Mya Wraggs (Photo by Keeton Holder/DePaul University)
Mya Wraggs, Driehaus College of Business
Degree: Bachelor of Science in Marketing
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
What is your favorite memory at DePaul?
My favorite memory would be the Black Excellence Awards that Sankofa held last year. During my sophomore year, I won the “Excellence in Joy” Award. Last year, I won “Excellence in Good Vibes" and the “Community Angel” Award. The “Community Angel” Award is for someone who makes an impact on the community. They are active in the community, they make other people feel seen and they're like an angel to the Black community within DePaul. It only goes to one person, and the Sankofa board has to vote on it. Winning that award was very special to me because every day I try to make at least one person feel seen or heard. It’s so good to know that I am doing that, and it's being felt by other people.
How has DePaul prepared you for life after graduation?
One of the biggest things for me has been meeting and learning to be with different types of people. Coming to a bigger city, you meet people from all over. I've really learned how to be in spaces with people who may have completely different upbringings and mentalities than I do. It has helped me learn to see what things make each of us who we are and find what we have in common, even if we may be two completely different people.
My honors marketing cohort has really prepared me for life after college professionally. It is a year-long cohort where each quarter you work with a different client. We worked with real clients to produce marketing and consulting work, based on the results that they would like to see from our work. At the end of each quarter, we presented our hard work to the client in their Chicago office. It’s given me real-world experience outside of just my internships and put my classwork to use. It was definitely challenging but also really fun. It's a close-knit cohort. If I hadn't done that, I wouldn't be as prepared for graduation as I am now.
What’s next for you after graduating from DePaul?
In a perfect world, I would love to be a project manager for events that cater toward marginalized communities. Putting together the Intercollegiate Black Cookout was great, so I’d love to be able to do that for other marginalized communities.
Right now, I'm in a few interview processes. I would love to stay in Chicago and find a job here. I want to do something that I enjoy because it's a lot of my day. I'm also excited to be bored a little bit. A lot of my best friends graduated before me, and they all say that it’s a bit of a weird transition where you find yourself a little bored. I'm ready for free time to find some new hobbies. My teacher told me about a student who graduated, and she came up with this thing called 52 Saturdays. For a year, every Saturday, she would try something she'd never tried before. I would like to try that — it sounds fun.
How have you connected with the DePaul community during your time here?
I'm naturally a people person. I love picking people's brains and having conversations. I have an extra soft spot for people who look like me or share similar identities as me, so I joined the Black Student Union. I was on the board last year, and now I'm the president. Watching the BSU transform into something that people want to go to weekly and throughout the year has been very fulfilling.
I'm grateful to be able to be in that community of Black college students, give them that community and plan events to create spaces to be in. For example, the Intercollegiate Black Cookout that happened on April 20 brought together 1,000 students from all over Chicago. Providing that sort of space for a community that doesn't always naturally wake up and have that around them and being able to make the quad Black was so dope to see.
Jade Walker is a student assistant of media relations and communications in University Communications.
Meet more of the class of 2024 here.