Derrick Green ’14

Derrick Green

Diplomacy and World Affairs

Newark, NJ

 

I enjoy both visual and performing arts. I’ve always enjoyed drawing and I’ve grown particularly interested in using mediums such as pastel and charcoal. I also enjoy dance and spoken word, but I wouldn’t consider myself a dancer or poet.

 

Growing up, I spent most of my time in between my hometown and New York City. When I was 14 I went to boarding in western Massachusetts and by the time I was approaching graduation I knew that I wanted a change. So outside of going to school abroad (which I considered), the west coast seemed like the best option and Oxy seemed like a good fit.   

 

On campus, I work for the Dean of College’s office. I am also in a fraternity and a Co-Chair of Harambee, which is a social, academic, and professional support group for Black men on campus. Off campus, I have two internships. One is for the organization Shine On Sierra Leone. The organization is a NGO that works in partnership with the people of Sierra Leone to achieve sustainable economic, academic, and social development. The other internship is with the company Papermache. Papermache is a platform meant to connect undergraduate researchers based on their topics of interest. The site is a place to share work and research conducted by students. I am one of two Marketing and Publicity interns at my college. 

 

One of my aspirations is to create my own scholarship foundation that sends bright and talented youth from developing countries who are interested in going to school abroad to the top academic institutions across the world so that they can one day return to assist in their country’s development. I know from personal experience how education can alter the trajectory of one’s life and one day I hope to provide that same opportunity to others.

 

Someone once used the term “benevolent opportunist” to describe their the lifestyle and professional career path. After thinking about how I got to be where I am today, I realize that I too consider myself a benevolent opportunist. I’m open to what the future may bring and I work hard, but I do not have a concrete end goal for the next five years. I think setting such long term concrete goals are important, but they can also make you dogmatic so I try to be open to what the future may hold. If I had to guess though, I could see myself staying in LA doing public relations or going back to Switzerland or France to work with an NGO.

 

For the better or worse, LA is a truly eclectic city. It has your LA natives, your LA transplants, and your LA floaters- all of which are interesting in someway or another. For me, one of my favorites parts about being in LA was spending the summers here and meeting people. 

 

My favorite thing about Oxy has been the experiences I was able to have both socially and academically. My peers and professors are dynamic in a way that I feel like is unique to Oxy, but suppose I could be bias. 

Now that I am a senior, I definitely think I’ve changed. I’ve been able to grow as person and do some really interesting things in my time here. This past summer I spent time in Switzerland and France doing research on the impact of socioeconomic status in limiting education access in developing countries. This winter I will be in Sierra Leone, a small country on the western coast of Africa, researching how development is impacting local communities in the country.

 

Oxy can sometimes feel like a bubble, isolated from the rest of LA. My advice to freshmen would be to get off campus! I’ve enjoyed the experiences I’ve had and people I’ve met since I’ve been here, but many of them were not on campus