Getting Involved, How it Changed This Sophomore’s Experience

Student Senate Cultural Committee Chair and Sophomore nursing major Lulu Alryati, shares how she gets involved in campus clubs and activities. Photo by Grace DeSanti

When Student Senate Cultural Committee Chair and sophomore nursing major Lulu Alryati arrived on campus last fall she heeded the advice to get involved early.

Along with her role in Student Senate, Alryati, a Palestinian student who grew up in Schenectady, New York, is a volunteer for the University of Rhode Island’s Emergency Medical Services, a member of the sisterhood Powerful, Independent, Notoriously, Knowledgeable (PINK) Women, a URI 101 mentor and a tour guide on the pre-law track. 

However, she wouldn’t describe herself as a student who was involved when she was in high school. Alryati grew up around people who looked like her and with people of similar backgrounds, but ended up attending a high school with a predominantly white student population. She doesn’t recall enjoying high school or feeling like she fit in and found the community at URI a welcome change.

“I personally heard the advice of ‘get involved,’ but I never knew what that really meant until First Night,” Alryati explained, which is where she first discovered PINK Women. “They made me feel like, ‘okay I have a place, now where do I go from here?’”
From there, she discovered Student Senate, starting out as a general senator before being elected Cultural Committee Chair last April.

“Starting Student Senate was a little intimidating, but I loved it at the same time,” Alryati said. She credits the former committee chair with giving her the idea and encouragement to run in the spring election for a position that’s allowing her to get even more involved.

URI has over 30 established multicultural organizations that Alryati gets to work with along with multiple departments and centers across campus.

The University’s Diversity Week will be held the week of Monday, Nov. 4 through Friday, Nov. 8. This will be Alryati’s first Diversity Week as Cultural Committee Chair. 

“It’s really cool to be involved with that as an attending student, but be part of the planning committee as well,” she said.

With all of her different interests and passions, it seems nearly impossible to fit all of them into a career post-college, but Alryati has a detailed plan already.

“This sounds really crazy,” she said before sharing her dream job as a psychiatric nurse in a prison, preferably a men’s prison. That’s not where her plan ends as she wants to eventually be able to advocate for imprisoned men as a defense attorney, using her hands-on experience as a nurse to better help her clients.

“Regardless of what my job is, whether or not I change my mind, I want to be able to make a difference,” Alryati said.

Her true goal is just to be able to say that her life wasn’t just about her and that she helped give back to others in her community, especially because she views herself as someone who has been given and had to earn so much.

“Most people don’t want to do that job,” Alryati said of wanting to be a psychiatric nurse. “It’s hard, it’s straining. As emotional and sensitive as I am, I feel as though I can succeed in this because I do have a passion for helping people and I am empathic.” 

When she discovered her love for politics, however, she knew she just couldn’t stop there and added law to the equation. 

“It’s a lot of different directions,” she acknowledged, “but hopefully I can combine them one day.”

URI is where Alryati found her place and now she works as a tour guide, showing high school students the benefits of URI and a college experience. What ended up drawing her in was the community that she wants to grow and expand . 

Alryati wants current students to know that within multicultural organizations and events, everyone is welcome, and that it is important to show up and support your classmates.

Now that Alryati gets to add URI 101 mentor to her growing resume, she’s finding that she really does love standing in front of a classroom and could see a teaching assistant position in her future. There’s always more she wants to do, such as joining the Middle Eastern Students’ Association if she can find a way to work it into in her schedule.

For the new freshman class, Alyrati advises to find and make room for the things you enjoy that aren’t necessarily curriculum based, and getting involved is a great way to do that. 

“You’ll always find your niche,” Alyrati said. “I know some people struggle with being able to find their way in. In the end, I feel like everything eventually works out regardless of where you go and I feel like URI was the best choice for me.”