The Nubian MessageN.C. State is the largest public university in North Carolina and a predominantly white institution (PWI). Students experience identity and belonging in ways that are both deeply personal and shaped by the campus environment. For many students, especially incoming freshmen, college represents more than merely an academic hub. It’s a social transition dictated by peer interactions, with everyone looking to find a community.
Through discussions and interviews with students across diverse perspectives, backgrounds and academic disciplines, a pattern emerged: students eventually found spaces where they felt comfortable and understood. For Black students in particular, those spaces played an important role in helping them navigate a campus where relatively few students shared their racial identity, while still building friendships and communities.
Justice Merchant, a second-year studying chemical and paper science engineering, knows exactly where to go when he needs to feel most like himself.
Between and after classes, he often drops in at Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA), which is a place that he’s gravitated towards since his freshman year. He recounts that it was at MSA that he created many of his friendships and found a sense of belonging.
“I feel most like [me] when I’m surrounded by people who I feel understand me, and when I can truly express myself,” said Merchant.
Before coming to N.C. State, Merchant “came from a very country, white place … and so, I wasn’t surrounded by many Black people growing up.” When he came to N.C. State, the school gave him a stronger understanding of who he is. Finding the places, like MSA, where he felt seen and understood, he discussed, was of much importance. “Coming to N.C. State and finding that community for myself, it allowed me to understand myself in a way I didn’t know I was able to before.”
Merchant is not an outlier. Other students share his experiences, like Adam Ross Umesi, a second-year in biological sciences. He recounted that he felt most at ease around friends who shared a similar cultural background, although he acknowledged that finding his people required more effort.
“You just gotta go out and find your people,” Umesi said. “It just takes a little longer.”
Juan Travis, a second-year studying agricultural engineering, said “you just have to put yourself out there and get involved … there’s definitely spaces where you can find [others like you] …”
Many students described that their sense of belonging was shaped less by the university as a whole and more by the smaller communities they found within it.
There are many options for students to find community including fraternities, cultural organizations, students centers and more. These places can provide useful resources and a strong sense of connection on campus.
“I am a Spring ‘25 initiate of the Xi Zeta chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated … I feel like Greek life is a strong part of the Black culture here on campus. And I feel like they do a lot of good for the community in general,” said Merchant of his fraternity, which has been an important part of his college experience.
Mary Riley Locklear, a second-year studying criminology, said becoming involved in N.C. State’s student centers, such as MSA and the African American Cultural Center, helped her build connections and establish herself socially.
“Getting involved in student centers and things like that have given me job opportunities,” Locklear said. “Connected me to a lot of people.”
Bradley Strunk, a fourth-year studying electrical engineering, founded the N.C. State country swing club. Through the club, he built connections with students who shared similar interests.
“I started a club myself, the country swing club, and I feel most myself there,” Strunk said.
As shown across interviews, students described N.C. State not as a single unified social environment, but as a network of smaller communities where belonging developed through shared identity, common interests and intentional connection.
The students said finding community helped them develop a stronger sense of confidence and clarity.
With the sheer size of N.C. State, students have drastically different experiences and relationships with identity. While many described the campus as welcoming overall, their strongest sense of identity and belonging often developed within smaller groups — where shared background or experience provided a foundation for connection.
Over time, students said those communities helped them grow more comfortable navigating the broader university, allowing them to move through different spaces with greater confidence and self-understanding.
“I think that most people are pretty open-minded and won’t judge you based off what their first thought of you is,” Strunk said of the student body. “They get to know you.”
For all of these students, finding their communities within the student body changed their experience at N.C. State and helped them navigate the PWI.
Merchant said that, even in a new college environment, he recognized the strength of the bonds at N.C. State.
“Wherever I went, I wanted to make sure there was a strong Black community,” he said of the university, discussing his thought-process on college choice when he was in high school. For Merchant, N.C. State fulfilled that requirement.
Having found spaces where he felt understood, Merchant said he no longer sees the campus as overwhelming, but as a place where he belongs.
Through organizations, friendships and shared experience, these students built communities that made the university feel smaller and more personal.
In the words of Adam Ross Umesi, “Sometimes you just have to find where you fit.”
This story was written by Eli Border, correspondent at The Nubian Message.
