(Rising) Senior to Senior: Lirit Gilmore ’24
One of our favorite Pulse@ChathamU features is the Senior to Senior article, where a senior Marketing and Communications student employee interviews a fellow classmate about their Chatham journey.
Lirit Gilmore
(She/Her/Hers)
This Q&A is a little different— we’re sending off our 2023-2024 Senior to Senior correspondent Lirit Gilmore, who graduated this spring! Lirit is a transfer student from the Midwest and the DMV (that’s the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia). A Creative Writing BFA major with a minor in Food Studies, Lirit also served as the Co-President of Sigma Tau Delta, President of Programming Black Student Union, Organizer of the Rachel Carson Conference, and was awarded Most Outstanding Humanities Student in 2024.
Read on to learn more about Lirit! Thanks to Maggie Vargo, Digital Media Ambassador for the Office of Marketing and Communications, for carrying on the tradition of having a rising senior interview our outgoing senior to senior correspondent!
What led you to Chatham?
I came to Chatham as a transfer student the first year after the pandemic restrictions had been lifted. I previously was getting a degree in Classical Voice Performance, but the pandemic changed the nature of those courses a lot. My voice teacher was the previous director of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and knew some Chatham music faculty! While I didn’t pursue music at Chatham, it got me interested in their smaller classes. Chatham gave me the most support financially, and I knew I wanted to be in a program like the BFA that would support my many interests in humanities.
What was your favorite story you wrote as a student writer for PULSE?
Lirit Gilmore, middle left
It’s hard to choose a favorite piece because I was lucky enough to explore a lot of my interests and passions about Chatham in my time working at PULSE. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have written about courses I enjoyed, programs I admire, and experiences that have been meaningful to me. My favorite piece is I’ve written this year was “This year’s Rachel Carson Conference: Facing the Horrors, Together” about my experience at Sigma Tau Delta’s Rachel Carson Conference. I was really proud of my peers and club members at STD, and the work we were able to accomplish together. I’ve always loved the pieces in Pulse that uplift students, because there is so much at Chatham that comes directly from us.
Lirit’s Favorite Things
Favorite Event on Campus: Moonlight Breakfast
Favorite Place: Lindsay House (Honorable mention to Dr. Helm’s & Dr. Reznik’s offices)
Favorite Course: Womanist and Liberation Theology
Cafe Rachel Order: Peppermint Hot Chocolate
What inspired you to pursue a degree in Creative writing and Food studies?
I originally chose the BFA because I wanted to write creative non-fiction, and I knew I could have a lot of creative control over my degree in the BFA. I was interested in developing my prose skills and writing about causes that were important to me. When I took a course with Dr. Carrie Helms, Food and American Identity, I realized that I was interested in food writing more than any writing I had ever done and that I had academic writing interests.
Once I began classes at Eden Hall I was officially hooked on how academic Food studies relates to the academic Humanities. The Food studies faculty has been so supportive of my path as a writer, and giving me the resources at Eden Hall to consider food alongside all of my work. I realized that the combination of Food studies and Creative writing could give me the tools to write more academically about food while still leaving space for my own identity in my writing.
Looking back, what is your favorite memory of your time here at Chatham?
Lirit Gilmore and friends at BIPOC Dinner
I think my favorite memory would probably be a BIPOC dinner that was held in Rea Coffeehouse a few years ago. BIPOC dinner was an anchor for me as a Black student at Chatham. This specific dinner was one of the first times I had been to a BIPOC dinner, but I knew everyone there at this point. The energy is welcoming, affirming and often my main touchstone to community during the different pandemic variants that restricted our gathering. We usually end up being a small close knit group, and this particular year we stayed in the coffeehouse for hours talking and laughing. While it hasn’t always been easy to find community for me at Chatham, I made some of my closest friends just from going to karaoke that night.
Do you have any advice you would give your first-year self?
I would tell my first-year self that it was all going to work out in the end, and it’s okay if things don’t go exactly how you tried to plan them. Uncertainty is a part of life and it is not a punishment! I think I would tell my first-year self not to be so intimidated by academic spaces, and to speak up more often about what you think. Challenge what you disagree with, and take the classes that will give you the space to learn without limitations. I would tell myself to remember that academia was not originally built for students with my identity to exist comfortably, and every day that you show up you are challenging the systems in place that make academia inaccessible.
What are your plans after graduation?
After graduation I am headed to work back at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. I’m look forward to returning after my previous internship last summer, and to be living back in the DMV. I’m hoping to continue my learning in higher education when I get the chance and explore even more about food, Blackness and identity.
Editor’s note: It was such a joy to work with Lirit during her two years with the Marketing and Communications office as a Digital Content Creator! One of my favorite things about working with student employees is seeing them grow in experience, talent, and confidence, and Lirit was no exception. I know she’ll take her words, her work ethic, and her room-brightening disposition and do great things with all of them. I couldn’t be more proud to have worked with her. — Sarah Hamm, Associate Director, Brand and Content Strategy