others who felt like their voices weren’t being heard.
Ijewere was born in Florida, but moved to Nigeria when she was 7. Back in Florida for college, she mentioned the culture shock was an adjustment.
“I came here from Nigeria and nobody looked like me, spoke like me, nobody really understood me,” Ijewere said. “I wanted other people who felt misunderstood or overwhelmed by the culture shock to have a safe space to grow.”
In her free time she loves spending time with friends, dancing and teaching people about how to take care of natural hair, which she shares on her instagram account. Inspired by her family to spread positivity and work hard, she continues to do that here in the FSC community.