Photo Courtesy of AOCC
The Athletes of Color Coalition (AOCC) celebrated its second anniversary this summer and hit the ground running when students returned to campus in August. Established in the tumultuous summer of 2020, the Coalition has persevered against adversity and is proving that they are bigger and better than ever this year.
In the midst of a global pandemic, the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and a pause on regular life, academics, and athletics, the founding members of AOCC worked to create a community that would outlast their time at Conn. Most notably, Stephania Lopez ‘21, AOCC’s first president and then-captain of the women’s water polo team, along with Athletic Director Mo White and Women’s Basketball Coach and AOCC adviser Jackie Smith, were all instrumental advocates for the group’s formation.
Current president and senior squash player Angela Cao was also involved from the very beginning. “It was a really rough start at first just because it was remote. Getting people to join meetings was rough,” she said. They also had inconsistent leadership, with executive board members struggling to balance their academics and athletics with their commitments to the group. Junior and secretary Jazmyn Gillespie said she didn’t even know about the Coalition until her sophomore year. After attending an informational meeting with the encouragement of her track & field teammate, she decided to join the executive board.
In spring 2022, Cao helped set a stronger foundation with clearer expectations to reinvigorate their mission for the upcoming year. As COVID levels were dropping and Conn was opening up to in-person events again, AOCC’s ambitions and goals for community-building grew. “We had a slow start, but now I feel like we’re stronger than ever,” said Cao.
Camel Madness was the Coalition’s largest and most popular event to date, inviting all athletes and community members to celebrate the start of winter sports season on Oct. 21. Hosted in the Luce Gymnasium, the bleachers were packed with athletes of all disciplines, cheering on their teammates in various games and competitions. First-year Priscilla Ameyaw (women’s soccer), senior Maria Sell (women’s water polo), and sophomore Abby Illusorio (women’s basketball, track & field) all agreed that this was their favorite AOCC event to date. “Our E-board members worked hard to pull off an event like that and the turnout was amazing,” said Illusorio. “It was fun to see all the athletes at Conn come together for a night and have fun!” With a student DJ, lights, and new merchandise for the occasion, AOCC hopes that Camel Madness will become a tradition for years to come.
In addition to bringing athletes together for the first time, Gillespie was inspired by high school pep rallies and the school pride that comes with community: “I can’t speak for the entire student body, but I’ve always noticed that our collective school pride isn’t necessarily there.” Cao agreed, adding that publicity was a challenging yet vital aspect of the event’s success. They found that word-of-mouth was the most effective way to promote the event, as coaches told their teams and friends told friends. Hearing about the event from other athletes was more encouraging than seeing a faceless poster or Instagram post, especially for a first-time event.
Cao and Gillespie want to make AOCC a household name on campus, and large community events help establish them as a force for student engagement. Unlike other affinity groups, AOCC is not a club; rather, it is under the Camel Athletics umbrella, so the way they receive funding and reserve spaces on campus is different from typical student-run clubs. Although they are now part of Conn’s Race and Ethnicity Programs, along with the Men of Color Alliance, Asian Students in Action, and other student organizations, the athletics perspective provides a different hurdle to overcome.
“Because my time is spread so thin because of my sport, I can’t really make other affinity groups’ events which is so unfortunate because I want support,” Gillespie noted. “I thought that the AOCC would be a good space to represent everything that I am feeling in terms of who I am as an athlete, who I am as a student, and who I am as a person of color — a woman of color — that I haven’t necessarily received from other affinity groups.” Cao agreed, saying, “We’re all so busy with practices and other commitments that we can’t even show up to other people’s games sometimes. There are some teams that only have like one or two athletes of color. So giving them a space… is just an awesome way to come together.” With AOCC, they hope to make the experience less isolating and bring awareness to being an athlete of color at a predominantly white institution.
Conn was the last NESCAC to form a coalition for BIPOC student-athletes, but they are quickly learning from the successes of other schools. In spring 2021, the executive board, including Cao, Gillespie, Illusorio, and Brandon Allen ‘23 (men’s lacrosse) attended a NESCAC conference to network with the other coalitions. Allen recalled it being “a very productive and enlightening meeting,” and Illusorio added, “It was interesting to learn and gain knowledge and ideas from other institutions and seeing how their coalitions have been doing at their institutions.”
The AOCC has no plans of slowing down come next semester. They hope to have another Camel Madness event in the spring and host a Camel Alumni panel, where current students can network with past student-athletes and hear career advice. Sell noted that she hopes they can host more casual events at Unity House with other affinity groups and encourage more discussions among BIPOC students, their coaches, and the administration about their experiences too. Allen agreed, saying, “I hope to see a stronger following and support from the administration.” Ameyaw added, “I hope to see more of [AOCC’s] members show up to meetings and support the group and the idea behind it.”
