In this episode of Humans of Iowa State, Alexis Newport, a graduate student majoring in teaching English as a second language, shared about her passion and connection to linguistics and her experience as a queer student.
Newport described where her love for linguistics traces back to.
“Through a variety of different volunteer work that I did, I got interested in the world of teaching English as a second language,” Newport said. “I helped with their after school program for immigrant youth… I worked with a variety of English language teachers and I saw a need in my community for more of those.”
Newport’s choice of career path has shaped her in many ways.
“It’s made me honestly more of an empathetic person,” Newport said. “I specifically work with immigrant populations [and] just being able to know what their experience is on a deeper level like that, it helps to empathize more with their experience.”
Newport, who has engaged in queer activism since high school, is also the vice president of the Pride Alliance club at Iowa State.
“I originally got interested in wanting to be a part of a queer organization on campus because of the closing of the Center for LGBTQIA+ Student Success,” Newport said. “I wanted to see what I could do to try to keep some of those traditions and resources available to students.”
Being queer in a conservative state brings its own obstacles. Newport opened up about her personal experience.
“One of the biggest challenges of being queer… it can be difficult to find other queer people,” Newport said.
More of Newport’s story can be found in the video above this article or on the Iowa State Daily’s YouTube page.
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