When senior Umu Barry moved to Ithaca from the Bronx, NY, she knew she wanted to make an impact and achieve academic success as the oldest sibling in her large family. What came as a surprise, however, were the communities she found and the journey she underwent as a student leader.
Barry, whose family is from both Guinea and Sierra Leone, came to Ithaca College as a student in the exploratory program, but she said she always knew what she wanted to gain from her college experience. As she approaches a degree in health sciences with a pre-med concentration, Barry said her dream ever since she was a little girl has been to become a pediatrician.
“I want to understand children and just help them in the system in any way,” Barry said. “I want them to feel more appreciated … and making them smile is just going to make my day.”
Barry said this dream was enriched by an internship experience she had at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in Manhattan while she was attending Cristo Rey New York High School. Barry’s high school incorporated weekly internship experiences into its curriculum. Because of this, Barry’s first work experience was as an intern at The Wall Street Journal when she was only 14 years old. Despite this influential experience, which Barry credits toward her early academic diligence and drive, she said she was always aiming for the medical field.
“When I finally got placed in a hospital, I was so happy,” Barry said. “I was working with a lot of patients … giving them warm blankets, some snacks, even talking to them and building a conversation with them. Those are things that made me come to a realization: people just want someone to talk to.”
Barry said her experience at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital lit a passion within her for community building. Consequently, when she came to Ithaca College in Fall 2021, she sought out communities with people she could connect with.
Sister2Sister was one of the first student organizations Barry joined. The group is a designated space for women of color at Ithaca College.
“It was a safe space for them to explain [and] just talk about things that they experienced in college, as well as just talking about how to build sisterhood in a predominantly white institution,” Barry said.
Since that experience, Barry said she has grown into a far more confident leader and is the current president of the Ithaca College African Students Association. Barry is also a recipient of the Ithaca College Leadership Scholar Award, a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. and has worked as a student employee in both the Office of Information Technology and Analytics and the Office of Access, Opportunity and Achievement (OAOA).
As a leader, Barry said she strives to make everyone feel they are included and have a voice.
“I’m the person that loves to ensure that everyone has that space to speak because I feel like there’s always a good idea, always, no matter what,” Barry said. “It builds communication, and … a good relationship, where people can be able to speak freely without having to feel like they are being held back.”
Denise Polanco, director of OAOA, has been Barry’s faculty counselor under the Higher Education Opportunity Program ever since Barry first applied to the college. HEOP is a program under OAOA that is designated to provide academic, financial and personal services to students who are considered underprepared for college, whether that is because of economic or academic circumstances. Within this program, students are paired with a counselor to work with throughout their college experience.
Barry, who began making connections with Polanco as early as her admissions process, is now a peer mentor for OAOA. Polanco said one of Barry’s biggest strengths as a student leader is academic drive and approachability.
“She’s always been super responsible; she does what needs to get done [and] she takes advantage of all the opportunities available,” Polanco said. “She’s been a really good role model to help … regulate [new students] on how to organize, how to prioritize and kind of just balance out life.”
Dusan Ducic, associate director of the Information Technology Support Center, was involved in the process of hiring Barry as a learning technology consultant, and later, a student manager. Ducic said he loves to talk to Barry about her large family and her background, as she is both the child of immigrants and the oldest sibling.
“As an immigrant myself, I always joke with her about that,” Ducic said. “It is amazing to see in her the love toward people — the way she expresses that love to her own siblings, family and people around her.”
As Barry prepares for her next steps after graduating, she said she is looking forward to learning more about her profession and carrying with her everything she has learned at the college about fostering community. Ducic said he has no doubt that Barry will accomplish anything she sets her mind to.
“She’s so focused and she’s so determined that whatever she decides she will achieve,” Ducic said. “I don’t see anything stopping her.”
This student profile was written for publication in the 2024-25 Year in Review.
