Student Profile: Kayla Taylor
During my first year at Chatham, I (Abigail Kneuss ‘23) have noticed that so many interesting people attend Chatham, and our sense of community is strong, even during hard times. In an effort to showcase just a few of these great people, I’ll be doing a series of student interviews in the coming weeks. These highlights are for students, about students, and by students. This week I am featuring Kayla Taylor ‘22.
Kayla is one of the most radiant people I have ever met. She was my RA and helped me and my fellow first-years immensely adjust to living away from home. She is also a student ambassador and a R.I.S.E. program member. We caught up recently to talk about what she’s been up to, recalled crazy nights in Fickes, and discussed her advice to students in our current environment.
Kayla Taylor ‘22
Major: Interior Architecture with a Spanish minor
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Q: I’ve always wondered, what’s the difference between Interior Architecture and Interior Design?
A: That’s a common misconception, they’re essentially the same thing. But our program at Chatham is special because our faculty all have such different backgrounds. They are architects, interior designers, and artists. They have different levels of education and different world views. It’s great to have so many perspectives and professors who have practical experience in the fields we are going into.
Q: What do you want to do with your degree?
A: I’ve been contemplating that a lot this summer actually… Working a 9-5 with a set routine is not really my style. I love my freedom and being able to roam when and where I want to. I’ve thinking about traveling full time, part-time and I’ve started my own business this Fall. I’ve been selling handmade clay earrings recently and really enjoy seeing people wear my creations. Ultimately the dream would be to get into the textile and furniture design industry after open a business selling high end homewares I develop and produce..
Q: What’s the best part of being an RA?
A: It’s all mostly great. Mostly. No, I think seeing my residents open up to me and feel comfortable talking to me is really heartwarming. It makes me feel like I’m doing my job well and I’m actually impacting their experience positively. I feel good when they reach out for help because that’s what I’ve always wanted from the start; to be there for my residents, to cultivate a space for safety, braveness, curiosity and most importantly fun.
Q: What are you most looking forward to being back on campus this fall?
A: Seeing people! I’m such a people person. I can’t wait to talk, hang out, and walk around campus. People watch on the Quad and sit on the Adirondacks chairs. Walk to Walnut Street with people and go to Blick for art supplies or Toad Flax for plants. I can’t wait to work on group projects and complain about class workload and then do a killer job! I don’t care if it’s just a hello as we pass in the stairwells, I’ve missed interacting with everyone so much. I’m also so excited to decorate my apartment next year as an RA in the Chatham Apartments. If you know me, then you know my sense of style is pretty great, not to toot my own horn.
Q: Any advice to students picking out their dorm gear right now?
A: My biggest tip is to get what makes you feel comfortable and calm. I’m a very bright, colorful, energetic person and I find it’s important to come home to a calm space to balance me out! Ooo, get plants, lots of them! Plants are so calming and beautiful and therapeutic. I’m such a plant parent so I suggest them to everyone. Taking care of plants is hard but it’s also a learning process, you might kill a lot before you start keeping one alive. Lastly, they make your space look elevated and more like you have your life together (even if you don’t). And buy secondhand as much as you can. It’s more sustainable and cheaper! Rachel Carson would want you to thrift your room gear!
Q: What has been keeping you busy lately?
A: Like I said, I’m such a plant mom. I love researching plants, going to nurseries, and buying plants this summer. They’re everywhere around my house now! I’ve also been selling the earrings I mentioned on Instagram. Also, the recent media attention on the black lives matter movement.
Q: Why did you pick Chatham?
A: I love Chatham and always have loved Chatham. The people I met during my visits were kind and interesting and driven and that’s what I want for myself, but my experience is not everyone’s experience as we’ve witnessed on campus, on social media that we have work to do. I will continue to pick Chatham as long as they do the work to make our campus, our education and our experience the most inclusive they can.
Q: Is there anything you want to say to the Chatham community during the Black Lives Matter movement that is happening right now?
A: I think that the movement has shown people that the world we live in is not kind to people of color and especially to black people. My experience at Chatham is deeply complex and hard to deconstruct in words because my experience can’t be contained to a paragraph, but it is difficult to be me, a black woman on campus feeling like I’m only allowed in different spaces because I’m someone’s token. While my experience is my own and I don’t speak for anyone else, I think now is the perfect time for Chatham to step up and open a dialogue between black students and Chatham’s leadership. So, what I want to say to Chatham students is that you need to start listening, but more importantly understanding because hearing what I say or another black student says is not enough; you have to understand that there is a problem and many of you can be a vital piece of the puzzle that is unity and hope— or you are a part of the problem. And what I hope you take away from what I’m saying is that we can choose unity and hope; we can if we just listen, learn and amplify the voices of all those excluded from the system.
Q: What can students do to be more aware?
A: Listen. Learn. Amplify. Your black friends, POC friends are not your library. Do research and find out for yourself what’s going on in the world and what has been going on for hundreds of years! We had to take a Diversity and Inclusion course as RAs and I think it was difficult and uncomfortable for a lot of us but that’s what made it good! It was constructive and educational. And that’s what we need to do as Chatham students, we need to get uncomfortable and get educated. If you’re afraid of the social consequences, then imagine the social consequences of being born into an identity that isn’t considered advantageous or desirable or right. Use your privilege to make change happen.