Student leader lends a hand

By Jesse Stephenson
The Metropolitan

Eight-year-old Alycia Harper spent a sizable chunk of time this summer at Metro, where she attended gobs of meetings and tooled around for hours in the offices for both Womenâs Studies and the student government.

Thatâs because Alyciaâs mom, Teresa Harper, the vice president of Diversity for Metroâs student government, has taken on plenty of work at around campus.

The 39-year-old Metro senior divides her time at college between her student government responsibilities, classes and her part-time clerical position in the Metro Womenâs Studies office on Ninth Street Park.

Harper, an English major and Womenâs Studies minor, is fast becoming a prominent, very vocal champion on campus for people with physical and learning disabilities.

Over the past few months, she has worked as a student government liaison to Leadership Education  and Advocacy with Direction, an advocacy group for disabled Metro students.

Harper has gone to the groupâs meetings with Alycia in tow and a head full of ideas. She said helping to secure an equal shot at success for students with physical and learning disabilities is part of her job.

In the last several weeks, Harper has helped the advocacy group compile a list of problem areas that LEAD wants Metro administrators fix.

ãPeople with disabilities pay the same tuition as us, and everything the college has to offer is available to us,ä she said. ãIt should be available to them, too.ä

Harperâs course work allows her to delve into the writings of some of her favorite female authors, a bonus since she lists reading books about women and race relations as one of her favorite pastimes.

Her education in Womenâs Studies has also made Harper aware of her own feminism, she said.

ãI would have never called myself a feminist when I was young, but I was,ä she said. ãItâs just that I didnât have a name for it.ä

Beyond her activities on campus, Harper works part time at the Denver Childrenâs Home, one of the places Social Services sends children when they are removed from their legal custodianâs care.

Harper runs a dorm in the home and tries to instill a sense of stability and hope in her charges since many of them come to the shelter with little of either, she said.

ãI take them shopping, roller-skating, all kinds of stuff,ä she said. ãI try to show them that even though all these horrible things have happened to them, they can still be productive people, they can still be OK.ä

Harper said she plans to teach high school English after she graduates and she also hopes she can teach her students a thing or two about themselves.

ãStudents who leave my class will have validated themselves by something they have read or written in my classroom,ä Harper said.