By River Mitchell
@rivermitchell27
Springfield College senior Jaélen Daubon is a very active member of the Springfield College community involved in numerous different organizations on campus. On top of being a guard on the women’s basketball team, Daubon is also heavily involved with the BSU (Black Student Union) where she is the Secretary. As a Secretary of the Black Student Union, Daubon keeps track of attendance at all of the club’s meetings and sends out emails for the club’s meetings and other departments if need be to determine various scheduling. Daubon is a Communications/Sports Journalism major from Hyde Park, N.Y., and also records her podcast, JK Talks, with her co-host and fellow COSJ major Kaitlyn Kupiec.
The Student: How did you become involved with the BSU?
Daubon: This is a PWI (Predominately White Institution). The first year, it was kind of rough because of COVID so everyone didn’t have that social interaction or anything. Sophomore year got a little bit better but everything was still opening up so I didn’t know about too much stuff on campus. At the end of sophomore year, I heard about the clubs, S.S.B.D (Student Society for Bringing Diversity) and BSU. Someone that I knew, Paris, she was the president for BSU and I believe on the board for S.S.B.D. I’d come to meetings sometimes and it was just an opportunity to be around people that look like me on campus because there’s not a lot of us. It was a great experience to have that sense of community.
The Student: Why is black history so important to you?
Daubon: It’s so important just to actually acknowledge everything that we have gone through [and] stuff that we’ve contributed to. [There are things that] we’ve made help accomplish, just so we could feel appreciated and just shown all that we’ve done.
The Student: Why is it so important for people to be educated about black history?
Daubon: I feel like it’s a thing of respect to know where people have come from [and] what they’ve gone through and especially here in the US. Everything that unfolded that happened with race and everything with black people, I really do think it comes [down] to respect. Education is free to not only just bank on your black peers to let you know or teach you what’s going on or stuff that has happened. If you really care and if you want to see change, it’s a piece of progress to move forward so we don’t have a repeat of history that we’ve gone through.
The Student: How do you want to be remembered?
Daubon: I would say that I made a change here on campus. Someone to be trusted, someone that gave their all to something [and] someone who’s had a hand in doing something for the better.
The Student: What’s your favorite spot to relax on campus and why?
Daubon: I’d say the Union. It gives a little bit of social interaction but not too much because I can still kind of be to myself.
The Student: What’s the number one thing on your bucket list?
Daubon: For right now, I’ll say graduate and get into grad school.
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics