After one year, SWIRL is still growing as a home for students of all backgrounds

In 2015, Leona Amosah founded Students With Interracial Legacies, or UNC-CH SWIRL, which is the first multiracial organization on campus.

Now that the club has been established for a year, they are trying to expand.

“Our main shift is that it has kind of grown to be more than it originally was in that it’s meant to explore all aspects of everyone’s identity and recognize those different identities,” Amosah said.

In the past, Amosah pre-planned the discussion topics, but this year the club holds weekly meetings on broader topics related to UNC and life in general, including gender identities, relationships, politics, activism and intersectionality.

One of Amosah’s goals for the club is to collaborate more with Duke SWIRL after two people from Duke reached out to UNC-CH SWIRL last year to learn how to establish their own organization.

In addition, Amosah hopes SWIRL will become more involved with other UNC organizations and activism.

Junior Noah Legall said he joined SWIRL after joining other organizations, but not feeling very close to them.

“I felt like the people (in SWIRL) were genuine,” Legall said. “I felt like they were in a way kind of like me.”

Legall said he wants people who don’t feel like they fit into one mold to feel welcomed and appreciated in SWIRL.

He said SWIRL gave him the opportunity to talk about things he wouldn’t be able to hear and talk about anywhere else.

“I won’t lie, being in SWIRL has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I take for granted,” Legall said. “It’s a club based off of having a safe space for mixed-race individuals, but we talk about a whole gambit of things like intersectionality, you know just gender theory.”

SWIRL Vice President Amy Townsend said now the club is working on structure, dividing roles, having more member input, publicizing and hosting events in addition to discussion meetings. Townsend said the club is trying to have a multiracial awareness week with film screenings, panels and discussions.

“The first part is just saying, ‘Hey, like we recognize that you are all out there that identify as multiracial or mixed-race and like you know this is a place for you to just to be yourself, to be able to talk about that part of your identity with other people who might share experiences with you, who might understand you better and be accepted as you are,’” Townsend said.

Legall said although SWIRL is an organization for multiracial people, it’s a space for anyone.

“SWIRL is just created for, you know, people that just felt like they didn’t fit in one box, generally,” Legall said.

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