Student Spotlight: Sydney Carroll

Sydney Carroll is a senior at Wayne State University and a member of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College majoring in psychology with departmental honors and pursuing a minor in African American Studies. Her interest in Black studies stems from a desire to understand her ancestral past in order to pave a path forward within the Black community and a love for the historically Black city of Detroit.

Within African American studies, her interests pertain to Black representation and depiction in media, Black mental health and the intersectionality between Black radicalism and feminism. Sydney plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology with the aim of providing counseling services for Black and Brown high schoolers and early adults living in urban environments.

This semester she is working with Professor and Department Chair Ollie Johnson on compiling a history of the Department of African American Studies since its inception 35 years ago via a student-led protest and study-in.