Dear Higher Education: Letters from the Social Justice Mountain

The Outsider Who Stays: Mentorship and Sponsorship for Women of Color in Academia — A Lived Experience

Monique Holsey - Hyman

Holsey-Hyman

Abstract

I write from my lived experience as a woman of color in higher education, who often feels like the outsider who chooses to stay. I write as someone who lives into the possibility that higher education hosts transformation. I draw upon my story to speak about times where I have been seen but not sponsored and where I have felt the emotional weight of isolation. In doing so, I remind others who are of this mindset that mentoring, honest sponsorship, and a strengths-based orientation can change things, provide a doorway, create space, and position us for leadership and belonging. Remaining in the academic world is not only about persistence but also about my purpose, particularly for students, for girls who would lead, and for other women of color. I let my purpose shape my decision-making even when things go awry, and discouragement looms large. I remind myself that higher education is transformable because we women of color are leading within and towards it, filled with courage, commitment, integrity, and vision, even if we must occupy uninvited spaces “While They Be." When this happens, women of color not only flourish individually but also help shape higher education as a whole for generations of students who follow