University of Waterloo Athletics

My name is Sophie Stupalo. I am a second-year student and the founder of the UW Lacrosse club which is part of the Alliance. I am a third generation Canadian with grandparents who immigrated from Croatia and Italy. I am a white woman and for that reason have experienced a lifetime of privilege. I have never been discriminated against due to the colour of my skin.

I had a sheltered childhood growing up in Brampton as my schools tended to be quite diverse. I had never witnessed overt racism and only learned about it through assemblies at my schools. I regret to say, my schools failed to enlighten me as I thought racism was a thing of the past. It wasn’t until I was old enough to have access to social media that I realised I was white. On social media I was able to read and listen to other people’s experiences with racism and I began to learn a lot more about the issue. I quickly learned how little I knew.

I was lucky to have played a lot of sports growing up and as much as I loved the sport of lacrosse, I always felt it fostered an unwelcoming environment. Because of this, when creating the constitution for the UW lacrosse club, my primary goal was to make it as welcoming, inclusive, and accessible as possible so that anyone who wanted to try the sport would not be deterred. Having joined the Alliance, we look to expand on that goal through our own education and through encouraging our teammates to speak out against racism. I hope that working with the Alliance will reinforce the club’s core value of inclusivity so that it endures long after I’ve graduated. Since we are a lacrosse club, we will not only spend our time playing the sport, but we will also spend time learning about its origins and acknowledging the stolen land that we practice on.

I also joined the Alliance as an individual to expose myself to conversations about racial inequality and injustices. Using what I will learn, I plan to engage in more informative and meaningful discussions about racism with my friends and family.

 To connect with Stephanie please email alliance@uwaterloo.ca