The UCF Africana Studies program proudly awards the Africana Studies and Business Services Dining Stipend to senior Jasmine Harris. Sponsored by UCF Business Services, the stipend offers an all-access meal plan that grants seven-day access to both campus dining halls, 63 South and Knightro’s. An additional $200 in Dining Dollars is also included, which students can use at any UCF Dining Services restaurant.
When asked about how the stipend has helped her, Harris explained, “this award has supported my academic career by saving me time.” She elaborated on that by saying “I spend a lot of time on campus studying, so it’s nice to not have to worry about meals as much anymore and [the stipend] allows me to direct more time to academics and leisure,”
Harris also described how the Africana Studies program has allowed her to take what she’s learned from the program and apply it to her yoga training in order to “produce a better understanding of race-based stress and trauma and, therefore as a yoga practitioner, develop an ongoing understanding of how a restorative yoga practice can help alleviate emotional wounds from ethnic race-based stress and trauma.” Harris hopes that as she grows as a yoga teacher, she will be able to give back to the communities she has studied, and “bring awareness that we all have some form of race-based stress and trauma that we can unpack and promote conscious living to overall help improve well-being.” Harris is also highly considering studying the African Diaspora in graduate school in the future.
Jasmine Harris will serve as a panelist for the Fall 2021 James Weldon Johnson Lecture Series where she will present on strategies for self-care. The James Weldon Johnson Lecture Series, titled Study Away Research, Strategies for Self-Care, and Careers in Social Justice: Student Opportunities in IDS Research and History, Healing, and Human Rights will take place virtually through Zoom on October 26, 2021, at 12 p.m. Registration for this lunch and learn lecture is now open.