Faith Iloka lives in Trenton, New Jersey, and is a proud concentrator of African American Studies with certificates in Music and Theatre. Before arriving at Princeton, her intended major was Psychology. Still, while taking the Introduction to AAS along with Social Psychology during her first semester, Faith quickly realized that the African American Studies department was the one for her. She determined this will be her approach in pursuing a career in Clinical Psychology, in hopes to encourage mental health awareness among minority communities. Following her Princeton career, Faith hopes to attend Graduate School for a PsyD program in Clinical Psychology. For her Junior paper, Faith plans on incorporating her love for theatre in her research, analyzing plays written by black female playwrights that focus on the impact of intersectionality on the mental health of black women; more specifically, the ways in which intersectionality can cause depression among black women. She hopes to use this research to inspire her senior thesis, for which she seeks to write a play that highlights the role of mental illness within a minority household and the ways in which the community responds to such illness.

Faith participates in a variety of extracurricular activities at Princeton, including DoroBucci (Princeton’s Premier African Dance Group) for which she was President and now serves as Artistic Director, Treasurer for Black Student Union, PASA, Sankofa Fashion Show, and PUMP Mentorship Program. She has also acted in a variety of plays on campus, including Gurls (written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins), PUP’s Evita, Foreign Bodies Workshop, and Mad Dreams (written by Bob Sandberg). Faith’s involvement in the AAS department goes unnoticed, as she works for Dionne K. Worthy as an office assistant and curator of our newsletter, and a proud representative of the African American Studies Department.