St. Paul, MN
Cheryl Philip still remembers the circle that Associate Professor of Anthropology Tom Williamson drew on the blackboard on the first day of her very first class at St. Olaf.
Inside the circle, Williamson wrote the word “Know.” Outside of it, he wrote the words “Don’t Know.” Pointing at the board, Williamson told the class, “The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.”
For Philip, that circle changed everything.
A graduate of a historically African American high school in south Chicago known for its student choir, Philip came to St. Olaf with interests in music and political science. But Philip, a native of India, became inspired to go outside her own circle to explore what she didn’t know. After her first year at St. Olaf, where she experienced race in a new way, she stopped singing and became more devoted to understanding identity. “I have this passion,” says Philip, “to explore how and why our identities, both self-identified and imposed, inform the ways in which we articulate ourselves.”
The work positions she held as an undergraduate in Admissions and Multicultural Affairs served to deepen her exploration of identity. “As an international student, I wanted to figure out who I was and where I fit in,” she says. “And St. Olaf certainly helped with that.”
Since her time at St. Olaf, Philip has discovered that we — as people, as institutions, and as a society — are constantly changing.
“St. Olaf is beginning to know itself more and discover things that it doesn’t know,” she says, citing that blackboard lesson from her first day on the Hill.
She hopes to help the college in this endeavor during her time on the Alumni Board. “I’m in it because of the students, faculty, and staff who have greatly impacted my life and continue to do so,” she says.
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