It’s one of those rare warm and sunny days in early April when I meet Adena Norwood for the first time. The sky is perfectly blue, and for a minute, I remember why I enjoy living in Michigan. As I walk into a local East Lansing coffee shop, I hear the barista call Adena’s name. I wave and introduce myself.
I’m instantly drawn to her bubbly energy, authentic smile and poised demeanor as she welcomes me to a table in the corner for us to talk. Immediately, I see why Adena was selected by the Dean’s Student Advisory Council to be the College of Social Science’s commencement speaker.
Adena is graduating this May with a degree in Anthropology and a minor in International Development. Adena mentions that four years ago, she set a goal to become the speaker and marked her calendar to manifest it.
“When I went in for my interview where I shared my speech, I got emotional because as I looked at the council of students, I saw one person from each organization I’m a part of,” she says. “I just knew it was meant to be that I applied. “
She smiles as she shares how honored and ‘over the moon’ it felt to be selected. She hopes people find her speech inspiring, interesting, but also entertaining. Adena explains that her speech emphasizes the importance of figuring out when to make sacrifices for the things you love. It’s evident her appreciation for life and desire to help those around her is the legacy she wants to create.
“The important things in life are building who you are, figuring out what’s important to you and choosing when to sacrifice,” Adena says.
And that’s exactly what Adena has done over the past four years. As our conversation unfolds into hobbies and the organizations she has spent time with while at MSU, Adena emphasizes that each decision she makes is intentional. From the classes she chooses, study aboard opportunities she embraces, leadership roles she undertakes, and part-time jobs she accepts – Adena strives to differentiate her skill set and engage with life in unique ways.
“I think leaders require diversity in their abilities,” she explains. “As an expert I can only do one thing and that is suffocating to me.”
Adena’s goal is to become a public foreign service officer with the State Department or the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She will be starting her master’s program this fall in International Migration and Refugees at Georgetown University.
“I want to create research-informed solutions to finding migrant crisis solutions in Arabic-speaking African countries, whether it’s working with governmental organizations or developing political systems and governance,” Adena said.
I ask her if this has always been a dream, and she tells me she engaged with politics and public service at a young age as her father is a civil engineer for the Navy.
Growing up in a miliary family, Adena moved frequently. She was born in Novi, Michigan but since has spent time in Canada, Delaware, and now her family resides in Southern Maryland.
“It’s rural and I love it,” Adena says.
Adena attended Elizabeth Seaton High School, an all-girls Catholic school. She attributes these years to be some of her most formative experiences of her life.
“I became who I am there, and it gave me the confidence I have,” she says. “It was incredible to be in an environment surrounded by women, all striving for something greater.”
While in high school, Adena obtained several summer internships that allowed her to work with the public defender’s office, the court of appeal and the D.C. Historical Museum. These opportunities fueled her love for politics, law and international work. Although staying near the DC area may have provided Adena with a more direct path toward her career as a future diplomat, she was ready to leave and headed to Michigan State University (MSU).
“I have found peace with never doing things the way people expect me to,” Adena tells me. “It may be more difficult, more expensive, I may be in debt, but I’m happy and I’m doing it in a way that gives me interesting experiences and I love who I am now.”
Adena chose a focus in cultural and linguistic anthropology as it allows her to be an ethnographic researcher. She tells me how she values learning, but also experiencing different communities, languages and cultures.
During her sophomore year, Adena was accepted into the Social Science Scholars Program. She said Social Science gave her the flexibility she needed to figure out what she wanted to study and allowed her opportunities to try new things.
“The College of Social Science gave me the ability to see what I really wanted to do and become someone multifaceted,” she says.
Adena truly embodies this multidimensional philosophy. She tells me that outside of her academics, she participates in several extracurriculars. She’s a member of Black Girl Fitness Club, started a career in modeling and is a member of both the Women’s Leadership Institute and Delta Phi Epsilon, a Professional Foreign Service Sorority.
Tears begin to fill Adena’s eyes and her voice begins to catch as she speaks about the meaningful female relationships she has formed through her sorority. She tells me she longed for a ‘best friend forever’ but her frequent moves made it difficult her to be able to create lasting friendships.
“Media and television aimed at women and girls often emphasized a dreamy and elusive best friend, almost partner-like relationship that I never had, and thought only existed in fantasy,” she said. “But when I came to MSU, I was able to reconsider whether a friendship like that was possible for me and I’m happy to say I have finally found it.”
One of Adena’s most grounding hobbies is yoga. She shares that her journey to become a yoga instructor began over a year ago and since has fallen in love with its core principles. With her busy lifestyle, yoga helps her slow her down and maintain balance.
“Yoga teaches me resilience, discipline and can be applied everywhere in my life,” she says. “I’m lucky to have found my creative outlet, my physical outlet, my academic outlet, and I’ve got an amazing community here at Michigan State through all the organizations I’ve been in.”
As we sipped our chai tea, we reflected on the impact MSU has left on Adena. She explains that the university has given her a ‘tapestry’ of different experiences, people and communities that fuel her to keep searching for ‘what’s next.’
“I don’t want to be forgettable; I want to make sure that I leave my mark wherever I go,” Adean says. “I don’t like to leave a place the same.”
As we wrap up our conversation, she shares with me a quote from Maya Angelou, “ask for what you want and be prepared to get it.”
Adena has lived this personal mantra throughout undergrad. She explains that she meticulously prepares for each goal she pursues, and even if things don’t go as planned, she perseveres.
“If you’re not worried about what it’ll look like getting there, keep going,” she says. “It’s not going to look the same way you expect it to, but it will happen.”