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Latesia Manuel ’14

Latesia Manuel, Class of 2014, did not want to apply to Dartmouth at first. She had never heard of the College before attending an info session at her high school in Buffalo, New York. When she did more research, Latesia learned that Dartmouth was an Ivy League institution. When she brought this news to her family, they all urged her to apply. The family had one goal they wanted Latesia to fulfill: they all wanted her to attend whichever college they deemed “prestigious.” An Ivy League fit the bill. Latesia believes that had it not been for strong family pushing and luck, she would not have spent her college years at Dartmouth.

As a Black student from a low income family, Latesia knew that she would experience difficulties wherever she went to school. She believed that the insidious elements that pervade predominately white, privileged spaces would make themselves known eventually, regardless of where she was. She felt that the opportunities that college offered her outweighed the hardships she would face. Moreover, she wanted to prove that she belonged. She also wanted to prove that individuals who look like her belong in spaces such as Dartmouth.

When asked to think about the ways in which her socioeconomic status impacted her Dartmouth experience, Latesia recalls the choices she had to make as a student worker. She was often faced with the decision to make money to financially support herself and her education, or study for a test.

In short, when I filled out the FAFSA, almost everything was zeros or not applicable. No assets to the family. Lowest income range possible. Just low, low, low. It didn’t bother me. I knew what it was. It definitely impacted my Dartmouth experience. I had to make a choice to how many hours…I definitely needed a job. I wasn’t going to bug my family to send me money to do things. Money they didn’t have. I also loved to shop…being broke. When I was bored or stressed, I got cheap things. Sale items, but still. I still needed money to do it. I had a least one, usually on average, at least two jobs after my freshman spring. That was when I got my first job. From sophomore year, my second year out, I had at least one or two jobs. It affected a lot of my time. It was a balance of planning. Thinking, okay… how am I going to fit x amount of work hours into this week? On what days? It was just everything that I had to think about. I valued working over… I didn’t get too deeply involved with a bunch of clubs. I would go to important events for the clubs I was in, but I was that member… I might be there, but I might not. I would always choose work over that because I needed the hours. I was kind of neurotic with my grades a little, but I think it’s easy to fall into that trap at Dartmouth. I thought about it a lot, but I made myself take peace in it. But I always wondered…if I wasn’t working, what would my grades look like? I was the type… I couldn’t focus and study while at work because I just couldn’t get into study mode while I was at work. I didn’t have good study jobs. I didn’t get a library job. I probably could have had more study time and got better grades if I didn’t have a job. But I did have a job, so it is what it is. My grades… they weren’t awful I guess. But I was really deeply entrapped in “I need all A’s. I had A’s before college.”

At Dartmouth, Latesia was an Asian and Middle Eastern Studies major with a minor in Linguistics. As she reflects on academics at Dartmouth, Latesia recalls a moment in a class when she felt silenced. Though she knew the material well and continually attempted to assert herself in the space, it was to no avail.

I had one particular moment in a class, it was minor class, that made me say, “Hmmm.” And it made me realize that no matter how comfortable I get, there will always be something that will be jarring, or just like a wow moment. I was in a Linguistics class. I think I was a third year or at the end of my second year…one of those. It was a Linguistics class where we were studying the effects of gender in language…gender roles and how they shift and how that works with language in different contexts. I don’t completely remember the class, but one time we were talking about general trends of how males, or people socialized as males, are more likely to interrupt people who they view as gender female. Males are more prone to interrupt, speak over, disregard the opinions of females, though it may be the identical opinion of a male. Just a bunch of stuff like that. We had done that, that was one of the things…this is like general trends, and we all knew that. The whole class knew that. The professor knew that. Everyone knew that.

So fast-forward maybe a few weeks and we’re on an article where we’re talking about language use amongst lesbians in Japan. And I remember it. I was just like, “Oh god, this is going to be it.” The article itself was pretty interesting, but when you’re talking about that subject in class…the way we were talking about it was really weird. Things got all Orientalist. Mystical Japan. Things got weird real quick, as soon as Japan was mentioned. It was me and another kid, a guy. We had both done the same…went to Japan a couple times on the LSA, both studied Japanese. We were viewed as… which I thought, “That doesn’t make sense anyway because we don’t know about lesbians in Japan. We don’t know how they speak.” But we were both kind of viewed as experts on it for whatever its worth. Actually, we both weren’t viewed…he was viewed as the expert on Japanese. But we both had the same level of Japanese, mind you. Neither of us were Japanese, obviously. I would try to say my opinion and he would literally talk over me and interrupt me. All of the rest of the class, professor included were looking at him like, “Yes, yes, you know so much about this mysterious Japanese culture.”

Every potential thing that can happen in a linguistic exchange happened…I was interrupted, I was talked over, I was ignored. Things were already weird because the way we were talking about the article was weird because it was related to Japan and they couldn’t help themselves…they just got really weird. I was just like…this is legit happening. We talk about this stuff and acknowledge it, but this stuff is still happening.

After graduating from Dartmouth, Latesia now feels as if she is deserving of anything that she puts in work for. While she does not think she is entitled to all things, she believes that she deserves just as much as others who put in work. She is currently going to graduate school for Economics and Finance, fields that are drastically different from those she studied at Dartmouth. After graduating in May of 2017, Latesia plans to enter the workforce.