Asha is doing her PhD in Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis. As a Mitchell Scholar, she Asha studied Public History at Queen’s University Belfast. She graduated from Furman University with degrees in Advocacy and Justice Studies. She was the university’s the first Black female Student Body President in over ten years. She also served as the President of College Democrats and of the Furman Justice Forum. She conducted research examining student perceptions of universities’ efforts to reckon with their ties to slavery and the impacts of gentrification on small business owners in West Greenville. Asha created a summer internship for low-income students in her community, including programming for students to learn about leadership, advocacy, and activism. As a 16-year-old, Asha started a petition to change the name of her high school, which is named for the largest slave owner in South Carolina. Her efforts included sitting on panels of community leaders three times her age, in front of one hundred community members debating the impact and importance of public symbolism and the need to remove Confederate monuments. She was interviewed by local news media, wrote op-eds for the local newspaper, spoke at school board, city council, and county council meetings, and organized a peaceful community demonstration in response to racist graffiti attacks against her. Despite more than 10,000 signatures on the petition, the high school is still named Wade Hampton High School. This experience has led to a fierce interest in studying public history, symbolism, and where community memory comes from.