Name: Alicia Fyne
Hometown: Huntington, NY
Birthday: November 19th
Major: Psychology, minoring in Social Work.
Grad Date: May’17
Alicia Fyne is working everyday to make the world a better place. She does a lot of volunteer work and wants to make social impact on campus and in society. She believes that everyone can make a difference if they work together.
After graduation, would you like to be a social worker?
No, I’m interested in research psychology. Though I would like to work with the community on those kinds of issues; like social issues, social justice but I want to take it from a psychological perspective.
As a junior, what do you think is the best thing SUNY Old Westbury has to offer?
We have a lot of recourses! From the writing center to the tutoring center; There are so many opportunities like OWWR (Old Westbury Wed Radio), OWTV (Old Westbury TV), and the Catalyst (Campus Newspaper.) Plus we have all the talks going on when really intelligent people come on campus to do workshops like, Gender Talks or Sex Education. There is always something going on!
You volunteer a lot! What kind of volunteer work do you do?
I volunteer on campus at the Women’s Center and I use to volunteer at OWWR (Old Westbury Wed Radio). I’ve worked with the Inside Book Projects in the past, which is individuals who are currently incarcerated who write letters and ask for certain books. There was a donation-based library and we would try to send them books as best as we could to send them the books they wanted. Sometimes they would ask for specific books that we couldn’t provide. Plus I’m hopefully going to start volunteering for Strong, which is youth prevented gang violence prevention. So you work with a school and try to promote leadership within communities.
What is your definition of feminism?
My definition of feminism is very literal. It’s that men and women should be equal. As a woman I’ve experienced things in my life that weren’t fair based on my gender. I always associated with empowerment and promotion of equality within the sexes. But I use to be reluctant to call my self a feminist because people have the wrong idea. For some reason it’s such a heavy word for people but it only means equality between genders! If I say that I’m a feminist I get comments like “men hating,” “probably a lesbian,” or “I don’t shave my legs.” That’s not what feminism is! Some women who are into makeup or wear certain type of clothes are told that they are not feminist, and that’s not right either. No one should be shaming each other, everyone should be accepting.
What else are you fighting for in our society?
There’s the issue that people aren’t given the same opportunity because of their physical attributes. See I’m a feminist so some might think that I only think about women’s issues but like no, I’m for anyone who’s oppressed, anyone who isn’t given a fair opportunity based on race or gender. That you don’t want to give me the same opportunity because I have a vagina or a certain skin tone, that’s so f#*$ bizarre to me.
You’re confident! Many people no matter the age range are not as comfortable with themselves. How did you get there?
It’s hard! As confident as a person that I’ve become, I can’t say that I don’t totally deconstruct sometimes! But it’s okay to just lose it, that’s important too. People frown upon that, but the older I got the more I cry. It’s ridiculous! The key is to talk yourself through life and believe that you are capable of anything. If you keep that in mind, you’re golden!