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[ Music ]

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[applause]

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>> Thank you all.

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Do you remember the moment when you realized[br]what you wanted to do with your life?

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I do. It was just a couple years back and[br]I had recently moved into a new apartment

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that overlooked my old college campus.

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And I was telling a friend how much[br]I like the view and I mentioned,

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you know sort of offhandedly at first, I[br]said it's so fitting that I live so close

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to school now because campus always[br]felt like home to me anyways.

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And it was true.

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As an undergraduate student I[br]was very involved on campus.

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I was the president of my sorority,[br]I served on student government,

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I started the school spirit club,[br]school was my life, campus was home.

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And when I said those words that day it[br]just hit me and I thought oh my gosh,

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if I study higher education then I can work

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on college campuses forever[br]and I'll never have to leave.

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So I did and here I am.

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I talk about that story, you know, that[br]moment often when explaining to people why I'm

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so passionate about higher education or[br]why I like working with college students,

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but there's a part of the[br]story that I usually leave out.

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And that is exactly why college felt like[br]home to me back then and it wasn't just

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because of friends or student organizations,[br]it was because for a period during

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that time I didn't really have[br]anywhere else to call home.

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I was homeless.

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And it turns out I was not the only one.

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It's estimated that there are upwards

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of 58,000 homeless students on[br]college campuses nationwide.

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And this is likely a low estimate.

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A more recent study of community college[br]students found that 14 percent were homeless

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and half, 50 percent, were[br]experiencing housing insecurity.

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I became a part of this statistic after the[br]economy crashed in 2008 and I lost my job.

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Shortly after my car was repossessed.

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I was evicted from two different apartments and[br]I had failed four semesters worth of classes.

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My life was in a constant state of upheaval

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but through all this I kept[br]just trying to go to school.

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It never even occurred to me to take a break.

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And plus I don't want to drop out of school.

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Being a student was my entire life.

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I identified as being a student.

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I never identified as being homeless.

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Since then I've become very passionate[br]about helping at risk students succeed.

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And after working with this population for[br]several years now I'm realizing more and more

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that homelessness truly is a hidden[br]problem, especially among college students.

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And this is largely due to misconceptions that[br]we have about homelessness that make it hard

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for us to accept that this[br]problem can happen to students.

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Prior to working in this[br]field I had misconceptions

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about what homelessness looked like.

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I bet that everyone here has a very[br]specific stereotype that comes to mind

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when I say the word homeless, right?

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This is what I looked like when I was homeless.

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It doesn't really fit the stereotype, does it?

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Most of our students won't.

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There are different definitions of homelessness[br]that range from people living in shelters

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or sleeping in their cars to[br]those facing eviction or people

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that are couch surfing like I was.

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Most students aren't even aware that what[br]they're experiencing is homelessness.

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And even if they were no student wants[br]to be labeled as homeless anyways.

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Students just want to fit in and they will try[br]their hardest to keep their situation hidden.

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Another mistake we make is that we assume that[br]students have some level of family privilege.

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So we assume that students[br]have families and parents

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and those families are safe and stable, loving.

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We assume that families are able

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to provide financial support including[br]housing to the student, if needed.

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So you know how can a student be homeless?

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Can't they just move back home?

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Unfortunately that's not the[br]reality of a lot of our students.

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It definitely was not my reality.

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Sometimes there are no parents, no[br]family, or the family may be unable

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or unwilling to provide support of any kind.

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There might not be a childhood[br]or family home to return to.

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In my situation, although I was[br]occasionally able to crash at my dad's place,

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his living situation wasn't safe or stable.

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So it wasn't really an option for me.

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I was lucky of the fact that I[br]pretty much always had a place

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to sleep even if it was inconsistent.

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But all the instability still[br]had a huge effect on every aspect

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of my life, especially my academics.

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Before all this started happening[br]I was a Dean's list student.

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This is hardly scientific evidence[br]because this is just based on my GPA

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but one would not be wrong to assume

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that being homeless may have negatively[br]impacted my grades, it probably did.

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But unfortunately we don't know how[br]this problem affects other students

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because we have very little[br]data on this subject.

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We haven't done a good job of identifying[br]homeless students, giving them support

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and resources and tracking their progress[br]through college, even when we've known

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that we have homeless students on our campuses.

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Just recently EMU made national[br]news when it was discovered

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that a student was sleeping in[br]his car and in this library.

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People seemed shocked that such a big problem[br]could be going on seemingly unnoticed.

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But when you don't have any data it's really[br]hard to prove that a problem even exist.

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But it does exist.

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Let me tell you it is really hard[br]to focus on school if you don't know

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where you're going to sleep that night.

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I recently attended a lecture on housing and[br]the speaker said something that really stuck

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with me, he said without stable[br]housing everything else falls apart.

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Students cannot learn if their[br]basic needs are not being met.

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And we cannot help them achieve[br]success until we are willing to admit

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that homelessness is a problem on our campuses.

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And it is a problem but it is not one[br]that colleges need to solve alone.

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In fact this is a great opportunity for colleges[br]to collaborate with community organizations

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that are already doing this type of work.

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EMU, Washtenaw community college and Ozone[br]House recently launched the MORE program

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which places support for homeless students from[br]Ozone house right on those college campuses.

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And our new millennial Ozone Board is[br]going to be doing outreach in the community

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and on campuses raising awareness and[br]helping to connect students to resources.

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These are just a couple of examples[br]of what this collaboration is looking

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like right here in our community.

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And now that all of you are aware

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of this problem you can also[br]help be a part of our solution.

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And there'll be lots of ways for you to[br]continue to help moving forward, don't worry.

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But for now an easy way to start is simply[br]by rejecting stereotypes and misconceptions

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that you may have had about homelessness.

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And instead acknowledging[br]that this problem exists.

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For far too long homeless students[br]have been hidden on our campuses

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and they deserve an opportunity to[br]succeed in college and I believe

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that if we continue working together[br]we can give our students, all students,

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the opportunity to achieve success.

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Thank you.

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[ Applause ]

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Thank you.

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[applause]