Adonia Kouadio

“From campus ministries and local churches to RSOs and Housing and Residence Life, the people I've known here are a true blessing that I may never have experienced had I not chosen to come to UChicago.” 

Adonia Kouadio, a comparative human development major and education and society minor, will graduate having taken full advantage of all the opportunities UChicago has to offer. While on campus, she was involved in the campus student ministry Cru, served on the cultural show planning committee for the Organization for Black Students, participated in the Office of Admissions’ Multicultural Student Advisory Committee, tutored through the Neighborhood Schools Program and served as a resident assistant for Strongin House. 

One of her fondest memories is from the Hyde Park Jazz Festival during Orientation Week. “Some friends and I lived in RGGRC at the time, and we could hear the music from our windows. One of the nights of the festival, we spent a few hours there checking out local vendors and artists, and a woman taught the group of us a line dance that we got to practice to live music. It was my first taste of the richness that Hyde Park and the South Side have to offer.”

Kouadio’s advice to first-years is to remember that rest and relationships are gifts. “Life is better when we allow ourselves to rest, and when we allow ourselves to ask for help.”