Whenever I hear someone call Georgetown students stuck-up or apathetic, I get angry. “No,” I tell them. “That may be the Georgetown you see, but you don’t know my Georgetown!” For me, Georgetown has been defined by the students fighting for a more just, inclusive Georgetown community and world. These are the people that have been my support system and closest friends throughout my time here and inspired me to personally engage in a lifelong struggle for justice.

I came to Georgetown as a transfer student with doubts about the school but sure I wanted to get more involved with social justice issues. Right away, I found the Georgetown Solidarity Committee, the student labor rights group on campus. I had heard in passing that students went on a hunger strike in support of the living wage in the spring of 2005 and was curious.

GSC meetings — long Monday nights in White-Gravenor Hall — were my first interactions with the group. I was simultaneously impressed and intimidated by the slew of acronyms and jargon students threw around describing the work around the living wage policy on campus and in committees. There was no president, no leadership positions. Instead, a rotating facilitator called on people during meetings, and people showed consensus through “sparkle fingers.” Everyone’s participation was important, and it made me comfortable enough to become an active member of the group by the end of my first semester. I had never thought of myself as an activist or someone who was comfortable speaking up about something, but in the past three years, I have been part of making social change happen, and it has been exhilarating.

My sophomore year, after the living wage campaign, we fought for campus janitors’ right to form a union. Fall of my junior year, we joined up with MEChA de Georgetown and nearly 100 other students in Red Square to challenge the racism and xenophobia of Chris Simcox, head of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, when he spoke on campus. That year, students also successfully rallied for a raise for Department of Public Safety officers. This year, GSC rallied with members of GU Pride to create an LGBTQ resource center on campus and a coalition for greater racial justice on campus. Though less visible, GSC also works with university administrators to ensure that workers who make Georgetown apparel work in fair labor conditions. While these were the more prolific initiatives of the past few years, there were many events, often co-sponsored by other groups, a weekly breakfast for campus workers, ESL classes and long meetings, phone calls, e-mail and other behind-the-scenes work that makes things happen. GSC’s work comes down to community building not just among students but also with campus workers who are an integral part of Georgetown. Some of my most memorable friendships and hardest goodbyes have been with people who work at Georgetown and keep our school running.

Moreover, my friends in Georgetown Solidarity showed me that activism isn’t just something you do or just an extracurricular activity. Rather, it is part of a lifestyle, where justice is embodied in your day-to-day life through building relationships and your way of interacting with the world. It may be something as small as stopping to have a conversation with someone who cleans your dorm or calling someone out on an offensive comment and talking to them about it. Ultimately, it’s about making something better and creating the kind of world you want to see (and having fun while you do it!), rather than just complaining or getting frustrated. I am grateful to have spent much of my time at Georgetown surrounded by people who quietly lead by example, challenge their own privilege in their work, and carry on their day-to-day lives with an endless supply of compassion and kindness.

Georgetown Students for Fair Trade has also been an important part of my experience at Georgetown. Small but mighty, the group has shown how powerful a role students can have in working toward a more sustainable alternative and supporting agricultural workers around the world.

It would also be incomplete not to mention my academic experience at Georgetown as an anthropology major. I’ve had the opportunity to take classes with amazing professors who make a difference both in and outside the classroom, and with wonderful classmates.

All in all, my experience in Georgetown has been an unusual one, and I have been lucky enough to surround myself with passionate, committed and caring people who want to make Georgetown a better place and live its values of social justice.

To all the students, faculty members, workers and administrators that share that vision of a more just Georgetown and world, quoting Solidarity’s living wage rendition of the fight song, “Fight on forever, fight on!”

Ashwini Jaisingh is a senior in the College, a member of Georgetown Solidarity Committee and co-president of Georgetown Students for Fair Trade.