Student Firestarters

s an aspiring educator, Dimajio Locante is well aware of the importance of providing opportunities for young people to develop their skills and broaden their horizons. Locante, a Slippery Rock University sophomore secondary education major from Pittsburgh, got to do hands-on work last summer with former Pittsburgh Steeler Charlie Batch’s Camp Batch, which seeks to provide students with such opportunities. Locante’s experience with the camp also gave him unique insight for his teaching career.

“At camp, we have children from all different walks of life, but many are low income,” Locante explained. “Not all teachers have experience working with students from low-income backgrounds and how that affects a kid. They don’t know how to deal with having students from a mix of backgrounds. Camp Batch gave me a new perspective in my education career.”

The experience underscored the importance of education as advancement and informs Locante’s own philosophy as a future educator and as a leader.

“I love helping people, and I love the idea of being able to mold young minds, not just to be able to adjust to society, but to be able to shape it,” Locante said. “Kids are the future.”

Locante applied his experience at Camp Batch to what he contributes to SRU community as he prepares for his teaching career.

In Locante’s opinion, the lion’s share of mentorship is relationship building, in the classroom and beyond as a youth mentor and leader among his peers as the president of Black Action Society at SRU.

“Collaboration is very important to me,” Locante said. “I want my classroom to be a social and collaborative space, and collaboration is something that I had to learn as a leader.”

Locante explained that when he took on the role of president of BAS, he tried to do all of the work himself before realizing that delegating and taking advantage of the strengths of his fellow executive board members led to better outcomes for his club.

“That’s when we’re the strongest,” he said. “That’s when we can truly advocate for our culture and speak on our experiences and build community on campus. Being an advocate in Black Action Society and in the classroom go hand in hand for me. It’s about making connections to meet goals.”

Locante’s work is all about people. Connecting people, advocating for people and helping others to be the best that they can be.

“When I wake up, my first thought is boom, ‘How can I make someone’s day today?,’” Locante said. “(This approach) builds community and it builds relationships. That’s what you need to do because we’re humans and we need each other.”

For him, it’s all about spreading that spark, something that he knows he can do in the classroom and also hopes to do by starting his own non-profit one day, investing in young people the same way that his mentor Batch does.

“We’re meant to share our light,” Locante said. “We’re meant to spread our joy.”

rislyn Green was empowered by opportunities at Slippery Rock University, from classroom learning and campus involvement to practical experience through her internships with a Fortune 500 company.

A senior management major, Green never considered a career in the financial services industry before her 10-week internship with BNY in Pittsburgh last summer. That opened her up to possibilities for her career, but it also motivated her to blaze a trail for other women like her.

Green and fellow management major Andrea Bauer founded the Women in Business student organization at SRU.

“We established this organization to empower women in the business world,” Green said. “We do a lot of professional events and networking as well as attending conferences. It’s so important to us because it helps people to get excited about their career.

“We’re really invested in exposing members to opportunities that allow them to grow professionally and to be prepared for their careers.”

One of the things that Green’s organization seeks to prepare members for is the necessity of collaboration in business. While the business finance world that Green is emerging into is often perceived as a cutthroat and perhaps isolating world, she maintains that collaboration is crucial to success in business.

“In this world, you do have deadlines and it’s a very fast-paced environment, but you also have to be able to delegate tasks to one another and to work together to get everything accomplished,” Green said. “There’s really no better feeling than to achieve something great together and to navigate challenges together.”

On top of Women in Business, Green is also the president of Society for Human Resource Management at SRU, and she has spent significant time working with her fellow executive members to provide opportunities for members through that organization as well. She also attends Butler County Chamber of Commerce meetings to network with other area professionals in order to learn from, connect with and serve other members of her community.

As an accomplished member of the area business community even at this early stage of her career, Green received some exciting news from BNY after her internship.

Upon graduating from SRU in May, Green joined BNY full-time as an analyst.

“I’m excited to be an SRU alum, to continue to support Women in Business at SRU, and to continue being involved in professional organizations in Pittsburgh and in Butler County,” she said.

While Green will continue to climb higher in her professional life, she is committed to staying connected to the places and organizations where she developed into the young professional that she is today.