The Office of Intercultural Programs started a new group that brings together adopted students on campus.
Within OIP, cabinet members from the Asian Society for Intercultural Awareness began the initiative.
Those who started the group include sophomore Molli Hurley and ASIA members junior Isabelle Armour and sophomores Anna Pyle and Michaela Schurr.
As an adopted student herself, Hurley had an interest in starting this group to give adopted students in the Taylor community a place to connect. Although she knew there were many adopted students on campus, she felt that they were lacking a place to find one another and unite.
After speaking with Peter Yeung, Breuninger and Gerig hall director, she was then connected with Armour, Pyle and Schurr.
When the four met, they began planning their first event. After sending out a few announcements and finding a bigger community of adopted students on campus, they had their first meeting.
“It’s an amazing opportunity that we get to do this, that we have the space to be able to do this, and that we get to connect with students that I would never know that I have anything in common with and be like, ‘Oh, you get it,’” Armour said.
On April 6, at 6 p.m., the group held its first meeting and had an exciting starting turnout of about 13 people. The event took place in the Ziegler Hall conference room which is the office of the Rev. Greg Dyson, who is the Vice President for Intercultural Leadership and Church Relations.
Among those who showed up, they held open discussions seeking opinions on how the group should be set up and operate.
Although they eventually decided to move forward in making it a club, the team debated giving it a ‘cabinet’ status. Their eventual decision was made final because cabinets can only have a certain number of people in them, whereas clubs are not limited in size.
“We don’t want to limit this to people … we just want this to be another place for you to be able to have community based on adoption, which is such an integral part of who we are,” Armour said.
This will remain an internal club in an effort to build a close community and form strong connections between adopted students. Although meetings aren’t open to all students, they do plan to run events that anyone can attend.
The group is excited about the opportunity to host events in November, which is National Adoption Month.
“We’ll run a couple of events during that month to spread awareness about it, talk about it, share stories, share our hearts behind forming a group like this, that sort of thing,” Armour said.
Those involved in starting this group have expressed their excitement for what the future holds.
“I anticipate it being an event and a community, or an organization or club, or whatever it ends up being for years to come,” Armour said.
Although the group is still new and open to different possibilities, members are hopeful and excited for the future as more students join and more ideas are shared.
For more information, contact OIP@taylor.edu.
