800 Miles in Transition

The Vermont Connection Volume 43 The Embodiment of Liberation: Embracing Opposition and Resistance within Higher Education Article 21 April 2022 800 Miles in Transition Lexi Kane University of Vermont Cristina Vega The Ohio State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Kane, L., & Vega, C. (2022). 800 Miles in Transition. The Vermont Connection, 43(1). https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc/vol43/iss1/21 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education and Social Services at UVM ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Vermont Connection by an authorized editor of UVM ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact . • 217 800 Miles in Transition Lexi Kane & Cristina Vega Currently we find ourselves in a moment of transition, what initially seemed like a match made in graduate assistantship /supervisor bliss would quickly become 800 miles of change. Transitions are often two fold - full of hope and grief as we long for all that is next and reflect on the things we left behind. However, our shared experience of how it feels to be BIPOC in predominantly white institutions, and how identity plays a role in either assimilating or resisting the structure at hand is what led to our dynamic relationship. As people of color at predominantly white institutions, we’ve found that community has been instrumental in our success in the ways we are able to show up as ourselves partially because those who came before us created space, and partially because we continue to advocate for ourselves and those who will come next. For Cristina Vega (Vega), and Lexi Kane (Lexi) their narrative is one that started out as supervisor/supervisee and has, along with distance, transitioned into something more holistic. We, Lexi and Vega, hope that our truth serves as a reminder that good relationships include vulnerability as well as levity, that the space in which relationships form can transcend its initial structure, and that our paths however planned will continue to shift. Lexi Kane (she/her) is a M.Ed. candidate in the University of Vermont Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Lexi grew up in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, and holds a B.A. in Drama with minors in Musical Theatre, English, and Public Relations from Hofstra University. She hopes to challenge her audiences to dream big and challenge the present. Cristina Vega, or Vega is currently the Associate Director for Chapter Services as The Ohio State University. While Vega has spent most of her life on the east coast enjoying lakes and the ocean, she’s looking forward to exploring the Midwest and all Ohio has to offer. Before joining OSU, Vega served as the Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Vermont. It was at UVM where she developed her skills in restorative practices, and community building. She has led trainings and created programs related to inclusion for students and staff. Vega has a certificate in Design Thinking from IDEO and has attended the Social Justice Training Institute (SJTI). She is also trained in Restorative Practice, Sustained Dialogue, and the Intergroup Dialogue program. Vega believes in deeply collaborative and synergistic relationships with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community stakeholders. 218 • The Vermont Connection • 2022 • Volume 43 Vega: I remember meeting Lexi during interviews. I reflected on my time as a practicum student for Fraternity and Sorority Life. The practicum experience connected me to graduate students before me and later to those who came after. My practicum supervisor, Dr. Kim, referred to her grads as our FSL family. I initially didn’t understand what she meant, even when she shared a living document of all the grads she’d supervised during her time at UVM. This document was a physical piece of their legacy, it included the projects they worked on and where they work and is updated annually. Initially, the document seemed like a simple list of names, but throughout the years I have had the opportunity to meet these alums, mainly because they’ve stayed connected to Dr. Kim; that’s her legacy. When I returned to UVM in 2018 I knew I wanted to continue her legacy. I knew then, as I still know now, there are people who will support you. I wanted to be able to create a similar environment even though the pandemic emphasized loneliness and individuality, I wanted to believe we could also offer connection and camaraderie. As we reflect on our time together the nostalgia weaves its way through to the beginning - a cold morning in February. Lexi: When I first met Vega during our Interview Days, I was excited about coming into a space that I had some confidence in. Of course, the normal feelings of my imposter syndrome shone through, but I was immediately relieved to see another woman of color on the screen that morning. This was a new experience for me- I had never worked with a BIPOC supervisor before, and the potential power that our partnership could create felt exciting to me. When I left the conversation, I knew that I would be extremely lucky if I was offered this assistantship. I continuously grew excited and nervous as the start of my job grew closer. Would I live up to the expectations that Vega had for me? Would I even be qualified enough to work in this position? As these thoughts were running through my head, I met with Vega once more before my move to Vermont. I was so extremely nervous that I came with a list of questions, which I eventually learned is how I best work in new environments. Our conversation was refreshing- I had already felt so connected to someone I had not seen in person before, so I could only imagine how dynamic our supervision would be in person. It seemed like I had finally found a mentor and someone I could confide in who may have shared similar identity struggles • 219 and joys. A tell-tale sign that I knew I was on the right path was that after ending our Facetime call before my big move, she immediately sent me a list of coffee shops to try in Burlington. At that moment, I knew that this experience and mentorship could be a great start in my personal identity journey. Vega: Coffee had become the language by which we initially learned to communicate. The start of our relationship included sharing coffee favorites, meetings off campus at various coffee spots, and alternating coffee pick-me-ups. However, since then we’ve learned that it takes a little more than coffee to hold us together in these moments of transition. From the grad playlist I shared during interviews to sharing some of my favorite local places, I wanted Lexi to feel planted so she could create her own roots in Vermont. I daydreamed about inviting Lexi to her first Women of Color Celebration - an event that transformed how I saw myself in the context of higher education/ UVM. My fi (...truncated)