In addition to her work with OBS, Clottey works as a student coordinator for CCSS. As a first-generation low-income (FLI) student, she said that the Chicago Academic Achievement Program played an integral role in developing her confidence and helping to acclimate her to the College’s academic rigor before classes began. It also inspired her to support future incoming FLI students.  

“The CCSS helps to provide resources such as books, technology, tuition/housing costs, food and more so that FLI students can come to the University on a more equal footing,” she said. “CCSS has helped to make me feel like I belong here, and it’s been so amazing to be part of the work they do to lessen this gap.”

Clottey additionally follows her passion for socially impactful media work through both podcasting and fashion design.

In the summer after her second year, Clottey and executive producers Lena Diasti and Hope Houston revived and rebranded “Kinda Sorta Brown,” a dormant podcast which had been founded by students in the Harris School of Social Policy. Recognized last year by Spotify and NPR as one of the top college student podcasts in the country, the show offers a conversational deep dive into the intersection of identity, policy and action by tackling deeply-rooted issues in the experiences of communities of color across the U.S. 

As the podcast’s outreach manager, Clottey is in charge of finding guest speakers and coming up with episode concepts that fit the podcast’s quarterly themes. For one of their recent episodes on Black feminism, Clottey worked to tie Africana speculative fiction to science fiction.

“Who knew you could make those things merge?” said Clottey. “We got to be so creative with it, adding some really cool…