Obse Dinsa, DEIB Special Programs Coordinator, is the new supervisor of LEAD and community service. LEAD is a student-led program where discussions are held about current events.
Dinsa graduated from the University of Washington this past spring, and she majored in social welfare. She was inspired by her high school social worker in Seattle after moving from Atlanta in 2015.
“She gave me a lot of tools for self advocacy. I had a really hard time in my life trying to navigate being a 16-17 year old girl in a majority white school,” Dinsa said. “Going to school [in Atlanta], the majority of my teachers were black women, when I go to the store, there were black women, when I go to the doctor, the nurse and the doctor was a black woman.”
Dinsa is grateful for her role at UPrep, where she’s able to leverage her degree in different ways.
“She’s been through so much more than I have…and she still perseveres,” Dinsa said. “She maintains a certain level of grace and I hope to emulate that.” Photo: Obse Dinsa
“[It’s] such a blessing that I found social work as a feasible career for me because it allows me to do everything that I want to do within the scope of servitude, advocacy [and] community building,” Dinsa said.
Dinsa was born in Ethiopia, before moving to Atlanta in 2001 as a baby. Her father moved to the U.S. before she and her mom in order to get more “established” and “build up a career.”
“It wasn’t that life was bad in Ethiopia for either one of my parents, but they just knew that it could be something better in America,” Dinsa said.
Dinsa described LEAD as being a “foundational, trailblazing, necessary” program. Currently, Dinsa is moderating the program while navigating how it works.
“I think I’ve taken a different approach as far as my leadership and really making sure the LEADers [have] the space to just lead as they’re supposed to,” Dinsa said.
Two-year LEAD exec, senior Chloe Kung, states that Dinsa is a refreshing addition to LEAD and the DEIB office. Kung appreciates Dinsa’s excitement and dedication for the program.
“It’s gonna be good to have a new person that’s solely focused on it because in the past it was a lot on the execs,” Kung said.
She also believes that Dinsa’s age will be beneficial for the program.
“She just graduated from college. She’s young, so I feel like she kind of gets people,” Kung said.
Taylor Kanemori, director of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, and former supervisor of LEAD and community service, is not only grateful for Obse’s presence in growing the office, but for her expertise and outlook as well.
“Obse’s awesome,” Kanemori said. “We just knew she was going to connect with students, she’s been a great addition, and is doing really great work with LEAD, and is going to start doing some announcements around community service. We’re just excited to see her, [and she] is doing great work for us.”
Kanemori and Flor, DEI and belonging program manager, were overjoyed about the new addition to the DEIB office.
“We were looking for somebody who was interested in DEI work, we weren’t looking for somebody who necessarily had a ton of experience in it,”Kanemori said.
Kanemori praises Dinsa, stating she’s “super organized and thoughtful.” Dinsa coming into a DEIB role is significant amid the political climate which criticizes DEI work. Kanemori is proud of UPrep for being one of the few schools hiring for DEI roles at the time.
“We had a really competitive process, we had a lot of people apply for this job, which was awesome,” Kanemori said. “There weren’t a lot of places that were opening DEI jobs at the time, as you might imagine.”
Dinsa plans to make “community service more intentional” as she understands the burden the 80 hour requirement may have on students.
“Let’s say they have a hobby that wouldn’t traditionally fit in the scope of community service. They can turn that into a community service project,” Dinsa said. “I don’t want students to just look at it as checking off a box to graduate, but something that’s necessary, that would benefit the community later on, even after they graduate.”
UPrep provides a new challenge for Dinsa. In the past she has only worked with elementary school students, so she is intrigued by this change.
“Really, I’m excited to be at UPrep. The opportunity to be here, and knowing I hopefully could be a part of this community, I’m just grateful,” Dinsa said. “I can see myself here long term.”
