Erik Jarory de Jesus
Junior in College
Double Major in Anthropology & Creative WritingÂ
Erik is committing his time and beliefs to help bring a change for student rights through his organization, Occupy USF.
How would you describe yourself?
“I don’t always go after what I want, but when I decide to go after something I put my everything into it. I am someone who dreams a lot more then they should and cannot stand stagnation. I moved around a lot growing up, so I am used to new things and I like that feeling.”
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One thing you want to do before you die?
“Travel to as many places as possible to fill up my passport and make a change in the world”
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What is your greatest accomplishment?
“Starting Occupy USF. I thought it was a wonderful idea and when I saw that nothing of the sort existed at USF I decided to start something here and we have been very successful”
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What is an experience that changed you?
“Having to help run an organization based upon the idea of change. At first, it was just a whim, but now it has turned into an entity of its own. When people have come to ask me what should be done and what direction they think the movement should move in, I have realized that my words carry weight and that change is possible, even if its from a small start. Occupy USF is still in its infancy, so its possibilities to grow often leave me awe struck. Right now our focus is fighting tuition hikes and educating the student population. We are planning to hopefully extend our goals to really help make a change at USF and across campuses in Florida.”
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What drives your passion for the organization Occupy USF?
“What sparked my interest was an article about the national class walk out that I saw on Facebook. When I did some digging around, I found this to be an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, which was based off a protest in Madrid, Spain, I was drawn into it. That is when I started Occupy USF and since then I have gotten so much support. Internet networking has done wonders by making a 50+ member group in less then a week.”
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What is Occupy USF?
“We are an organization with the overall goal to do something about the increasing tuition hikes and the lack of results it is producing in the quality of the education, as well spreading education about current events. For the most part we use peaceful protest like the teach-in that is planned for this upcoming Thursday. There is also Occupy Tampa, which is a separate branch of Occupy College. Many of our members go to the protest downtown at Occupy Tampa and we work hand in hand by sharing ideas and resources. The idea is that by being separate we can be better focused on our individual goals, while still working towards the same over all goal.”