"Who Am I Outside of Volleyball?"

It’s no surprise that Jewel Strawberry ’22 just graduated as the captain of the BC women’s volleyball team. After all, she is the daughter of the legendary baseball slugger Darryl Strawberry, and her mother, Charisse Fuller, and each of her four siblings played Division 1 sports. But Strawberry is hardly defined by her athletic prowess. In 2020, she became the inaugural president of Eagles for Equality, a new diversity, equity, and inclusion committee for student athletes.

Strawberry excelled on the volleyball court as an outside hitter during her freshman and sophomore seasons, but hurt her shoulder in fall 2019. She underwent surgery but her shoulder never fully recovered, and she finished out her career as a defensive specialist. “When I was hurt,” she said, “I started thinking, who am I outside of volleyball?” The question helped inspire Strawberry, who was on the board of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, to take the position with Eagles for Equality. The group has organized unity walks and created a service that allows student athletes to anonymously report discrimination via text message.

Last summer, Strawberry interned with the renowned civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin and George Floyd, among many others. She has signed on to work for Teach for America, in Atlanta, through 2024. After that, she plans to go to law school, and hopes to one day work to reform the juvenile justice system. “If I can be a voice for the voiceless or just for people who feel they can’t speak up,” Strawberry said, “then I’m going to be that person.”