Hi Everyone! My name is Patrick Byrd and I use They/He pronouns. I am currently a junior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte double majoring in Sociology and Political Science and triple minoring in Psychology, Mathematics, and Women’s & Gender Studies. In 2018, I joined the Levine Scholars Program as a scholar in the graduating class of 2022.
Previously, I have worked as Diversity Peer Educator within UNC Charlotte’s Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusion and as a Summer Intern and member of the Youth Senate with Time Out Youth, Charlotte’s LGBTQ+ Youth Center. Upon being introduced to the nonprofit sector and attending Creating Change, a national LGBTQ+ activist conference, I realized that I wanted to pursue a career in Diversity, inclusion and activism.
I am super ecstatic about joining the team of Awesomely Authentic, and being able to learn more about increasing awareness for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA)! While at Awesomely Authentic, I hope to expand my knowledge when it comes to corporate inclusion and working with organizations to create active allyship and diversify perspectives within the workplace. For many individuals, occupations and careers can be very isolating and challenging as the workplace is not designed to be inclusive or equitable, and I am excited to learn how to change this at Awesomely Authentic! I truly think my time at Awesomely Authentic will be all that and a bag of chips!
In the future, I plan to work within the nonprofit sector within social justice to ensure that individuals that have been marginalized by society have a platform for their voice to be amplified. Exemplified by the inequality in society, there is a deep-rooted thought that some bodies matter more than others. I hope to play a part in people recognizing the bias that society has taught and remedy the ways within social settings and systems that people are told they do not matter.
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