Wednesday, April 15, 2015 // The Statement
12B

A

fter finishing a mock job 
interview on the after-
noon of Nov. 24, History 

graduate student Austin McCoy 
received big news: it was the day 
the world would know if Darren 
Wilson would be indicted for kill-
ing Michael Brown. McCoy and 
his interviewer, Associate Prof. 
Matthew Countryman, along with 
other faculty and graduate stu-
dents, quickly pulled together a stu-
dent viewing of the announcement. 
Their hope was to give students 
both a place to watch and a way to 
understand the historical context 
of Ferguson’s upheaval — a topic 
McCoy had spoken about before.

“My first four years, I would con-

sider myself, you know, just a suc-
cessful grad student,” McCoy said, 
reflecting on his motivation to get 
involved as a student activist. “And 
then Trayvon Martin happened.”

The decision not to indict Wil-

son brought familiar deflation for 
McCoy, who felt himself profound-
ly changed when Martin’s killer, 
George Zimmerman, was found not 
guilty in 2013.

“Many of us are only one cop or 

one vigilante away from becoming 
a hashtag,” McCoy said. “It’s like, 
OK, I don’t have any choice right 
now but to get involved, because it’s 
that serious.”

Serious is certainly one way to 

describe McCoy’s work: a combina-

tion of grassroots organizing, racial 
justice education, and potentially 
groundbreaking research on Mid-
western cities in the seventies and 
eighties.

But if the urgency of these top-

ics has hardened McCoy at all, you 
wouldn’t get that from talking to 
him. Dressed in a purple sweater, 
shiny blue tie, and pristine white 
Nikes, McCoy often wears the kind 
of bright color that his consistent 
smile and loud laugh bring to a 
conversation. McCoy has the con-
fidence of a man six years into his 
Ph.D., and the unabashed optimism 
of an activist.

At 
the 
University, 
McCoy’s 

scholarship, organizing, and per-

W

hen asked, “tell me 
about how you got 
to Michigan,” most 

students respond with canned 
or rehearsed answers — “I grew 
up in this place,” “I wanted to do 
this thing with my life,” “I always 
knew I wanted to be a wolverine.” 
SMTD senior Khris Sanchez isn’t 
most students.

He begins by explaining the 

story of his parents: both immi-
grants from Peru, his dad took 
buses, trains, and even walked the 
distance from Peru to Oakland, 
Calif. to first arrive in the United 
States — holding on to the bottom 
of a train for hundreds of miles as 
he crossed the U.S. border. San-

chez is quick to bring up his par-
ent’s experiences, and it’s evident 
that much of his own personal 
philosophy has been shaped by 
their sacrifices.

A vocal performance major 

at the University, Sanchez’ path 
wasn’t always so clear. While 
he has held a love of music since 
preschool, even attending a pres-
tigious program called the Young 
Musician’s Program in the Bay 
Area, Sanchez actually started 
college at the University of Cali-
fornia, Irvine as an electrical 
engineering major, before trans-
ferring to the University.

“I felt incomplete because I 

wasn’t studying music. Electrical 

engineering just made me sad. It 
wasn’t my passion,” Sanchez said. 
“The only reason I did it was to 
satisfy my dad because he thought 
I would have a more stable job. 
But he saw how I was more pas-
sionate for music and he said ‘I 
respect you son, you do that.’”

Halfway through his freshman 

year, Sanchez had the opportuni-
ty to perform in front of one of the 
renowned SMTD vocal profes-
sors. He was then offered a schol-
arship to the University’s vocal 
program on the spot.

Once arriving at the Univer-

sity, Sanchez did not waste time 
becoming involved. Along with 
his extensive work in SMTD, he 

“

To those whom much is given, 
much is required,” reads the 
back of LSA junior William 

Royster’s T-shirt. The same shirt is 
being passed out to 46 high school 
freshman and sophomores in the 
main room of the Trotter Mul-
ticultural Center. The interview 
pauses as Will runs inside to give 
closing remarks to the three-day 
residential program he designed 
for Kalamazoo students to under-
stand the opportunities available at 
the University of Michigan.

“It was an idea in my head a year 

ago. I can’t describe how many 
hours we put in on this, raised 

$20,000 and we gave these stu-
dents an opportunity,” Royster said 
of the program.

William Royster, this year’s 

presidential candidate for The 
Team and a committee chair with 
the Black Student Union, has many 
ideas. This program, the Michigan 
Institute for the Improvement of 
African American Representation 
program, was one of them.

The ability to turn idea into real-

ity is Royster’s method of success. 
His answer is quick and prepared 
when asked about this. He has 
earned lots of it. As an independent 
student — his mother died when 

he was sixteen, and soon after his 
father left — Royster’s journey 
has been a steady uphill climb to 
remarkable achievement. He has 
no intentions of slowing down.

“You determine what you want 

to do, you make progress towards 
that thing, whatever it may be, and 
you do it. You do it well,” he said. 
“Today, seeing a lot of these kids 
from the same hometown as me 
with $50 stipends at the M-Den 
and me being able to say ‘Get what-
ever you want’ — that’s success.”

Royster has spent a great deal 

of time considering what it is he 
wants, for himself and for others. 

BRIAN BECKWITH/Daily

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

DELANEY RYAN/Daily

