Sierra Hanlon’s advocacy work at St. Michael’s nurtured her voice and gave her the confidence to use her writing as a platform. Encouraged by the St. Michael’s community, she challenged herself to sign up for a writing fellowship, where sharing others’ stories gave her the confidence to share her own.
“When I first came into university, I wasn’t sure about which path I was going to take. I knew I loved writing and that I wanted to write books, but I was also very passionate about social advocacy and human rights issues,” she said.
She’s now going into her fourth year with a double major in English and philosophy and has found a way to combine her paths through her involvement in advocacy groups on campus as well as a Writer Fellowship Program offered through INKspire, a year-long program that supports young women and non-binary writers by offering a supportive and structured environment for youth to gain hands-on writing and publishing experience.
Finding a supportive community
It was the supportive community she found at St. Mike’s that encouraged her to pursue her passion for advocacy through new avenues.
As the first in her family to go to university, she was eager to see what student life had to offer by getting involved. She found her place on St. Michael’s College Student Union’s Equity Committee, whose values aligned with her goals. Sierra helped organize events and researched new initiatives to promote equity on campus particularly around days or months dedicated to honouring history, human rights and social awareness like Orange Shirt Day, International Women’s Rights Day, and Black History Month.
“I’ve always been very knowledgeable about social issues that were going on. To be able to be surrounded by other people who are also passionate about the same issues by hosting events, I was able to learn about other people’s experiences as they pertain to the issues that I care about,” she said.
As she became more involved, she also became aware of her surroundings and the student experience, prompting her to become involved in promoting student wellness by joining Student Wellness Committee to support wellness initiatives on campus like paint nights and therapy dog visits.
“It’s great to see the impact that those initiatives make on other students as well, especially with the therapy dogs. Everybody is so happy to see them, and it helps improve everyone’s mood during exam season,” she said.
“There was a focus highlighting student voices, which I think is very important. I think it can be easy sometimes to create what you want to create, but what you want isn’t always necessarily what other people need. Hearing from so many diverse perspectives and experiences helps make sure everybody feels included and heard and seen while they’re here,” she said.
These experiences gave her the confidence to combine her passions and apply her advocacy work to her writing.
“When I was introduced to the St. Mike’s community, everyone was so warm and so welcoming, particularly with the advocacy committees that I’ve been a part of. I wanted to replicate that experience outside of St. Mike’s and decided to join INKspire because it had a similar vibe,” she said.
Discovering INKspire
“I’ve always loved writing, but I was afraid to really branch out and share my work. This fellowship challenged me to be more expressive,’ she said. She submitted some writing samples and was accepted. “Through the fellowship, I worked with a lot of editors and publishers as well as other women who loved writing, which was amazing. I hadn’t had a chance to be a part of a community of writers before. It was that network that helped me get more comfortable with sharing my work,” she says.
Her first piece she wrote for INKspire titled ‘The Cyclical History of Afghan Women’s Erasure from Education Systems’ was among the works published in the INKspire’s Rising Voices, a printed anthology of pieces by writers in the Fellowship program.
Finding her voice
It was this piece that she read in front of an audience as part of the book launch for Rising Voices, held in May at Ben McNally Books.
“I doubted myself a lot going into it, but having written it and received a lot of feedback instilled a lot of confidence in me to want to share my work further and develop new public speaking skills as a way to continue my advocacy work. Participating in this fellowship challenged me to be more vocal about the things that I love and that’s a big step in the right direction,” she said.
“I think a big part of what I do is being able to research and talk about issues in a way that other people can connect with. I’ve always moved through life with a lot of empathy and want to hear about other people’s experiences. I think that’s a big way I’m able to connect with people, through stories,” she said.