Campus leader Frieda Adu-Brempong ‘16 encourages Dickinson community members to “resist polarization” and to prioritize changing needs. Adu-Brempong is a Posse Scholar, a woman of Wheel and Chain and the president of the African American Society (AAS), and strives to lead with smart and sustainable adaptability.

Policy Management major Adu-Brempong serves as a chair on Dickinson’s student philanthropy committee, Devil’s Advocates, lives at the Social Justice House and “refines” her passion for social justice through community service. Adu-Brempong has participated in hurricane-relief on upper Sand Mountain in Alabama, helped build a school in Ecuador and coordinated a house renovation for a beneficiary family in Mason, Georgia.

“[Community service gives me] the chance to actually conceptualize real world solutions to the issues I’m learning about in school, in class” Adu-Brempong said, by illuminating the complications involved when making policies for change.

In her work as president of the AAS, Adu-Brempong prioritizes understanding needs and transparent leadership. She is currently working to “revamp” the organization, and said that in the next two years, Dickinson can expect improved alumni relations, inter-organizational collaboration, weekly meetings and to “see the African American Society community growing extremely.”

She is leading the path to change by paying attention to the needs of the student body, particularly first-year students.

“You can’t [say], ‘oh, this is the way we’ve always done things,’ because this is their organization just as much as it’s mine, in fact at this point, it’s more theirs than mine.”

Adu-Brempong said that change is the natural order of organizations, and that student need has prompted AAS to change meeting topics, and even to reconsider the name of the organization itself.

“I don’t think the climate in the US is directly affecting AAS but I think it’s affecting students, and as a student organization, and a person of leadership in this organization, you need to respond to that always,” she said.

Adu-Brempong added that Dickinsonians “ought to be very proud of” the newly emerging Why We Wear Black movement, which places “issues of inclusivity at the forefront.” She said that the Dickinson community needs “to stop treating inclusivity as a Black problem, minority problem or liberal problem.” This sort of polarization  “minimizes students’ scope of concerns to be self-centered and seemingly unable to view the world ‘objectively,’ and discredits the concerns of white allies.” Instead of “grouping students who care,” she urges the larger Dickinson community to “reconstruct our thinking about social issues, about diversity, about whiteness.”

Despite her extensive involvement on campus, Adu-Brempong did not consider herself an activist before college.

“I either have the chance to speak up [in class] and correct things or to sit back and let people continue to think this is the way things are,” said Adu-Brempong, who is often challenged to reconcile “contradictions” she finds at Dickinson, such as in her fundraising work.

“Here I was, me, Frieda, the person uncomfortable right now in the spaces at Dickinson, and yet my face was being used to promote diversity and giving.”

Out of all Adu-Brempong has been involved in, she is proudest not of her own achievements, but when she has been able to empower others.

“My biggest form of activism is pushing people to question things, or to do things they might be uncomfortable doing. I’m really good at having intimate conversations, and I’m not threatened by authority.”

Adu-Brempong strives to be in environments with others who are “excited and motivated to learn and to challenge everything.” She urges community members to challenge themselves as well, and “to use your education to the extent that you can entertain contradictory ideas.”

Along with her many-faceted approaches for inspiring change, Adu-Brempong’s hope for Dickinson is unity. She urges Dickinsonians to use the fund Dickinson sets aside for the senior class, which in the past has been used as a scholarship for future classes, or to work on “a huge project in Carlisle that needs a lot of money.” She calls for an increase in participation and unity to use this fund.

“All we have to do is come together,” Adu-Brempong said.