If you are next year’s group, this story you are about to read is the one that everyone has been whispering about.

When I arrived at the Aya Centre in late June, I looked around and thought that this would be a summer of camping indoors. We had bunk beds with some clean sheets, a kitchen to share, and a space to hang out. My room’s bathroom left something to be desired – namely a shower curtain – but we could manage. The accommodations weren’t luxurious, but they didn’t need to be; I was having fun and I felt secure.

This feeling started to change about two weeks into the program when a total of $360 was stolen from two of the girls’ rooms. We had a couple meetings about it and asked Doc, the director of the Aya Centre, to conduct an investigation. After a day or two of some gossip, we mostly moved on and hoped that nothing else would happen.

A few weeks later, Shuo, our fearless and lovely leader, was startled by a strange man standing at the door to her bedroom just after midnight. After she called out to him he ran away. Shuo quickly asked around to see if it was any of us, but no, we were all accounted for and in bed. Carlos, our beloved and kind protector, stayed up the rest of the night after we realized that our security guard was sleeping.

In the morning it was discovered that an additional $40 had been stolen from one of the other bedrooms. So the thief broke in, went to at least two rooms, and stole money before he was spotted. We immediately reported this to Leslie, another one of our fearless leaders, and Doc.

I was at work for most of the day and was not updated on what transpired until I got home. I was expecting to come home to a slightly relieved household and a new plan on how the Centre was going to compensate us and boost security. I was severely disappointed.

The GEs walked us through what happened in their meetings with Doc. He had all but accused us of lying and tried to discredit what Shuo saw. In house-wide meeting with him, he continued to defend his actions and never once apologized to us about what had happened to us under his care.

We, along with Leslie, started making calls and drafting emails to GEO and anyone else we thought could help us get out of the center. When we met again the following day Senyo had come back to help us out, Leslie had found us a new place, and GEO was handling the finances for our move to Webster University dorms the next day!

This whole fiasco was scary and frustrating. We had been taken advantage of and the Centre thought that they would be able to get away with it for some reason, but we all acted and used the resources available to us. With a few emails and phone calls, we were able to find new (and much much better) housing for 20 students within 24 hours. We made ourselves known and made it clear that we do not deserve to be made to live somewhere that we are uncomfortable or unsafe.

If you are from a future group and you are reading this I hope that you realize that you have power, even when you are far from home. These resources that we talk about in the spring term class are real and they will fight on your behalf. Use them whether it is an emergency or even just a problem.

I am grateful that none of us were harmed and I hope that nothing like this will ever happen again. But if it does, stand up for yourself, tell others what is happening, and don’t let anyone convince you that you were in the wrong. Who knows, you might just get some AC out of it.