AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES:
navigating inclusive mentorship in higher education
"We like working together and wanted to share that. It is about Kylie and I being roommates. It’s about friends, roommates, and mentors, some with disabilities and some without disabilities. It’s about how to help each other on a college campus"
-- Olivia Baist
"This project is not about disability. It’s not about Syracuse University or InclusiveU. It’s not about inclusive education. It’s not about Olivia. It’s not about me. This project is about the relationship between college students in an inclusive higher education setting, learning how to support one another in a mutually beneficial and sustainable way.
With no prior filmmaking education or experience, Olivia and I embraced vulnerability and our commitment to sharing our lives in order to support mentees/mentors down the road. With the words of peers, this is not just my film. This is the film of thirteen students, all dedicated to collaborative mentorships, friendships, and advocating for more real higher education opportunities."
--Kylie Walter
"We are sharing this work with the recognition that not everyone is in the same position that we were in. We have the privilege of being college students in a place where inclusion is. We want to go beyond 'inclusion works' or 'we need inclusion', to say 'this is the honest reality of how our inclusion works' and 'this is how we can make the inclusive mentorship that already exists work better for everyone'"
-- Kylie Walter