Belonging Better

Josie Zenger remembers walking through the doors to her new high school in Queens, New York, and immediately feeling out of place. Having recently moved from Boston to the inner city, Josie was acutely aware that she didn’t know any of her fellow classmates and wasn’t familiar with the processes of the new school.

In high school, Josie saw the academic and college-preparation struggles of students who lived below the poverty line and knew she wanted to participate in efforts to relieve educational struggles exacerbated by poverty. “I learned a lot about social class, inequality, and stratification firsthand, and specifically the way that education can impact communities,” Josie said.

After her high school graduation, Josie decided to attend BYU. Her desire to enroll was partly prompted by the opportunities that BYU students have to do research during their undergraduate years. Josie’s involvement in research would be the kickstart to her Honors thesis as well.

Josie dove into research right away. During her freshman year, she connected with anthropology professor Greg Thompson. As part of her research with Dr. Thompson, Josie has interviewed over 60 BYU students—from white, upper-class students to students from minority demographics—to explore belonging at BYU. What Josie found is “that there is a BYU stereotype that exists on campus that tells people who naturally seems to belong. They’ve been socialized to believe that it's this white, straight, more affluent member of the church…. everyone's measuring themselves against the stereotype.”

In effect, this means that everyone has moments where they feel they don’t measure up to the BYU stereotype. No one can totally fit the mold. But for the majority of students, “moments were only that—a passing feeling of discomfort in the university setting.”

The difference for minority students is that, for the majority of the time, they feel that BYU is not a place meant for them. They often “can't assimilate to the BYU stereotype, no matter what they do, based on their own characteristics.” For example, Josie said, less affluent students cannot be richer. Black students cannot be white.

In an article published by The Utah Monthly, “Doing Belonging Better at BYU,” Josie wrote, “It is not that we are bad at community-building. We do it all the time. It’s that we have been raised in societies that don’t teach us how to build diverse communities. Rather, we are raised to believe that assimilation goes hand-in-hand with social acceptance. Striving for belonging requires us to challenge this instinct on a structural and personal level.”

Josie’s thesis results shed light on the challenge of belonging at BYU, but she hasn’t stopped there.

“I've taken my research on community-building and belonging to an international conference in Toronto. I've done consulting with the Office of Belonging to help them develop their research cycles. I work with a nonprofit organization called the Gantry Group that helps low-income students get into college and stay in college.” On top of that, Josie was awarded a Wheatley Institute Scholarship after being nominated by Dr. Thompson.

However, it’s not Josie’s accomplishments alone that make her an exemplar of academic achievement. After all, she believes that grades and external recognition are part of the sometimes-alienating BYU stereotype.

“I have had to change my definition of academic excellence to be much more about the pursuit of the life of the mind. It's not so much about the grade, but about… how deeply I invest myself in the actual content.” Josie feels that the Honors Program has helped her develop the “life of the mind” through intellectually challenging classes.

Above all, Josie’s personal mantra has become curiosity—about both belonging and learning. “My biggest piece of advice for those struggling to improve their capacity to build community? Get curious,” says her article. Josie added that, when it comes to school, “it's not cringy to be interested in the classes that you're in! Curiosity in its purest sense is so important to any sort of learning.”

From here, Josie’s curiosity is leading her to attend graduate school after she graduates as a Sociology major with University Honors this April. She has already been accepted into the London School of Economics, where she has “always weirdly wanted to go to,” but is waiting to hear back from several other exciting programs before she makes her choice.

Wherever Josie goes, her focus will be on bringing people together through belonging. As her article concludes, “We have a long way to go, but I’m strangely optimistic.”

Story by Jayci Eyre

with excerpts from BYU News feature by Shelby Clark