After graduating with an engineering degree from Cornell, Danya Contreras ’13 entered the workforce but quickly realized her true calling was medicine. After seven years of perseverance – including earning a master’s degree while working full-time –she received an acceptance letter to SUNY Upstate Medical University.

“I took the MCAT, but didn’t make it the first time,” said Contreras, one of two featured speakers at the “REALTALK: Thriving through Community” speaker event held Oct. 24 at Barnes Hall Auditorium. “But I didn't give up, because I knew I would not be happy in life if I wasn’t a doctor.” 

Hosted by the Gender Equity Resource Center (GenEq) and the Cornell chapter of the Delta Gamma Sorority, the third annual REALTALK series aims to bring young, successful female and gender-expansive alumni back to campus to share their stories.

In an hourlong conversation moderated by two students, Contreras and Michelle Reiss ’20 discussed their experiences as first-generation Cornell students, their unconventional career paths and how they built community along the way.

Reiss, who earned a degree from the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, moved home after graduation and realized she’d put her creative dreams on hold. She soon secured an internship at a studio in Brooklyn that launched her performing career.

“I was starting from zero,” said Reiss – known professionally as Michelladonna ­–now an actor, writer, comedian, producer and community organizer in Queens. 

Reiss said she struggled with feelings of isolation at Cornell until she attended a town hall where other students inspired her to help establish the Business Students of Color Coalition. 

“That really taught me to find community,” Reiss said, “and find people and open my mouth.” Reiss now uses her platform to create and host podcasts, workshops and free pop-up events featuring queer and BIPOC performers in New York City. 

The REALTALK Planning Committee selected both panelists because of their engaged commitment to their communities at Cornell and beyond. 

“We know that often students who hold multiple marginalized identities can find navigating life at Cornell extra challenging and isolating,” said Shura Gat, associate dean of students and director of the Gender Equity Resource Center. “We hoped that it would be empowering to hear how these alumni, who hold similar identities, were able to thrive through connection with the community while on campus and after graduation.”

Contreras said student organizations such as Dominican Students Association and Society of Women Engineers helped her find a sense of community at Cornell, and inspired her to join a first-generation student club once she got to medical school.

“We don’t really know what we don't know, until we get here,” Contreras said. “So I want to hear from my peers what they’ve been through, so that I don’t struggle as much. And likewise; I want to provide that information for the people coming after me.”

GenEq, part of the Centers for Student Equity, Empowerment, and Belonging within the Office of the Dean of Students, celebrated 50 years of gender equity at Cornell last year. The office, located on the second floor of Willard Straight Hall, serves as a gathering place for students to relax, study and connect with peers. It also provides free items, including sustainable period products, pregnancy tests, safer sex supplies and emergency contraception.

“Sometimes I feel that, especially in the Ivy League, you need to speed run through things,” said Kassandra Sofia Robledo ’25, one of the student moderators at the event and a government major in the College of Arts and Sciences. “You need to be the best, and the fastest and on top of everything. However, the reality is, when you’re struggling – it truly takes one step at a time.” 

For Robledo, GenEq has been the foundation for creating connections at Cornell. She planned events, met new friends, gained access to a network of alumni and mentors, and built a community – for herself and others.

“At the end of an event I helped plan for GenEq last year, the number of people who came up and thanked me and the other person who planned it – that’s something that I’ll always carry with me,” she said. “My goal is to uplift people in my communities. If I’m serving them and helping to create spaces where they feel comfortable, validated and heard, then I’m set.”

Laura Gallup is a communications lead for Student and Campus Life.