From Sociology to Social Justice: Ayanna’s Journey to Empowerment and Change

A few months ago, Ayanna, a College Track alumna from California, was on the job hunt. Recently graduated from Tulane University with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, she was looking for a role that would align with her passion for social justice. When she received an invitation to interview with Next Door Recovery, a Tennessee-based treatment program for women with substance use disorders, she knew exactly what to do.

“I think College Track helps you with that a lot — how to interview the people that are interviewing you, how to make sure that this job is the best fit for you,” says Ayanna. She nailed the interview, got the job, and moved to Nashville, where she’ll soon start working. Ayanna’s interest in social justice started early. In high school, she traveled to Uganda and Rwanda to learn about international development through a partnership between College Track and the Global Livingston Institute. In college, she was drawn to classes that explored the criminal justice system, how society perceives people with a criminal background and whether prison was purely punitive or could be rehabilitative as well. “I was like, oh, this is what I want to learn,” says Ayanna.

“This is what makes me want to go to class and I’m engaged in asking questions.”

Ayanna expanded upon what she was learning in the classroom with several transformative internships. At Vote of Experience in New Orleans, she met with people who had been in prison for decades and contributed research to a guide for facilitating peer support groups. At the Promise of Justice Initiative, also based in New Orleans, she researched the dangerous and exploitative working conditions of incarcerated people. Last summer, she interned at the Greenlining Institute in Oakland, where she wrote a memo about how climate hazards impact people in California prisons. Not only did these internships allow Ayanna to further explore her interests, they also built her professional confidence. “I learned that the moments where I wanted to give up were the times I needed to lean in harder,” says Ayanna.

At her new job, Ayanna will be a case manager, finding housing for women going through drug treatment, many of whom are formerly incarcerated. Right now, her focus is on direct service, working to transform lives on a person to person basis. In the future, she is considering doing policy work, tackling the big systemic issues that stand in the way of social justice.

“I think we need to reconstruct our society better,” says Ayanna. “A lot of people who are incarcerated are low income and they’re also people of color. Instead of investing so much money into keeping people in prison, we need to invest that into these communities.”