Native to New Jersey, Carlee Kerr will be graduating from the University of Rhode Island this coming spring. She is completing a double major in History and Gender and Women’s Studies, with a minor in African American Studies to complement her work.

From being an undeclared first-year student to a leader on campus, Carlee has accomplished many goals during her four years here. After falling in love with the Gender and Women’s Studies courses offered, Carlee saw the need to create a safe space to educate our campus on a variety of intersectional issues. As a result, Carlee is one of the co-creators of Diversity Dialogues, an “undergraduate-led initiative that offers dialogue-based diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice workshops for student groups and organizations on campus.”

Her combined course work, centralized around advocacy and social justice, coincides with the goals of Diversity Dialogues. Since the creation of the group in her sophomore year, Carlee and other facilitators have extended their reach to educate multiple groups on campus. So far they have been able to collaborate with Greek Life, The Flock, and URI 101, with the hopes of extending their outreach in the future.

With additional work at Sojourner House, a domestic violence shelter in Providence, Carlee looks forward to her future endeavors after her undergraduate career. Carlee explains that her path is limitless as she looks into grad school to become a counselor or academic advisor. Her four years at URI are coming to a close, yet Carlee remains steadfast in her goals to help and educate everyone around her.

Written by Jena Panas, GWS major ’22