'We've got you': UWindsor student advocate tells victims of bullying
Admira Konjic helped to organize Anti-Bullying Week on campus
The University of Windsor is holding a series of events this week aimed at preventing bullying — and student advocate Admira Konjic has a special message to incoming students: "We've got you."
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Konjic is the outspoken vice president of student advocacy at the UWSA and helped set up Anti Bullying Week on campus.
"Bullying tends to be an issue overlooked on campuses as many might have the understanding that bullying ends the second you leave high school or maybe when you leave grade school," she said.
"I think everyone assumes you become a little more mature after you leave high school."
But Konjic is aiming to push the conversation forward to include racial targeting. She said university tends to be a lot more culturally diverse and high school students need to be prepared to accept new cultures and new types of people.
Konjic hopes this week's events, which included a candlelight vigil Tuesday night, will create safe spaces where students feel comfortable talking and sharing their stories. She opened up about her own story, sharing why this issue is so important for her.
"As an immigrant to Canada from Bosnia, a very war-torn country, it was very tough to adapt to culture and life here," she said. "If you don't speak properly you're targeted. If you don't eat the food that they eat — it just became tough. And in high school it became a lot more tough."
Konjic said kids would target her on social media and at school, and at times she ate her lunch alone in the bathroom. Eventually with help she was able to put it behind her and move forward.
"I just want to tell — not even just university students, but incoming university students who are in high school and feel that they're going to be targeted here — that it's going to be okay. That we've got you."
Watch the full interview with Admira Konjic here.
