Meet Natalia Dyer ’18, a native New Yorker with a passion for the empowerment of women of color, a deep concern for climate change induced environmental issues and aspirations to be a plastic surgeon to help trauma victims! She is truly a star!
Tell me about where are you from:
I’m from Queens, NY. I grew up in a Jamaican household in a town called Rosedale which is a pre-dominantly Afro-Caribbean neighborhood. NYC, especially Queens, is very diverse but also very segregated but my high school was this racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse space though and as a result i was exposed to multiple different cultures… there was also some white supremacists (#oops)
But honestly being from NYC is a blessing mostly because of the food, culture, and liveliness, but also because you develop a tough skin to dealing with unnecessary BS. Also, our slang is revolutionary.
How does the weather at Amherst compare to the weather back home?:
Amherst has about the same temperature as NYC. However, the climate here is WILD. The temperatures in NY don’t shift throughout the day as drastically as they do here. It could really feel like mid-fall in the morning, spring in the afternoon, and winter at night. I still don’t get it and I still don’t know how to dress in the morning to prepare for the day.
On the bright side the air is probably a bit fresher here to be honest… mostly because heat and pollution aren’t trapped in concrete.
Why did you choose to attend Amherst?:
It was by accident actually lol… I applied the day before because my mother’s coworker gave a spiel about the greatness of liberal arts colleges so I applied to appease her but never thought i would get in.
Then i arrived! and i hated it!
T went on a rainy day and everyone looked miserable. But in the end i didn’t want to struggle with pre-med classes at a big university so iIdecided to struggle with pre-med classes at this liberal arts school that prides itself in critical thinking and small community building. I’m so glad I came here. Amherst became a great fit for me as time went on and the community here is prime. I’m very appreciative because a lot of my friends back home don’t really have that.
What are you interested in both academically and leisurely?:
I’m on the pre-medical path but also a Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies major. I’m interested in the intersection of feminism with medicine because i’ve come to realize some of what we hold as objective big T “Truths” is proving to be wrong with recent increased education and realization how insidious social constructs affect health.
Leisurely I’m on DASAC and BSU and regularly visit the resource centers on campus because i love the people, conversations, and change that stems from there.
What are you passionate about the most?:
I am very passionate about women of color empowerment but especially Black women empowerment. Throughout my time here at Amherst I’ve seen how resilient and dynamic the women of color on this campus are and I’m so proud to call them my friends and sisters. But I’ve realized that we prosper even don’t really get much support outside of that community even from men of color. Honestly, truly beautiful.
Also more recently I’ve become very passionate about climate change and the environment as a whole. Actual human beings getting displaced and dying because of climate change induced hurricanes, earthquakes, and sinking lands is sickening especially because it is a result of what we’ve done as blind consumers. It’s hard to make the necessary changes to dissociate yourself from these systems that perpetuate this oppression through the environment mostly because it’s rooted in our culture but it’s a learning process.
Tell me the best memory of your first year:
Freshman year was hard and a very sad time but I guess my best memory was the friendships I made in my freshman year dorm, South especially towards the end of the year. I learned how to play 2K and FIFA, we watched The Wire, Friday Night Lights, and Cosmos till like 4 in the morning. We also watched blackhead removal and extraction videos lol???? South 3 really was/is fam.
What are your plans for the rest of your time at Amherst and beyond:
Once I finish with these Pre-med requirements and after I come back from being abroad in Berlin, Germany (!!!!!!) I plan on taking a bunch of courses in subjects I’ve never stepped foot in like Political Science, Environmental Science, and Computer Science.
After that I plan on being sucked into Medical School for 80 years then hopefully becoming a Plastic Surgeon for trauma victims especially burn victims.
What is the best compliment you’ve received?:
It was a turning point in my life to become natural. Kinky/natural Black hair isn’t really praised in America like straight hair is and sometimes even makes you even more of a target of discrimination. So when i just became natural i was a bit insecure but then i posted a picture on Facebook and i received such an influx of love and support and it really was an amazing feeling to love what I look like in the face of white supremacy. Honestly, truly radical.