UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Giani Clarke is a first-year student in her second semester in Penn State’s College of Education who already has an overflowing resume and plans to match.
The future elementary education major someday would like to become a school superintendent, she said. While achieving that goal may be a couple of decades away, she’s already begun to develop those required leadership skills by involving herself in as many academic, social and student government activities as possible.
Whatever it might take to effect change, Clarke is all in. She’s a first-year representative in the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA), attends Black Caucus meetings, serves on the Student Pennsylvania State Education Association, has a student leadership role with the Multicultural Education Student Association (MESA), and is on the THON dancer relations committee on which she has a diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI) liaison role.
A social justice minor and likely involvement in the D.C. Social Justice Fellowship and Philadelphia Urban Project are on the horizon, she said.
An established dancer who also plays piano and violin and performed with her high school orchestra in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria and Croatia, Clarke carried her DEI involvement from Wilson High School in the Reading suburb of West Lawn to Penn State.
“Everything regarding critical race theory and all that stuff in the classroom was a big deal and my school board was affected, and I got to see that firsthand because I was their student representative,” Clarke said.
“So I got involved in a DEI taskforce and equity taskforce in high school ... just making sure that all student voices are heard and everyone’s included. I think I can represent the community I come from very well and I’d love to learn from other communities that people identify as. So that’s where the passion came from," she said.
Clarke said she enrolled in the College of Education because nearly all her teachers attended Penn State, and her mother, who teaches English as a Second Language, did as well.
“So they were obviously huge influences, but once I actually started researching the College of Education, I saw all the opportunities, I saw that I would have a mentor within the college, which was really cool," she said. “And I just think Penn State’s unmatched with the amount of opportunities outside of the actual campus that I’ll be open to just because I’m a Penn State student.”
Admittedly, Clarke is a planner, and DEI topics are on her itinerary. “I would like to see more curriculum regarding DEI and sustainability and just more hot-button topics or more current events incorporated into classes,” she said.
“I feel like unless you’re taking the classes that have these titles — I’m taking a 'race and gender in literature' class — that you’re not really getting any of that material. I feel like if we incorporate it in those required classes that everyone has to take, then everyone has to hear it and everyone has to get educated on the (DEI) topic.”
That, Clarke said, would help effect change. “If you persuade one person or make them change their mind on something, or even hear them out with what they’re thinking and then say, ‘oh, but maybe you can think this way,’ that’s going to affect another person that they talk to and keep affecting, so I think a change-agent could be as small as one conversation with someone,” she said.
“It’s important to me because I love learning about other people’s perspectives, and then sharing mine and coming to sort of a middle ground about it. Student government is important to me because we get to advocate for student voices that sometimes are underrepresented. The UPUA specifically has a great relationship with upper administration, which I think is an essential part and getting things done, because if we don’t have their attention, then we’re not going to make changes.”
When not involved in class or her various activities, Clarke likes to hang at the Office of Education and Social Equity (OESE) in Chambers Building. It’s a comfort zone where friends can chat among themselves or speak with OESE administrators such as Brenda Martinez, a student advocate specialist within OESE.
“Giani is truly a wonderful student,” Martinez said.
“In her first semester she hit the ground running and knew that she wanted to get involved in something that makes a difference for the student body," added Martinez. "She has been part of student leadership in MESA within the college and served as a critical person in getting the organization re-established.”
It’s clear that Clarke not only wants to make an impact now but also wants to put things in motion to have a greater impact, specifically with students of color, according to Martinez.
“Giani is very self-aware and does not shy away in asking for help. It is a joy to have seen her blossom and come into her own in her first semester. I am excited for the lasting footprint she will leave in her later years but even more to see her engage in experiences that will truly make her a wonderful educator,” Martinez added.
If Clarke does achieve her goal of overseeing a school district, she will stress representation, she said.
“I want to inspire everyone that could see themselves in me and make them believe that they can do it too,” she said.
“Growing up in the area I did, I had one Black teacher, so I have minimal experience with having someone in the classroom that looked like me. I want to build a community that everyone feels safe in, and I want to make sure that I’m pleasing as many people as possible and keeping the kids in mind at all times, because they’re the most important," said Clarke.