Student leaders Dylan France and Andi-Rose Oates discuss what fueled their involvement as student leaders, how they hope to inspire other students to become agents of change and what their Black heritage and Black culture means to them.
Syracuse University has a proud and storied tradition of honoring Black History Month through a series of engaging and thought-provoking student-run programs, events and discussions occurring through March 3 on campus.
The theme for this year’s celebrations is “Existing Outside the Lines: The Colors of Resistance,” and through a lens of intersectionality as art, student organizers like Dylan France ’24 hope to express both the rich diversity present within the Black community, and the broad spectrum of color that Blackness holds.
Dylan France
“If you look across campus, there’s so many students from so many different backgrounds doing all these amazing things. To highlight that creativity and the different leadership efforts from students, that’s the goal: to showcase all these different avenues and outlets while demonstrating how we’re existing beyond the lines of what, traditionally, blackness is looked as,” says France, a dual major studying finance and real estate in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.
France and sophomore Andrea-Rose Oates ’26 are among the many passionate and talented Black student leaders who have become agents of change for their peers during their time on campus. And France and Oates are committed to helping train a new generation of student leaders.
France serves as the comptroller for the Student Association, is one of two undergraduate representatives to the Board of Trustees, belongs to both the Renée Crown University Honors Program and the Black Honors Society, and is a member of the Black History Month Committee.
Oates is an energetic leader of Dimensions, a peer-to-peer mentoring program geared toward self-identified women of color. Ever since she was a child, Oates has been inspired to do good and make her community a better place. But that drive intensified in the summer of 2020 after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Andi-Rose Oates
“That’s when I became passionate about my advocacy work, whether it was talking about the issues affecting the Black population within America and the world, really focusing on that and getting more involved with not only my advocacy, but my direct action to bring about change in these issues,” says Oates, who is studying both public relations in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and policy studies in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
On this “’Cuse Conversation,” France and Oates discuss what fueled their involvement as student leaders and how they hope to inspire other students to become agents of change, explore what their Black heritage and Black culture means to them, share how they found community on campus and offer up their highlights from the Black History Month celebrations.
Check out episode 157 of the “’Cuse Conversations” podcast featuring France and Oates. A transcript [PDF] is also available.
France: “My ancestors came through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. My parents are both Howard University alumni. I am highly integrated in different local and national organizations that celebrate Blackness. I grew up having a very high perception of what Black excellence is, and it means a lot to exist beyond the lines because I knew Blackness to be one thing, and I’m existing in a completely different way now than I ever expected. I had so many different role models and examples of Black excellence in my life.”
Oates: “My Blackness is definitely not something that can be ignored. At Syracuse, it has worked in my favor because I’ve had the opportunity to be part of these cool organizations like Dimensions. Being Black definitely has its ups and downs. Syracuse does a great job of welcoming different organizations and student-run clubs, and we’re definitely a culture-friendly University. The fact that we have these successful Black History Month events on campus shows how proud people are to not only show off their heritage and their culture, but to share that gift with the Syracuse community. It’s great to see.”
France: “The Barner-McDuffie House [119 Euclid] played such a large role in my development here at Syracuse. When I came to campus at first, I didn’t get to meet that many people because we were in the middle of the COVID pandemic. 119 Euclid really meant so much to me during this time. That’s where I met the founding members of the Black Student Union, where we realized, ‘hey, there wasn’t an organization that represented the entire African diaspora on campus. Let’s try to make that happen.’ That was all centered around 119 Euclid. It was much more than a meeting place. 119 Euclid was such a welcoming place where I met some of my closest friends.”
Oates: “Over the past year and a half I’ve learned a lot about myself in the sense of how I interact with people, how I learn and what I want to do with my life moving forward. Through Syracuse, whether it was my classes or the activities and organizations I’m involved with, I’ve learned a lot about what I want to do in the future. Syracuse has helped give me real world opportunities and experiences, allowing me to try new things. That’s the beautiful part about Syracuse University and colleges in general: it gives you this space to meet different people and throw yourself into different experiences that you never would have thought of before. I’m very grateful for that.”
Note: This conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.
