Alicia Simba has lived through so many versions of Hewitt, and is here to tell the tale. 

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Alicia, Barnard, PoliSci, Dar-es-Salaam (look it up)

Claim to fame: The baby room at T**p*** H**l, the second room/floor of Diana being a Writing Fellow, the black girl in your class with the weird accent who wouldn’t stop talking, member of SGA Exec during the Spring 2018 R*f*r*nd*m, , and the 2018-9 President of the greatest organization on the entire Columbia campus — The Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters that meets every Tuesdays from 9-10:30 pm in the Zora Neale Hurston Lounge next to the Brooks Hall elevator on the first floor

Where are you going? To teach whatever generation comes after Gen-Z, supposedly via grad school this summer

What are 3 things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2023?

1. Be open to new things — Everything good that has ever happened to me started off as an email I read/flyer I saw/conversation I had where I asked myself why not and then just did it. Then FOLLOW THROUGH WHEN YOU SAY YOU’RE GOING TO DO THING

2. SLEEP — It’s v cool to say that you stayed up late until 3 am doing nothing, and you can’t imagine taking an 8:40 class, but I promise you, the entire day hits differently if you wake up at 7 and go to sleep by midnight (turn on the Do Not Disturb function on your phone and whatever is the Android/Motorola equivalent)

3. Everyone has their own truth that they just need to live out (including you) — I wasted a lot of time wondering why people didn’t think or act the way I did and it was very easy for me to be sure that I was right all of the time. Once you realize that not everyone’s activism looks like yours, and people are learning different life lessons at different times, and everyone has different priorities, let it go and let people live. Also, you’re not perfect and your thought is gonna keep on evolving and lean in to that. But honestly, once I stopped being worried about other people’s business and did me, wallahi, I added years to my life.

“Back in my day…” Hewitt didn’t have a pasta bar, Hewitt didn’t have a halal section, Hewitt didn’t have smoothies, Hewitt didn’t have themed lunches, and Hewitt was believed to forever be under the control of Aramark

Favorite Columbia controversy? Lol too many to pick from! Pass!

Justify your existence in 30 words or fewer: As the only black person/international student in your class, I gave you that diversity of thought that you thought you could only get by “playing” Devil’s Advocate ;)

What was your favorite class at Columbia? Andrew Lynn let me write a paper comparing Dante’s “Inferno” to Shonda Rhimes’ “Scandal” during my first semester so I’m gonna be the free thinker who says “Legacy of the Mediterranean.” He also once used “Empire” in an analogy on how to write a paper so please take any class with him that you can!

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? I won’t even answer where I’m going after graduation, I defo won’t answer this lol

Whom would you like to thank? God (look it up)

One thing to do before graduating: I hate to say this but go to a frat house during Bacchanal at least once, it’s actually pretty fun :)

Any regrets? Not having a consistent EC sign-in, nothing else