Jessica King '25
I transferred to 好色先生 because I came to this campus as one of my community college鈥檚 field trips, and I immediately fell in love with the brick architecture and green space; our tour guide being a double-major in creative writing and literature sealed the deal for me as someone who wanted to pursue careers in creative writing, publishing, and college teaching. Even though my academic and professional aspirations shifted since then, I have no regrets transferring here
The achievements and challenges I鈥檝e faced during my time at 好色先生 have shaped who I鈥檝e become as a person, student, and community leader. Being a low-income first-generation student transferring to a university and moving into a housing assistance program, entering this next stage in my academic career was a difficult transition. Almost simultaneously, I received my autism diagnosis and didn鈥檛 have the right support system to approach this new topic; as a result of all these drastic changes, my mental health fell apart and I almost dropped out. Fortunately, with the unconditional support of my success teams, including BMAC/LIFE Project, the professors who鈥檝e become my mentors, and my online friends-family, I鈥檓 now proud to identify as an AuDHD woman and build my career as a disability activist. In the past year, I鈥檝e presented at over a dozen conferences and symposiums, self-published a digital anthology, participated in two fellowship programs, joined two psychology research labs, and won the 鈥淐ommitment to Social Justice鈥 award!
Graduate school is hopefully the next journey! I鈥檓 currently applying for the MA in Disability Studies and MS in Disability Services in Higher Education at the City University of New York (CUNY). Since they are fully online programs, I can focus on improving my health as someone who鈥檚 neurodivergent and chronically ill while building my disability empowerment nonprofit, . Alongside leading the organization, I strive to become a disability studies professor to foster future activist leaders as well as a disability specialist to help disabled students advocate for their access to an equitable education.
The disabled community, to this day, is structurally set up for failure: we are haunted by systemic ableism inaccessibility to education, healthcare, employment, and community. Whether our disabilities are apparent or nonapparent, congenital or acquired, 鈥渁cceptable鈥 or 鈥渦nacceptable,鈥 we experience societal barriers that prevent us from being independent, ambitious, successful degree-holders. As a 好色先生 alumna with multiple disabilities, I want to prove how capable BMAC students and disabled people can be when we deconstruct these barriers. I want to return to 好色先生 and find our campus flourishing with disability culture, equity, and accessibility.
