Finding Belonging, Leaving a Legacy
Two of the former leaders of “Black at Bryn Mawr” reflect on 10 years of telling a more inclusive history.
When Grace Argo ’15 first began piecing together fragments of Bryn Mawr’s history in the College’s archives, she could not have imagined that her efforts would ripple outward for years to come. As a history major fascinated by the stories buried in institutional memory, Argo and Emma Kioko ’15 launched what became the Black at Bryn Mawr project, a student-led initiative that unearthed and documented the experiences of Black students, staff, and faculty across the College’s history.
Over the past decade, many students contributed to the project, which included a blog documenting their research, a timeline published in the Winter 2021 Bulletin, a digital and walking tour, and a collection of oral histories about Perry House.
For Argo, the work was never just about dates or documents. It was about people. “It was important to tell a story about human lives,” she says, “and also to acknowledge the gaps, the places where the record is silent.”
Those stories quickly transformed from archives into living memory. In 2015, walking tours around Bryn Mawr’s campus were introduced that invited students, faculty, staff, and alumnae/i to grapple with the past in real time, together.
The tours explored various sites and told stories of Black people who had been previously excluded from the College’s history. Argo remembers watching groups of alumnae/i stand quietly, moved by the stories that connected their own Bryn Mawr experiences to those of generations before them.
“It’s one thing to talk about history in a classroom,” Argo says. “It’s another to walk those paths, to feel the weight of the stories, and to realize we are all responsible for what comes next.”
Five years later, Jada Ceasar ’20 would carry that torch. A psychology major with minors in biology and sociology, Ceasar dove into nearly every corner of campus life. She served as class president, was an executive board member of Sisterhood* and the Enid Cook Center, worked as a Pensby Fellow, and even helped guide conversations around renaming Great Hall. Yet it was when she joined the Black at Bryn Mawr tours, initially on a whim, that she found a kind of belonging she hadn’t realized she was missing.
It’s one thing to talk about history in a classroom. It’s another to walk those paths, to feel the weight of the stories, and to realize we are all responsible for what comes next.
“Being able to do that research and tell people’s stories, Black students’ specifically, helped me find my own sense of belonging,” she says.
For Ceasar, the tours became both personal and collective acts of affirmation. She remembers one moment vividly: A group of alumnae/i who had once lived in Perry House, an African American student residence and cultural center that operated from 1972 to 2013, returned to campus years after its demolition. “Seeing them weep and hold each other was so powerful,” she says. “It was like having a home in a place that doesn’t always feel like home.”
Both Argo and Ceasar’s work demonstrates how storytelling can create belonging where none seems to exist. For Argo, who went on to earn a Ph.D. in history and women’s and gender studies, the project provided an early lesson in institutional change — how to push for it, sustain it, and how to balance candor with care. Returning to campus years later, she was deeply moved to see the work carried forward through initiatives such as the ARCH Project. “I just felt grateful that the College not only preserved this history but put in the effort to provide emotional healing through art.”
“Being able to do that research and tell people’s stories, Black students’ specifically, helped me find my own sense of belonging."
For Ceasar, who is now in law school, those lessons were equally formative. She credits Bryn Mawr with giving her not only leadership opportunities but also the confidence to claim space wherever she goes. The work taught her resilience, how to navigate difficult conversations, and how to advocate fiercely for herself — skills she uses in her legal career and in mentoring students.
“I found my voice at Bryn Mawr,” Ceasar says. “I was already a leader, but Bryn Mawr gave me the chance to step into those spaces, and now I demand them.”
If there is one message both have for current students, it is that belonging isn’t something you wait to be handed — it’s something you build. Argo and Ceasar entered Bryn Mawr searching for belonging, and by telling the stories of others, they found their own. In the process, they left behind something even greater: a living archive, a tradition of courage, and a reminder that community is made stronger every time a new voice steps forward to be heard.
Published on: 10/30/2025