Wednesday, April 15, 2015 // The Statement

5B

Keya Patel by: Emilie Plesset, Daily News Editor

Natasha Dabrowski by: Tanya Madhani, Daily Staff Reporter

Hannah Lee by: Caroline Filips, Daily Arts Writer

learning from us is an integral
experience because that’s what
it will be like in the real world,
you’re not just like surrounded
by people who are just like you
in terms of your academic back-
ground,”
Patel
said.
“Having

people that are not engineers do
provide a lot of benefits. I think
people value that too.”

Though
as
president
Patel

works with all the BLUElab teams,
she first began her involvement as
a member and then project leader
of BLUElab Sa Nimá Collabora-
tive, a project working to bring
nighttime lighting to Samox San
Luca, Guatemala. The town cur-
rently uses candles for lighting

because of limited energy sources.
Patel has traveled to the project’s
partner community in Guatemala
three times.

“That team has definitely been

the most meaningful to me in
college, even sometimes more so
than being President of BLUElab
because Sa Nimá is the way that I
got into all this work,” Patel said.

Throughout college Patel was

also involved with the Ginsburg
Student Advisory Board and was
a member of the University figure
skating team. However, working
with BLUElab has become her
primary endeavor.

“I’ve dropped everything else

that I do just to focus my heart

into this and be able to provide
as many hours a week into this as
possible,” Patel said. “I sometimes
wish I could have done everything
I used to be doing, but it’s been
so worth it to me to put in all this
effort into BLUElab and see where
it’s gone this past year and helping
all our teams as much as I can.”

Engineering junior Katherine

Rouen, BLUElab internal vice
president, said Patel has been
one of the BLUElab’s most trans-
formative presidents and has
moved the organization forward
throughout her presidency.

“She’s really been someone who

has moved BLUElab away from
solely
implementing
technol-

ogy, and being more about think-
ing about the end users and the
stakeholders that we work with,”
Rouen said.

Rouen said Patel worked to

meet with each team and reached
out to individual team members.

“When she’s involved in some-

thing she’s 100 percent there,”
said LSA junior Emilee Lewis, a
member of Sa Nimá Collaborative.
“I feel like that’s the main thing
that’s hard to find nowadays.
When you have a meeting with
Keya, she is 100 percent present
and you’re the only thing that
matters at that moment.”

Patel
said
working
with

BLUElab has been the most valu-

able experience throughout her
time at the University. She said the
skills she has harnessed through
her leadership within the orga-
nization are very translatable to
the professional workforce. After
graduation, Patel will be working
with sales and business strategy
for Dropbox.

“Sometimes to me the work I

do with BLUElab is so much more
valuable than school stuff,” Patel
said. “I’ve learned so much more
out of BLUElab than I ever think
I would have in class and I spend
more hours a week doing BLUE
lab than studying for my classes.
You learn so much out of it, so it’s
totally worth it to me in the end.”

international students, with trans-
fer students, with students from
all across the nation, students who
have totally different political and
religious beliefs than myself,” Dab-
rowski said. “The University in a
lot of ways can create spaces for
you to talk about those even for
students who might not self-select
to create those conversations. It’s
easy to just go through college
and just take classes and focus on
your studies, but I’ve been so much
more enriched by all of the organi-
zational and academic experiences
pushing me to go beyond the class-
room.”

Dabrowski endured a long pro-

cess of creating proposals and
doing research at both the Univer-

sity and peer institutions to judge
the feasibility of creating the new
program. Her work culminated
in speaking in front of the His-
tory department, from whom she
received the support to continue
shaping the logistics of the new
minor.

“It’s still, to date — my LSA stu-

dent government adviser jokes
— the fastest student government
project we’ve had ever,” Dabrowski
added.

But Dabrowski is a determined

person and navigating the bureau-
cracy of the University is some-
thing that comes naturally to her,
according to LSA senior Corey
Walsh, LSA SG vice presiden.

“It’s definitely something that

does not come easily to many
people, but with Natasha, it’s like
a dance,” Walsh said. “She always
knows who exactly to be speaking
to, always has the perfect agenda
and always has a next step, where-
as a lot of people face roadblocks
and give up because they think it’s
an unattainable task, but with her
it’s always ‘here’s our next venue,
this is where we’re going next, I’ll
see you at the next meeting.’”

It’s Dabrowski’s friendly and

energetic personality, Walsh said,
that really motivates their projects
and their agendas as student gov-
ernment executives.

“Something that’s most strik-

ing to me about (Dabrowski) is the
emotional contagion that she has,”

Walsh said. “She exudes this ener-
gy and light that’s so contagious
for all of the other people that she
spends time with. Being around
her you always feel engaged and
you always want to care about what
she cares about because of the emo-
tion that she exudes.”

But out of all of her experiences

on campus, Dabrowski said she
will miss the people who have sup-
ported and guided her here most of
all when she graduates in May.

“In my senior year I’ve been

able to make even more friends
and meet even more people,” she
said. “I think that has created such
an unforgettable friendship that I
know those relationships will go
beyond the campus, but they thrive

so much here. A couple of months
from now, I won’t be able to go
down the street and be able to see
five of my friends. I’ll have to fly
across the country perhaps. The
relationships that you create and
form from all of these transforma-
tive experiences are ones that I will
miss the most. I’ll continue them,
but they’re just going to be differ-
ent.”

Continuing
her
government

and policy-making involvement,
Dabrowski said she is eyeing a few
public policy and PR positions in
Washington, D.C. after graduating.

“I’m still navigating my future,”

Dabrowski said. “As of right now,
the nature of politics is that doors
open very quickly.”

tions, there’s a theme of inclusion
and diversity and social justice,”
she said. “That is something I’m
super passionate about, creating
spaces for all students on campus
to feel comfortable. “

Within her sizable sphere of

campus involvement, comprised
of contributions she modestly
regards as “small,” she makes a
point to help others realize their
full potential. Even over coffee
for an interview focused on her
accomplishments, Lee was more
interested in the minute details of
my life than discussing herself.

When she arrived on campus

by way of her relatively homog-
enous hometown of Rochester, Lee
sought out opportunities to engage
in and provide diversity education.
She immediately became involved
in the Michigan Community Schol-
ars program because of its social
justice and community service
focus. In attempts to foster inclu-
sive environments, Lee facilitates
weekly
three-hour
discussions

on religion within her Intergroup
Relations class. Among her group
of 18 students varying in race,
gender, religion and sexual ori-
entation, she successfully enables
forward-thinking conversations of

coexistence and open-minded per-
spectives. Within the group, she
makes a point to not only create an
inclusive and comfortable space for
all, but also speak from a humanis-
tic standpoint.

“I know diversity takes time and

its sometimes hard to understand
where other people are coming
from, but if you have more perspec-
tives and if you are understanding
more people, it really helps you
become a better person,” she said.
“There was a moment where I feel
like my group clicked, it was really
cool because I know through dia-
logue, it’s changing people’s per-

spectives and how they see the
world.”

She sources her inspiration

from her seemingly well-rounded
upbringing, insisting her parents
initiated her fascination with dif-
ferent cultures and customs, and
that she was raised to care and
fight for others, understand them
and enact change together.

“My parents gave me experi-

ences to show me that that’s not the
norm in the world,” she said. “They
took me on a lot of humanitarian
and mission trips, we did a lot of
service in Pontiac and Detroit.”

Looking towards the future of

her positive pathway, Lee hopes to
continue utilizing her resources to
promote causes for social justice,
ideally in philanthropy, social jus-
tice and dialogue. Last summer she
found her niche within her work
for a nonprofit.

“I see philanthropy as your

time, your treasure, and your tal-
ent. I think my long terms are to
engage in philanthropy somehow,
whether that’s working for a non-
profit or for a foundation,” she said.
“I would love to be a professor one
day, I think that would be such an
amazing job, teaching and being
part of academia.”