Candice Miller is a rising sophomore at the University of Michigan who is interested in science and health. In the future, Candice hopes to focus her health interest on women’s and children’s health and how they are interrelated. Candice will be returning to the Michigan Community Scholars Program in the fall as a peer advisor for the Intergroup Relation Council. Candice also serves as a LSA student dean ambassador for the liberal arts college at the University of Michigan.
Candice talks about how she was deeply impacted by the graduation ceremony and the opportunity to build community with the LoveLife volunteers. In a moment of coming together in song and dance, Candice saw the beauty of art in bringing together strangers and creating a new family. You can watch Candice read a portion of her dispatch by clicking here.
“As we danced and sang into the afternoon, I felt that I truly belonged.”
Being a part of the graduation at the Adolescent Health clinic in Hillbrow, Johannesburg has been one of the most memorable parts about being in South Africa thus far. At the ceremony I presented a certificate to one of the volunteers at Love Life—nicknamed GroundBreakers—to whom I helped to teach the module. During the ceremony, I specifically remember reading my student’s full name off of his certificate. This was significant to me because many of the people that we had worked with had not told us their full name.
As I read his name to the crowd in front of me, I watched his face light up. This became a meaningful memory to me because, when I graduated from high school last year, I remember how my full name was called and I proudly walked across the stage. As I looked at him, he walked up to me with a sense of confidence. When I presented him with the certificate he, in return, gave me a big hug. The hug he gave me was more significant than any certificate I could have given him. In that moment, I knew that the honor was all mine.
The celebration that occurred after the ceremony reminded me of what community is truly about. Although I have a community at home, I have only felt the sincere welcoming from a group of strangers a few times in my life. After the graduation ceremony, our Pedagogy ofAction group combined with the LoveLife group to form a circle that, to me, represented unity. We danced in the courtyard of the Hillbrow Adolescent Health clinic, singing chants and dancing together. At this moment my two left feet worked together in unison with the people that we were dancing with.
I realized that, dancing in unison with everyone and acting as a collective, I forgot about my dance moves and immersed myself in the new community that had been created between our two groups. As we danced and sang into the afternoon, I felt that I truly belonged.
