To Be Young, Black, and Gifted: A Portrait of an Emerging Leader

You've probably seen her walking down Broad Street or in the lobby of Terra. She stands out due to her height. She's short but don't let her height fool you. She is inviting, fun to be around, funny, and clever. She is one of the most genuine people you will ever meet. Honestly, she made me feel comfortable upon arriving her at UArts. In fact, she was one of the first upperclassmen I met and second from major that I met. After having this interview with her, I realized that among the traits I listed above, Cheyenne Barboza is thought-provoking, driven, family oriented, inspired, methodical, dedicated, passionate, creative, and more importantly, a leader in her own right.

Cheyenne is from Waterbury, Connecticut. It's one of the four major cities of Connecticut and has an emerging theater scene. She is a graduate of the relatively new Waterbury Arts Magnet School. Her decision to attend UArts was an easy one: the Directing, Playwriting, and Production major, allows her to study and focus playwriting as an undergraduate. This program also allowed her to grow as a playwright and have her plays read and developed through the help of her peers and the staff. Furthermore, the city environment allowed her the opportunity to transfer to Broadway  or California. 

Also, Cheyenne really loved the artistic and collaborative environment UArts fosters and how all of our classes-wether liberal arts or studio classes-are interconnected.

There are many things to love about Cheyenne. For me, the most obvious thing about Cheyenne is how family-oriented she is. She comes from a close-knit family. She talks and texts her mom and dad daily and regularly engages her family in conversation. Having met her family during a production of her one-act play Wingman, I can say that Cheyenne's family is funny, down-to-earth, supportive, and defiantly know to have great time. Cheyenne would agree. 

When asked to named some people who inspire how and are leaders, her first two choices surprised me in some ways. They weren't celebrities. They were two people closest too her. "My mother. I love my mother. My nana. My nana, she's 88 years old, still driving, taking care of people. She volunteers at the senior center…she's not the senior there….she takes care of the 60 year olds and she's an inch shorter than I am." Cheyenne describe her nana as a ball of wisdom and knowledge that continuously surprises her with her accomplishments, rules on life, and how she treats everyone she encounters. Another person, that inspires Cheyenne is her former teacher, Bruce Post. He was Cheyenne's english teacher for over 5 years. Over the years, Cheyenne and Bruce have built a mentor and mentee relationship, that has allowed them to be frequent collaborators and friends.  What struck me the most was how much Cheyenne lit up with an energy that I myself have when talking about my english teacher and dear friend Ruth Gladney. For Cheyenne, these three role models exemplify leaders. All are " ….active in their community. They are engaged in the world around them. They make things happen and don't sit and complain; they get up and go after what they want. They are active in the things they love and want in this world." 

I asked Cheyenne a fairly simple, yet complicated question, "Do you consider yourself a leader?".  I have yet to answer this question for myself. Cheyenne, without missing a beat, replied yes. Cheyenne, humbly, feels that she's a leader because she likes to be active and in her words  ask  "What can we do next? What we can we do now in the present?".  Cheyenne expressed  that she is a leader because she is in love with what she does and stays motivated to lead by her peers. With such a positive attitude, she has taken on a leadership position as the leader of the African Diaspora Collective. 

Cheyenne describes The African Diaspora Collective as, "an organization on campus, that focuses on events and ideas tailored to individuals of the African Diaspora, living in the United States. Whether they're from Africa or the Caribbean or Australian". The goal of this club is to  not only educate the members on how those of African descent have created their culture within our society, but also encourages those within the organization to reach out and help unity all members of different African descents, within the Diaspora. The another goal of this program is to help encourage and reach out  to the younger people in the community, with the hopes of teaching them how to be leaders and about their history. Cheyenne has been involved with this program since her freshman year and has been the organizations acting leader for the past year. As a leader, her job is to communicate with the members of the organization, maintain the mission statement, delegating tasks to members of the organization, and acting as a filter for her members-to listen to their ideas and create a plan of action that embodies the collective ideas everyone has, that is effective and efficient.

One of my most provocative questions, and Cheyenne would certainly agree, was what, in her opinion, makes a good leader and how does she decide who makes an effective leader. Her answer: "A leader is someone with logic; someone who can put aside their personal views, for the logical view of the group. A leader needs to make sense of the opinions and be fair to opinions and produce work; keep your group on task, focus, and happy, because if they're happy, they will collaborate; there will be no turmoil and sabotage and theres only product everyone would be proud of".

Cheyenne, during our brief talk raised a lot of questions within myself. Perhaps my most intriguing question to her was what were her strengths and weaknesses. Cheyenne's self awareness, logic, and common sense, are her strongest attributes. Despite, In her words, being a procrastinator, Cheyenne's other traits and qualities easily hide this weakness that she may have, What I love most about Cheyenne is that she and I are a lot alike: we like to learn and hang around people, who are smarter than us, that we have a lot to learn from. Also, Cheyenne and I  both love english and love to talk about issues in the world and how they affect us. She plans on moving to different countries-Spain and Australia are high on her list, and learning how everyone's aesthetic of theater differs in each country. Cheyenne plans to be a playwright and hopes to be either a literary manager or someone in charge of making decisions involving the production of a play. Cheyenne is defiantly an emerging leader, who is and will make a mark on the world and be continuously inspired by everyone she comes in contact with.

Josh