K
ent State University senior Anaya Spencer’s passion for community outreach and social activism is homegrown, its seeds planted by the example of women in her family.
Her grandmother owned and operated a home daycare in the inner city of Cleveland, sometimes providing childcare and resources at her own expense to those in the community who needed assistance. Her mother is a nurse and community health worker.
“When I was younger, I didn't really understand why we were helping people,” Spencer recalls. “But now that I’m older, I understand. It helped shape who I am today.”
At Kent State, Spencer is majoring in public health with a concentration in community outreach and development and a minor in Africana studies. Throughout her college career, she has focused on honoring her family legacy by serving communities that face injustices—which includes serving on executive boards of student organizations, participating in community engaged learning trips and volunteering for community programs.
During her sophomore year, she participated in an alternative break program through Community Engaged Learning at University College’s Center for Undergraduate Excellence. The students experienced food insecurity firsthand during a simulation in which they only had a small amount of money for food via gift cards and no phone.
“I remembered how my grandma had to help women get food at the end of the month,” Spencer says. “I learned the ins and outs about how everything is connected, like the lack of health care and the lack of transportation.”
Black women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.
In summer 2022, while interning for the Cleveland Clinic via the Undergraduate Administrative Internship Program, she partnered with My Kota Bear (a Black-owned nonprofit that provides services and goods for neonatal intensive care unit families), to host a community baby shower. It galvanized her passion for helping Black mothers and infants who lack resources and support.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women—a heightened risk that spans all income and education levels. However, most of the maternal deaths are preventable.
Spencer will have the opportunity to focus on Black maternal and infant health and equity as Kent State University’s 2023–2024 Newman Civic Fellow. The Newman Civic Fellowship is a yearlong program that recognizes and supports student public problem solvers. Campus Compact, a national coalition of colleges and universities working to advance the public purpose of education, provides the fellows with training and resources.
Fellows are nominated by their university president or chancellor based on their potential for public leadership and work with communities. Kent State President Todd Diacon nominated Spencer for the program, and Craig Berger, associate director of Community Engaged Learning, coordinated the selection process.
During her fellowship, Spencer will focus on empowering the local community by providing education about disparities in Black maternal and infant health and collaborating with community organizations. Throughout the semester, she is planning a series of events titled Beyond Delivery: Addressing the Realities of Black Maternal Health. The events will allow her fellow students to better understand the issue of Black maternal and infant health, do service projects and learn how to advocate for Black maternal health.
“Volunteering is what brought me to the fellowship and my whole passion for social activism.”
—Anaya Spencer
“Here on campus, I plan on showing exactly what’s going on for Black women and maternal health and how it’s also impacting the health of Black babies,” Spencer says. “I will be clear on the different precautions that people can take. And I’ll incorporate volunteering into it because that is what brought me to the fellowship and my whole passion for social activism.”
Spencer also will collaborate with 153 student civic leaders from 38 states who were selected to be part of the 2023–2024 Newman Civic Fellowship cohort. Fellows will meet monthly to participate in virtual training and networking opportunities. “The whole idea is to meet with people from other universities who have like-minded interests in social activism,” Spencer says.
Spencer spends hours volunteering but she also finds time to do research and study abroad. She is a McNair Scholar and a research assistant for the Program for Research on Anxiety Disorders among African Americans, a research lab in the Department of Psychological Sciences. She also is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., and president of the Integrated Greek Council.
In late May and early June 2023, Spencer was among a group of seven students from Kent State’s Center for African Studies who traveled to the University of Fort Hare’s Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Funded by a grant from the US Embassy in South Africa, the Heritage Ubuntu Fellowship provides opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange across borders.
Students from Kent State University and the University of Fort Hare met virtually throughout the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters, and during the trip they met frequently to collaborate on research projects. They have continued to work together virtually throughout the Fall 2023 semester, and the University of Fort Hare students plan to visit Kent State in November.
Spencer says going to South Africa gave her a “welcome back home” feeling. “While I know that I am of African descent and may never know where I come from exactly, going back to the African continent, the motherland, had a great influence on me,” she says. “It reminded me of why community is so important to me and my family. The word ‘Ubuntu’ means ‘I am because we are.’”
Although she says she learned many things from the education abroad program, what stuck out most to her is that “everyone looks out for one another,” Spencer says. “While no place is perfect, South Africa was beyond my wildest dreams. So many people there looked like me and had such beautiful energy and positive mindsets.”
In the future, Spencer hopes to earn a graduate degree, do more research and continue to advocate for the health of Black mothers and children.
She says she also feels a tug at her heart to give back to the community that helped shape her life: “I would like to implement different programs and work closely with the community where I grew up.”