Nursing student serves on NAACP national youth board

A Binghamton University undergraduate is following in the footsteps of W.E.B. Du Bois and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Ra’Vynn Waters, a sophomore nursing student, was elected to the national board of directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in February.

Waters, 21, from Rockland County, N.Y., is a member of a national youth board that represents regional NAACP youth chapters in the larger board of directors. It’s a level of responsibility she has been building up to since the age of 16, when she joined her local youth chapter in Spring Valley, N.Y.

Now one of 64 national board members, Waters brings her ability to build community to the national stage.

“There’s a lot of people that think the NAACP is centered around one group of people,” Waters said. “Anybody can join. It’s just about trying to find equality for all people.”

A former president of her local youth chapter, Waters transferred from Rockland Community College to Binghamton University in fall 2017, where she joined the newly revamped Binghamton University NAACP chapter as second vice president.

Joining the Binghamton chapter has encouraged Waters to funnel her knowledge of leading NAACP initiatives into new approaches.

“With the youth council, it’s more about doing community stuff and trying to get the kids in the community to come together,” Waters said. “At Binghamton, you have the student body, you already have your community. Here we talk more about topics that interest college students and try to focus them on our game-changers.”

The NAACP has six “game-changers for the 21st century” that the organization focuses on, including economic sustainability, education, health, public safety and criminal justice, voting rights and political representation, and expanding youth and young adult engagement.

Waters finds that her involvement with the Binghamton chapter has propelled her as a leader within the NAACP, especially since the chapter is redefining its presence on campus after a few years of silence.

“Not only are they learning from me, but I’m learning from them,” she said.

She also brings experience from another role in the NAACP, as first vice president of the New York state youth council board. There, she participates in training youth councils and college chapters in activities such as voter registration workshops.

“It’s so funny, because we have this group chat with all the regional members of the NAACP and we were introducing ourselves, and I’m coming in with three different titles,” Waters said, laughing.

It was after the NAACP’s national convention in July that Waters acquired her third title. On top of her continued roles in the Binghamton and New York state chapters, she was nominated and elected to the national youth board and now sits on the national board of directors.

“I’m a very quiet person when it comes to my accomplishments and stuff like that,” Waters said. “Not a lot of people know that I’m on the national board. I was just nervous, because now I’m in charge of a whole region.”

Her new duties include acting as a liaison between the national board and her region, which includes Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, as well as working with the national director for the youth and college division, attending board meetings quarterly and attending breakout committee meetings.

“We want the youth to have a presence in a little bit of every aspect of all the different committees,” Waters said. “We may be youth board members, but we’re still board members.”

Waters said that in her role, she’s interested in promoting environmental justice, education and health initiatives, particularly as a nursing student.

Drawn to the medical field by a desire to help others, Waters said one of her major interests is emergency healthcare. She received certification as an EMT at her community college three years ago.

“I absolutely love it, it’s one of my favorite things to do,” Waters said. “My end goal would definitely be getting my medical degree.”

Waters also views her position in NAACP as a helper. Even though politics isn’t exactly her passion, she said she enjoys being able to work with politicians and others to accomplish goals.

Moving forward, she has set a goal to circumvent the sometimes-confusing NAACP organizational structure and engage the youth councils in her region as much as possible.

“Personally, I never knew my national board member, until this past national board member, because he was from New York state,” Waters said. “Before that, I really didn’t know anybody that was a part of it. Now I’m just trying to reach out to people and get people to know who I am.”