Tramaine Austin Dillon

Inside Out: "A Groundbreaking Experience"

Inside Out was a groundbreaking experience in my life. I was in middle school, living in the inner city of Los Angeles, being raised by a single mother. I had always been an excellent student in school because of my Mother and Auntie. They were the two main influences in my life and they stressed education as an opportunity for greatness. So I took hold of that advice and continued to do my best.

After being a member of Inside Out I became more aware of how I treated others. I was able to see the good things we were doing and it allowed me to see the good in my classmates. Inside Out allowed our creative minds to develop fantastic plays that expressed struggles within our community and our own expressions of love, family, and life, while working together as a team. It provided me an opportunity to express myself through the arts, which I never really knew before. I loved acting and the creativity it took to develop a concept and then put into action. It was a very rewarding experience and it gave me something to look forward to every week. Inside Out kept a lot of us away from negative influences of the inner city. Things such as drugs and gangs were not an option for us because we were stimulating our minds with creativity. Inside Out gave me a new sense of what I could do and achieve.

I loved Inside Out so much for what it brought to the community in my middle school that I became an alumni mentor for the program while I was in High School. Serving as a mentor was rewarding on many levels. It taught me how to help others and it allowed me to see that giving back can impact someone’s life like it did for me. I graduated High School and I was admitted to Washington State University in the fall of 2004. While I was there I continued mentoring. My sophomore year I began mentoring African-American freshmen on campus. I got my first taste of mentoring with Inside Out and it was awesome to build on that important principle. After four years I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication with an emphasis in Broadcast Production and a minor in Comparative Ethnic Studies.

I have to thank Inside Out for taking the time to give back to me and all the other students and communities they work with. Without them I don’t know if college would have been as enjoyable as it was. The beautiful thing about Inside Out for me is that they allow you to flourish as an individual. They encourage you to be a critical and creative thinker. Those are two qualities that any young person should be exploring, and thanks to Inside Out I did and the reward was groundbreaking. I became the first in my family to graduate college. How cool is that?

Tramaine Austin-Dillon