SUNY Brockport student government president Tenin Sidmea took the stage at the second day of the 2025 NYSUT Representative Assembly in Rochester with an inspiring message of progress and hope.
Sidmea, a Brockport senior, shared how she is a first-generation college attendee, a child of immigrants, a woman of color, and a Muslim woman. “My story is built on resilience, power and access to opportunity,” Sidmea said, sharing the opportunities that education provided her even with those potential roadblocks.
“I’m here because of programs that believed in students like me,” she said, highlighting the Educational Opportunity Program. “I have been given more than just resources. I have been given belief, mentorship and family.”
Sidmea praised the higher education system as a way to uplift.
“Education is not just a pathway, it is a lifeline and it keeps its promises.” She called on higher education institutions to protect, invest and uplift diversity and thanked teachers and asked them to make sure their students feel heard and that their stories matter.