'We are all we got:' Student leaves lasting impact on multicultural community

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State student Genesis Severino-Ellis, who will graduate this week with bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and public relations, said she hopes to leave a lasting impact on Penn State’s multicultural community.

Severino-Ellis has served as president of Penn State’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which seeks to advance equity, political rights, and social inclusion by furthering policies and practices that expand human and civil rights, eliminate discrimination, and accelerate the well-being, education and economic security of Black people and all persons of color.

Her first introduction to the organization — and to Penn State’s multicultural community — came during the NAACP’s annual Block Party during her first semester as an undergraduate. The event featured a variety of multicultural organizations, student and faculty performers, and vendors from cities like Philadelphia and Washington D.C. It also provided a wonderful opportunity for first-year and transfer students to learn more about the many resources the organization’s Penn State chapter had to offer, said Severino-Ellis.

After seeing how welcoming the multicultural community was and “meeting different successful professionals who looked like her,” she said she knew that the organization was something she wanted to be involved in.

“It was comforting to see how the NAACP was able to create an important event that celebrated the minority cultures and communities at Penn State and provide a safe space for students,” said the Washington, D.C., native.

Once she joined the organization, Severino-Ellis said she noticed that the networking connections students were making with professionals, as important as they were, were not always long-lasting.

“A lot of the time students get immersed into these communities and relationships, but they do not sustain them,” she said. “I wanted to be a part of that solution to advocate for them.”

Severino-Ellis became NAACP’s public relations chair during her second year in the organization. One of the more rewarding projects for her in that role, she said, was working with the Dominican Student Association to help immerse that group into the Latino community.

“Through our social platforms, we were able to maintain the connections we were making with other cultural organizations,” she explained.

As NAACP’s president of the organization, she said she knew it was important to continue traditions like the Block Party and Founder's Week. However, she said she also recognized how important it was to build on these traditions and offer more to members.

That led to the creation of events such as the NAACP "All-White Affair" — an event similar to the Block Party but focused more on celebrating the contributions of Black advocacy and excellence at Penn State and speaking to NAACP’s mission. The inaugural event this past fall featured speakers such as Gary Abdullah, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion at Penn State; and performances by the University's Dark Storm Step Team and the Ambitions Performance Company.

With the support from NAACP’s organization, the Penn State chapter also sent representatives to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Student Debt Rally — one of the most memorable experiences of her presidency, said Severino-Ellis.

“It was remarkable to meet professionals who cater their lives to advancing the economic and social justice of Black students,” she added.

An equally significant experience for her, she noted, was “Black to B.L.A.C.,” an annual discussion during NAACP’s Founder’s Week featuring members of Penn State’s Black Caucus, Latino Caucus, Asian Pacific Islander Caucus and Caribbean Student Organization.

“One of the largest takeaways from the discussion is that yes, we are minorities, but we do not have all the same experiences,” Severino-Ellis said. “Some of us have more privileges and more access than others. Although these were tough conversations to have, it was something that we all valued deeply.”

With Severino-Ellis’ tenure as president ending, she said she hopes the chapter will pursue additional opportunities to share resources and build a support system with NAACP chapters at other schools in the future.

“My hope for the incoming president is that they not only engage with the Penn State community but actively work to advance the mission of NAACP on a national level,” Severino-Ellis said. “That means also giving other smaller or lesser-known organizations the spotlight during certain events so they can get the recognition that they do not always get.”

While Severino-Ellis said she will remember so much from her time at Penn State, perhaps the one piece of advice that will stick with her the most, she added, is this quote from Carlos Wiley, former director of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center and NAACP chapter adviser: “We are all we got.” 

“Making sure that we emphasized the necessity for a sense of community here at Penn State was impactful,” Severino-Ellis said. “It is important not only to build it, but maintain it. We are all responsible for not excluding people and for finding ways to acknowledge the differences that we all inherently have while building each other up at the same time.”

Severino-Ellis, who identifies as Black and Latinx and whose parents are from Panama, says that her liberal arts education helped her realize that it is okay to be a part of two communities.

“I live in a world of duality,” Severino-Ellis said. “When I was younger and pre-Penn State, I was immersed in the Latinx community, and my experience I had before college was very Latin-focused. However, due to the reality of our society, that might not be how people perceive me. Knowing that the issues of the Latinx and Black communities both pertain to me, it is my job to help and try not to be biased towards one or the other.”

Severino-Ellis is a Chick Evans Scholar, a program for students demonstrating financial need and academic excellence. She learned of the program during her first year of high school and realized that this could make affording college and having a well-rounded experience possible; it also allowed her to meet other girls who planned to attend Penn State, which made adjusting to college a little easier, she said.

“The scholarship has taught me how to work with different groups of people and how to manage my time and skill set,” Severino-Ellis said. “Learning how to manage those different relationships taught me the skills that I still use to this day and can transfer into my job skills after I graduate.”

She said another organization that had a tremendous impact on her at Penn State was BLUEprint, a peer mentoring program designed primarily to support first-year minority students. After benefiting from being a BLUEprint mentee herself, Severino-Ellis became a mentor during her second year. She also served as an intern for BLUEprint’s student affairs department, which expanded her interest in public relations and taught her more about “company culture.”

Severino-Ellis believes the relationships and support systems she built through BLUEprint and her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, have better prepared her to overcome any adversity she may face as a young female professional of color.

“Although my mentor's story may be a little bit different [from mine], she is still successful and someone I can look up to when I need it,” Severino-Ellis said. “I have taken what I learned from my mentor to seek out my mentee, which has been another great relationship I have formed.”

After graduation, Severino-Ellis hopes to work for a bilingual company like Telemundo and use her knowledge and experiences from the Latinx and Black community to offer a different perspective to help build diverse and representative public-relations campaigns.

“The relationships that I have maintained with Black women have fully shaped my experience at Penn State,” Severino-Ellis said. “They are not only passionate about their careers, but passionate about giving back. After graduating, I want to return to these organizations and follow in their footsteps to give back to this community.”