From the president
Since joining the UMD community in Fall 2024, Star Gump has been an active and engaged student who has worked tirelessly to build community. Star is a purpose-driven leader who seeks to build meaningful relationships, amplify important stories and create environments that foster collaboration and connection. Star’s approach to addressing pressing social issues is centered on reciprocal relationship building. Moreover, they are able to take a seed of an idea and move it into action. Their strong commitment to learning and building community, combined with an authentic eagerness to explore new perspectives, reflects their drive for growth and discovery.
Personal Statement
This past year that I have been at University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), I restarted a community service organization on campus called Twin Ports Rotaract. I led expanding the club from not just having a UMD counterpart, but having an additional branch added to the organization at UW-Superior. My leadership strategy revolves around productive innovative change. For example, there are many traditional community service clubs at UMD, and so this upcoming year I’m pivoting to organizing a TEDx event in my community that will allow professional development and networking to be accessible for all ages of our diverse community. Over the summer of 2025, I’m an orientation leader where I welcome new students to campus and help their transition to college. For my academic pursuits, I created my own major titled Creative Community Empowerment. I’m going to learn about GIS (Geographic Information Systems aka mapping), Journalism, and Philosophy which will elevate how I communicate stories from our community. I believe stories are powerful to change, because you can hear a story, and understand where someone is coming from. This leads to a collective understanding of where our world is at and where it needs to change.