Achieve the Dream: Moving Forward, Giving Back
Author(s)
Lorne Fultonberg
Writer
A student searches for cultural acceptance and helps others find the same.
Ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the annual Marade in downtown Denver, the 成人AV Newsroom is profiling students who are 鈥渁chieving the dream.鈥 This is the theme for the 成人AV students, faculty and staff marching behind the University banner this year.听
What are you?
That question used to follow Ontario Duley everywhere.
To the classroom, where his teacher helped students make Native American headdresses at Thanksgiving. To the playground at recess where his classmates would 鈥渨hoop like Indians.鈥
To his everyday conversations with people in his hometown of Aurora who hadn鈥檛 seen anyone like him.
What are you?
Most of the time, he avoided the question and changed the subject.
Sometimes, he just walked away. But those three words always came with him.
鈥淚 was always trying to find a counterpart, someone who I could culturally relate to,鈥 says Duley, a third-year political science student at 成人AV. 鈥淎t home, there鈥檚 food, family, gatherings, celebrations. And then you go to school and people have a completely misrepresented view of that identity.鈥
Born to a black father and a Seneca Native American mother, the middle child in a middle-class family, Duley grew up with four brothers and sisters.
When he was 11 years old, a car accident left his mom disabled. The next month, his parents separated. The next year, his mom lost her job. Soon after, they lost their house.
鈥淭hat's when we went on food stamps and government assistance,鈥 Duley recalls. 鈥淚 can remember times when there was just a box of cornflakes in the cupboard. But my mom persisted. She never gave up on us, she was always present and loving and affectionate, always giving us everything we needed.鈥
From an early age, Duley thought about helping others. He thought maybe he鈥檇 make a difference as a psychologist, but changed his mind in high school when he volunteered in Aurora鈥檚 Teen Court, working to ensure that first-time youth offenders didn鈥檛 repeat their criminal mistakes or wind up back in a courtroom.
鈥淓ven though there were tough situations happening for me, I always had the mindset that I could persevere,鈥 he says, crediting his mother and her cultural values. 鈥淚 always knew there was someone in a tougher position than I'm in.
鈥淢y dream has always been to help people, to give back in some way.鈥
As he now dreams of attending law school 鈥 something no one in his family has ever achieved 鈥 Duley hasn鈥檛 forgotten about the people who may relate to his past. A member of both the Native Student Alliance and the Black Student Alliance, he鈥檚 鈥渢rying to welcome students and make sure they have a space where they feel comfortable.鈥
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he plans to march with those same students in听, standing up for equality and acceptance.
鈥淚t's lonely if I make it and don't give back,鈥 he says.
And in giving back, he鈥檚 finally found an answer to the question he always dreaded.
What are you?
Now the words come easily: 鈥淲e鈥檙e all the human race.鈥