Campus Celebrity: Merci Best

Class Year: Freshman

Major/Minor: Neuroscience

Hometown: Richmond, VA

Extracurricular Activities that you are involved with: American Sign Language Club, College Partnership for Kids, Buddy Art, African Cultural Society, Syndicate Hip Hop Group, and Student Leadership Foundation

What are your interests/passions: STEM which means Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.  I want to help provide minorities and females with the opportunity to get into stem.  Some other things include visual art, music, reading, writing, crafting.

Who are some of your female role models: Rosa Parks, Oprah Winfrey, and my mom

How did you get into sign language? Sophomore year of high school I took American Sign Language as a class and one of our substitutes was deaf.  She invited me to her church and I started signing after that experience.  After that, I formed a sign language group my junior year and we did various performances around the area.  

How did you form the sign language club at William and Mary?  One of my friends from William and Mary told me that there was no sign language community here and we began to set up meetings with the Student Leadership Foundation director, Anne Arsenau.  We developed a plan of action for the new group and received overwhelming support with about 40 attendees at our very first meeting.

What are your plans for the future? I want to graduate with a degree in Neuroscience and see the American Sign Language Club (ASL) grow and flourish here at the college.  I want to also create a program for students to encourage females and minorities to go into the STEM fields.  I also want to keep grades as my top priority here.  

What are some of your highlights from freshman year: Starting ASL Club, getting accepted into Student Leadership Foundation, and being a part of Syndicate dance crew.  I have just been trying to take advantage of all of the opportunities that William and Mary has to offer such as volunteering with various organizations such as the local Salvation Army.  

Check out Merci’s video at this link: http://youtu.be/VOc6UXNE34c