When it comes to choosing a college, many students factor in the college's campus life and their organizations. Hamline does have a diverse campus life, whether that be through the community of not just the faculty and staff but also their students and the various cultural and diversity organizations on campus.
In an article previously written about being a minority on campus, something that resonated with me was that while Hamline does have a diverse student body, there are times when, it still feels isolated, even though there are various cultural organizations on campus. However, though I can only speak on my experiences, I am sure that everyone has felt this feeling whether now or sometime in the past.
As I stated before, there are various student cultural and diversity organizations on campus that any student can join. One of those organizations that stood out to me personally was Hamline’s Indigenous People’sSociety (HIPS). The main reason this organization stood out to me was that it was the first organization on campus that I could connect to culturally. While the organization is made up of students from various tribes, there's still that sense of connection there. While our traditions may be similar in certain ways and different in others, they still gave me that sense of belonging that helped me flourish in high school.
During my first year here, I never really heard about HIPS. while other cultural and diversity organizations had posters up about various events, I barely recalled seeing one about HIPS. The funny thing is before the end of the spring semester last academic year there was an email that was sent out about the organization starting up again in the 2024-2025 academic year and was looking for students to join its board. Fast forward to last semester, I attended one of their meetings and eventually joined the organization. While we have only hosted a few events, it gave me that sense of belonging and familiarity that I was surrounded with outside of my academics.
Yes, some will say that that feeling is something everyone experiences in their first year because we are shifting from seeing our friends and classmates in a confined space every single day of the week to maybe only a couple of times during the week whether that be in classes or just on campus. And to a certain point, I do agree that this is something you do have to get used to in life but that isolating feeling never does anyone any good, no matter where you are in life. We all want to have a space or community where we feel like we belong and can be understood, whether that be culturally, spiritually or socially. No one likes to feel like it is them against the world, even though current events sometimes make us feel like that.
For me, HIPS provides me with that space in my academic life where I can embrace part of my identity with others who have both similar and different experiences with their indigeneity. And while that is not to say that I do not embrace my identity in other spaces, HIPS gives me a place where it does not feel like I am the token or only person talking about being indigenous, which is a small fear of mine. Despite this fear, I do try to highlight important or cool events that are happening in the Indigenous community to some of my peers given that our campus is not that far from Minneapolis, especially the Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC) which hosts a variety of events that are open to the public, not just Indigenous individuals. In addition, I like sharing fascinating and interesting parts of my culture with others, because as I have gotten older I have embraced more of my culture and do not plan on stopping anytime soon.
If there is one thing I hope anyone takes away from this article is that no matter what, on campus or off, we all want a space where we feel like we have connections and belong. For some that is through not only the different cultural and diversity organizations on campus but all of the student organizations. Despite not being a part of all of them, I see the connections through the various events each one holds not only for its organization members but also for the staff and student body. Each event invites us all to take the time out of our day and just exist with others we might not see due to our own personal circles and schedules. Sometimes these events could just be hanging out and watching a movie, holding performances or learning something new.