By: Katelyn Norris
This story is part of the It’s a Knight Life for Me series, which highlights the experiences of every Bellarmine cohort across a variety of students. This story contains the experiences of two junior students.
Junior year of college is the halfway point between students and their completion of their undergraduate studies. For juniors Sameera Nuru and Danielle Feldkamp, their journey at BU was one of change and of finding places they felt they truly belonged.
Nuru said she knows her BU experience isn’t like many other students. Nuru said her first two years at BU were made up of her trying to figure out her purpose on campus. She said she wanted to make a difference on campus, so she reached out to professors and other students to help her reach her goal.
“My freshman year was trying to figure out myself. It was a lot like when you go to a pool to test out the water. I put my toes into anything I could think about,” Nuru said.
She said it was a bit of a culture shock during her first year at BU as well. Coming from Nigeria, Nuru said she saw a different type of diversity from what she was used to. She also said some professors would use American examples in class, and these were not helpful to her because she was unfamiliar with many of them.
“I couldn’t see a lot of people like me on campus. There were different cultures around campus,” Nuru said. “I saw that I needed to learn how to interact with people of different cultures and how to communicate with them.”
Nuru said she has had a few mentors on campus and one of those people is Joe Frazier, director of the Dr. Patricia Carver Office of Identity and Inclusion. Nuru said Frazier has advised her in all matters of her life, from writing papers to planning her classes.
Frazier said he has seen Nuru turn from a shy first-year student into the confident, outspoken junior she is today. He said he has noticed she has really embraced her identity and has begun to fight for the change she wants to see.
“I want to see Sameera be successful in everything she wants to be successful in. She is very ambitious, and she has strong ideals for the ways things should be,” Frazier said. “I don’t want to see that fire burn out in her.”
However, Nuru said her junior year has allowed her to really find one of her many niches on campus. She is the founder and president of the new African Student Association. Nuru said she felt as though she has found one of her purposes on campus through ASA.
“I was figuring that out and having those conversations and hosting events and educating people about different African countries and cultures,” Nuru said. “I think about it being a social event as well I know. I have made an impact on someone.”
Nuru said she wanted to create this RSO and keep it separate from the Black Student Union. She explained while BSU is doing great things, ASA allows African students to have a place with others who understand their backgrounds.
“It was also more of also creating a space for Africans to let their voices out,” Nuru said. “I felt like students needed like a space not only just for Africans but also for African Americans, for Indians, for anyone that wants to learn more about the African culture.”
Feldkamp had a different experience of finding herself on BU’s campus. As a part of BU’s women’s basketball team, she said she often has the label of being “Danielle the basketball player.” However, although the label doesn’t bother her, she said it is nice to be just “Danielle the Bellarmine student,” too.
“I appreciate that I can step away from basketball if I want to. It’s not like all my friends are just basketball players,” Feldkamp said. “I have found that a lot of my friendships start up unexpectedly. This one girl that I’m friends with — she is one of my closest friends — and she doesn’t play basketball.”
Jalaya Dowell is another member of the basketball team and one of Feldkamp’s close friends. Dowell said she first became friends with Feldkamp because she was also a tall girl, but she said their friendship grew through shared experiences and Feldkamp’s sense of humor.
Dowell also said Feldkamp has been one of her biggest cheerleaders on the basketball team. She said she is very grateful for Feldkamp and all her encouragement over the past three years.
“She is always helping everyone out. She’s such a great person that she deserves to have success in her life,” Dowell said. “I hope she overcomes any obstacle in her way and can be successful going forward.”
Feldkamp said her BU community has been an important factor on her success. But because of Covid-19, she has felt disconnected from portions of campus.
She said her classroom experience has been hindered these last few semesters due to online learning. As an exercise science major with the hope of becoming a physical therapist, Feldkamp said it has been difficult to learn about body movements. She said she also misses the service-learning clinics, which she said were great hands-on learning experiences for her.
“They let the students do a bunch of the work and then, if they need to, they will step in and correct. However, I like to go in person because the classroom environment really does help me learn and it’s been a little bit difficult adjusting to the online learning experience,” Feldkamp said.
Despite everything, Feldkamp said Covid has given her a new outlook on her BU experience. She said she is grateful students get to stay on campus this semester because she believed everyone would be sent back home. Although she said she does feel isolated, she is glad she can participate in practice and games and still get to interact with others.
Nuru said she has felt this same feeling all semester but she is optimistic for the future and her senior year. Nuru said she still wants to make an impact every person she can. She said her time at Bellarmine has been about all the small things and she wants it to continue being that way.
“The BU experience has changed. It’s shifted,” Nuru said. “Yes, it’s different because we are in a pandemic that is something we cannot brush over. We have to go through it together and people have to listen.”
Feldkamp said she knows her upcoming senior year is going to be filled with uncertainty but she wants to make the most of the opportunities she has.
“Going forward I’m not going to say, ‘I can’t wait until I’m not in college.’ You don’t get these moments back,” Feldkamp said. “I just want to appreciate every day. I wanna make sure that I appreciate each day going into next year and not count down until my last days.”