Today we’d like to introduce you to Nia Smith.
Nia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always been involved with advocacy and student government. It’s one of the few things that stay pretty consistent when you move every couple of years. Everyone needs advocacy, and everyone has a system set up to allow it. When I got started at Trade Tech, I had only planned on being an architect. I just wanted to do something about the housing crisis, climate, and young POCs in design.
Through my program, I learned that justice is intersectional; if you’re willing to fight for one thing, you better be willing to fight for it all. So my need to make things better, coupled with an environment I had to familiarize myself with, and quickly since I wanted to transfer, meant that I needed to find a space to pursue my goals. The student government at LATTC was just that. It was a place where I could bring real change and bond with students and administration alike. It became a platform to amplify the climate issue, a resource to learn more about potential housing solutions, and a gateway to a host of civic unrest and instabilities that I was never aware of, like the fragile nature of DACA. I learned about people and how to work with them. That skill is the only way I’ve gotten anywhere.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I certainly can’t say it’s been an impossible road. I’ve always been pretty good at school and I really enjoy people, so I don’t doubt my nature has made things quite straightforward for me. But no road is ever completely smooth. During my first semesters at Trade, I was taking 7 am classes, and I lived in Torrance. With no car. But that difficulty became my strength. I will always rather commute by bus than by car, and I found really great uses of my time. I got really good at understanding the bus system, so good in fact, I was able to bring my critiques to Metro when they worked to redo the bus lines. Most of my obstacles are going to sound exactly like that one. An inconvenience that makes things much more difficult than they need to be vs. my tenacity and unwillingness to let it beat me. Things are never truly easy, but follow-through is all that can be asked for in difficult times.
Los Angeles Trade Technical College – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Right now, I work for the Associated Student Organization at LATTC. When it comes to my specialties, I like to think of myself as “human spackle.” If you need a hole filled, i.e., a job done, I’m there, happy to do it. But more specifically, I am an effective communicator, delegator, and organizer. I like to sit with my team and just come up with ideas. Once we find one that really gets us excited, we divide each other up and get it done.
I think that’s what I’m most proud of how well my team works together. We’ve done a thousand great and important events this year, but at the core, we came together to get them done. I’ve found what sets me apart from people is my willingness to say yes. I only say no if I absolutely, under zero circumstances, not a hope in the world can’t do it, but even if I have to take five buses and finish a phone call as I get there, I will always say yes. It makes you someone people can count on. You become the face, just because people see you everywhere.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to me is easy: Are you happy? That’s the whole question. Not are you going to be happy, are you going to have a big shiny thing, but are you happy? Right now, at this moment. I am happy, actually, incredibly ecstatic. I’d say that I’m successful. And as long as I keep doing what makes happy, designing, advocating, spending time with people I care about, then I will always be successful.
When you misconstrue success with material gains, it becomes difficult to ever feel successful. You will never have enough. But using yourself, your emotions, as a kind of barometer, you can gauge where your head is. I think it helps you to be more in tune with yourself, being able to identify when you feel truly happy.
Contact Info:
- Address: 400 W Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90015 - Website: http://aso.lattc.edu/
- Phone: 6094242944
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @ASO_at_LATTC; @__fashionia__
- Facebook: ASO Lattc
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