Salvete Omnes,
To say that having been in Latineer was a memorable, fulfilling, and impactful experience for me during my years at TBLS is an understatement. I have forged many of my friendships through the club, received the opportunity to write about issues I wished to shed light on, and have grown as a leader when I had never seen myself as one before.
I joined Latineer as a nervous freshman who had never been involved with journalism before. Throughout my four years of discovering and learning about the field, I was caught off guard by how different it was from all the other writing I partook in. Journalism abandons any notion that the writer writes only for themself, and journalists write intentionally with the means of having a platform. I was surprised at the amount of thought and consideration for the audience that went behind each piece and the many stages it had to go through before getting approved for publication. But if sessions of brainstorming article ideas with the club and time spent editing the writing pieces of my fellow club members have taught me anything, it is how powerful words can be and the sway it has over people.
We are all familiar with feelings of frustration towards media coverage or the lack of it about issues we care about. We witness distrust both from the ones around us and ourselves towards news sources at times, pushing us to remember what we have learned in our history classes — always apply the skills of OPCVL to every source we read and to continuously check our confirmation biases. We have seen how language can do great harm with terms like “Chinese virus” and “Kung Flu” which foster anti-Chinese sentiment, contributing to the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes. We have also seen language do great remedy as we find ourselves connected and warmed by meaningful phrases written by academic scholars, historians, songwriters, activists, and our own friends during a difficult time.
With all of this, it makes me reflect on how at the heart of Latineer is a voice for the discipuli and a place for students to share their viewpoints. There is room for advocacy here and every word written and published on our website is done with intention. This is the club’s way of contributing to the community with the space it has been given. It would make sense then for this same action to apply to ourselves and to the other areas of our lives too — so my biggest takeaway from Latineer is to utilize the skills we have and the spaces we are in to fight for the causes we believe in. This will look different for everybody as everyone possesses different skills and has access to different spaces. You bring with you certain abilities and gifts, and consequently have a certain amount of influence over the spaces and people in your life. I hope you use it to do your part in making the world a bit more just.
The future feels daunting but hopeful. I wish all of you--most notably the class of 2021!--the very best. I am excited about the ways we will all grow and make change in our communities.
Valete,
Christina Li
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