Growing Each Other Up

My team and I at the Mosaic Center for Students of Color call ourselves a work family. A new teammate described our staff meetings as a “banquet feast of rich reflection.” I see them as a centered space for personal connection—even as we focus on our work. And once, a lunchtime event was themed a “Rice Throwdown” because all our foods that day revolved around the humble grain—our work family, sharing a meal together, while honoring the global cultures that rely on rice. This kinship model extends to the way we work with students and campus partners. We are professional with a twist, exhibiting a culturally different way of doing our job that allows us to infuse humor, play, and yes, love, into the way we labor. Our students invite us to their community events, weddings, and funerals. Regularly they tell us they wish they could live at the Mosaic Center because they feel seen, cared for, and safe—just what you’d hope for in a family.

Grounded in this supportive work community, I’ve been able to show up at UVM as my authentic self. There have been occasional challenges, but the successes (which have surprised me sometimes) spur me on. This is what I’ve worked for: the right of each of us to be fully present at UVM. The Mosaic Center is a powerful place for students and staff, together, to construct an on-campus environment that moves us toward that goal.

As I prepare to “retire” at the end of this academic year, I am letting go of more than a job or a mere place of employment. I am leaving the village in which I’ve grown up over the last 22 years. I see now that all my relationships have mattered, even those that were brief or difficult. I can appreciate the administrator who insisted on holding a budget bottom line as I advocated for breaking it. The tensions in our dialogue, coupled with mutual respect, led to a better outcome that supported access but didn’t break the bank. I have been a part of the action, mixing it up with my colleagues as we strive for a UVM shaped by all of our voices. In recent years, this institution heard our students who activated for change. Having the will to progress led to a new name for our library—a place of learning that now more authentically reflects our common value of uniting against injustice. I am proud of UVM when we choose to stay vibrantly alive, wrestling with the call to move forward differently.

I’m excited to pass the work into the hands of the next generation who will move us forward. Because of the young adults I know, I have faith. They have raised me as much as I’ve raised them. From them I have learned that I am Afro-Latina; that I do have a critical relationship with Mother Earth; that I can lead the way a mother does and have professional impact. Rooted in my many families, I am ready for a new way to give myself to the world. As I leave UVM, I will rely on what I have learned: that all of us, young and old, are “growing each other up.”

Beverly Belisle, Director UVM Mosaic Center for Students of Color