Meet Lissie Mendes

Whitworth Cadre Three
'09 English Major
Bellarmine Preparatory School '05

Life In The Eastside

Lissie was born and raised in a working class neighborhood in Eastside Tacoma; a place she described as “ghetto.” “It was a good neighborhood when I was younger but it started taking a turn for the worst when the [neighboring] houses became empty and people started renting it out to shady people,” Lissie said. “Living in the Eastside has been interesting because we’ve lived in [our] house for years and it’s interesting how the community changed.” Drugs and meth labs were some issues that her neighborhood faced during her time in middle school.

Lissie said being home schooled by her mother from 5th grade to 9th grade, developed a strong work ethic and sense of motivation early on. “Also, it was really nice to go to school wearing your pajamas,” Lissie said. Entering high school at Bellarmine Prep, an academically rigorous private school, Lissie said she was able to excel throughout her time at high school because of her home school education.

Learning How to Lead

Lissie’s leadership style has changed and transformed over the past several years. With a little soul searching and experimenting, she said she developed her own way to express how she views leadership. “When I initially was in Act Six, I was very vocal and ‘in charge,’ but now I’m more behind the scenes,” Lissie said. “I learned [the former style] was not the best way to express myself and that’s okay – it takes all types.” Act Six not only offers an ethnically diverse cadre of student leaders, but they offer an array of different leadership styles. “That is something I really like about Act Six, there is no one way of expressing your leadership ­– they are very open to individuality and self-expression,” Lissie said.

Along with discovering the best way to lead, Lissie experienced a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences at Whitworth. “Especially in my freshman year, being insecure in my surroundings and not knowing what to expect,” Lissie said. “It was hard leaving home, family and friends to an entirely new and different environment.” It’s like your first day of high school all over again, Lissie said. There were times where Lissie would call her mom three or four times a week or even up to three or four times a day. But Lissie said she eventually met new people she could call family and friends. “It took me three years to find my niche and I found living on campus and being active on campus was going to be as a positive experience as I let it be,” Lissie said.

Finding Commonality in Paradoxes

As the Vice President of Open Discussions: Orientation, a club at Whitworth devoted to facilitating an open conversation and a welcoming atmosphere for GLBTSQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Straight and Questioning) students, Lissie identifies herself as someone who is both Christian and gay. Lissie has used both of these two identities as a platform towards social justice on campus her sophomore year. She worked with administration in the past to add a nondiscriminatory act to protect homosexual students. Fighting for social justice on campus raised questions of what the struggle of achieving it meant not only as someone who is gay, but also the obligation as a Christian to fight against discrimination, she said.

The Future Is Open

After graduation, Lissie will be seeking a corporate position at REI and plans to eventually go to graduate school. But Lissie is open to how things go in the future. “I don’t have solid plans at this point,” she said. “I can always teach, it’s an idea that has always entertained me,” Lissie said. She has tutored at elementary schools in rural, lower-income areas in Spokane and plans to stay in the Tacoma area to work with kids in the city. Lissie said her experience with Whitworth and Act Six is something she will never forget. “Act Six created an awareness of social and educational issues throughout Tacoma, the United States and the world,” Lissie said.

The Act Six program will engage and change your way of thought, she said. “You are going to change, your perspective is going to change, and your ideas are going to change.”

By YONG KIM
8/12/08

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