Committed to Social Justice

Two North­eastern Uni­ver­sity stu­dents have been named to Oxfam America’s Change Ini­tia­tive, a pro­gram aimed at fur­thering the human­i­tarian organization’s mis­sion to right the wrongs of poverty, hunger, and social injus­tice through campus projects and programs.

Peyton Perry and Taj Akin­bode will spend the 2016–17 aca­d­emic year working as Change Leaders to raise aware­ness of these issues among the North­eastern com­mu­nity, har­nessing their pas­sion for human­i­tarian work and social change to spear­head spe­cial events for stu­dents, fac­ulty, and staff.

Perry, E’20, and Akin­bode, SSH’17, were two of only 26 col­lege stu­dents nation­wide to be selected for the pro­gram. As human­i­tar­ians with hun­dreds of hours of com­mu­nity ser­vice work under their belts, they are pre­pared to tackle the chal­lenges ahead. Perry cur­rently vol­un­teers for Jump­start, an Ameri­Corps pro­gram that trains col­lege stu­dents to mentor preschool-​​aged chil­dren. During the aca­d­emic year, she works with kids at the Parker Hill-​​Fenway Head Start pro­gram in Boston’s Mis­sion Hill neigh­bor­hood, helping them improve their lit­eracy and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills.

Akinbode’s resumé reads like the cur­riculum vitae of the quin­tes­sen­tial altruist, a who’s who of campus and com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tions: He’s cur­rently the com­mu­nity ser­vice coor­di­nator of Northeastern’s Islamic Society and the director of oper­a­tions and strategy for Africans in Boston; in the past, he’s served as an orga­nizing member of the fifth annual Mil­len­nium Campus Con­fer­ence and vol­un­teered for Habitat for Humanity to rebuild homes that were destroyed by Hur­ri­cane Katrina.

“I want to be a force for good for North­eastern, my com­mu­nity, and the world as a whole,” said Akin­bode, reflecting on his rea­sons for wanting to be part of the Change Ini­tia­tive. “I am familiar with many of the soci­etal ills that Oxfam works to improve and I am excited to help bring the organization’s mis­sion to the uni­ver­sity.” Noted Perry: “As a change leader, I hope to open the eyes of the North­eastern com­mu­nity to human­i­tarian issues that many of us are so often blind to.”

Com­mu­nity building

Both stu­dents bring a unique set of qual­i­fi­ca­tions to the Change Ini­tia­tive, per­sonal and aca­d­emic expe­ri­ences that make them stand out among their peers in the pro­gram. Perry is a second-​​year bio­engi­neering major, one of the only par­tic­i­pants to study hard sci­ence. She wants to go to med­ical school with an eye toward working for Doc­tors Without Bor­ders, a lofty goal that dove­tails with her pas­sion for com­mu­nity ser­vice and her keen interest in Oxfam America. “When I was younger, my family wasn’t very well off, and I got to see how vol­un­teers helped to improve my life through small acts of kind­ness,” said Perry, who grew up in Nor­wich, Con­necticut. “Now I really enjoy helping others.”

Yelana Loiselle, Perry’s Jump­start super­visor, believes that the young humanitarian’s team­work skills, orga­ni­za­tional acumen, and com­mit­ment to ser­vice will make her an invalu­able member of the Change Ini­tia­tive. “In addi­tion to being mature and respon­sible,” Loiselle wrote in her letter of rec­om­men­da­tion to Oxfam, “she has also helped to create a pos­i­tive team and class­room cul­ture by devel­oping rela­tion­ships with her team­mates, chil­dren she served, class­room teachers, and the par­ents of Jump­start children.”

Akin­bode grew up in Nigeria, where he wit­nessed the scourge of poverty first­hand. He wants to parlay his per­sonal experience—as well as his intel­lec­tual curiosity as a fourth-​​year eco­nomics and inter­na­tional affairs com­bined major—into a career in inter­na­tional devel­op­ment. The way he sees it, working as a change leader will bring him one step closer to achieving his pro­fes­sional goals. As he put it, “I have delib­er­ately shaped my engage­ment both on and off campus to reflect my deep-​​rooted desires to advance issues related to eco­nomic devel­op­ment, poverty, and social injus­tice. I am con­vinced that the expe­ri­ence I will gain as a change leader will help me impact society beyond Northeastern.”

Richard Wamai, assis­tant pro­fessor of African Amer­ican Studies, has served as Akinbode’s mentor since the spring of 2013, when the stu­dent worked to estab­lish the North­eastern Uni­ver­sity Col­lo­quium on Africa. He said Akin­bode is a well-​​rounded stu­dent with a pas­sion for learning, lead­er­ship, and social change, a deter­mined scholar with a strong plan for life­long suc­cess. As he explained, “He has worked dili­gently to pre­pare him­self for this type of lead­er­ship oppor­tu­nity, his values align with Oxfam’s mis­sion, and his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Change Ini­tia­tive will pos­i­tively impact his career journey in the long run.”

The pro­gram will not begin in earnest until this fall, but all 26 of the young human­i­tar­ians will be meeting in Boston in July to par­tic­i­pate in lead­er­ship and team-​​building activ­i­ties. For Perry, the training ses­sion rep­re­sents an oppor­tu­nity to get to know her new peers, to talk shop and social change. “I hope to bounce ideas off my fellow change leaders and get inspired by their rea­sons for taking part in this ini­tia­tive,” she said.

Akin­bode noted that Northeastern’s com­mit­ment to diver­sity and inclu­sion will serve him well as he inte­grates him­self into yet another new com­mu­nity: “We will have to work with people from all dif­ferent cul­tures and back­grounds,” he said, “and being part of a diverse com­mu­nity has given me the skills needed to build bridges and make connections.”