Khary Pryce ’22

Khary Pryce ’22, a Cornell women’s tennis player, transferred to the ILR School from the College of Arts and Sciences, where she studied government. “As much as I love politics, I also have all types of other interests,” Khary said. “The advocacy and social justice focus of ILR are really what pointed me in this direction.” 

Khary also appreciates that the ILR school offers opportunities to study sports business arbitration and mediation. She brings what she learns to Cornell’s student-athlete community, as a member of the  Big Red Leadership Institute and as co-president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. 

In her role with SAAC, Khary connects with student-athletes from other Ivy League universities to discuss issues, advocate for the community and help organize a drive to increase student-athletes in community service. 

Khary connects with the Cornell campus through her work with the Intergroup Dialogue Project, an organization that facilitates conversations about human connection, social identity, intergroup communication and strategic change. “The opportunities are endless when student run organizations have great ideas and are creative,” Khary said. 

aking the advocacy one step further this semester, Khary is hosting “AMPED,” a podcast focused on the experiences of underrepresented student-athletes. “I could talk all day about social identity and athletics, because there's an intersection there that sometimes doesn't get explored as much as I think it should,” she said. 

All of these activities come on top of Khary’s schedule as a student-athlete. “It's a lot of work to juggle all of these things. But it's something that's really worthwhile to me.” 

Khary responded to the questions below:

How has ILR changed you?

ILR has given me so much. The people I see walking through Ives each day have become my good friends. We traverse through the classes together and have created relationships that will last a long time. ILR has given me knowledge about the world of work, from workplace issues, to HR, to advocacy, and especially to critical thinking skills that allow me to analyze the world around me. It’s also given me a background in the history of those subjects, and connected them to social justice issues. 

How are you making an impact through your experiences in ILR?

I’m taking my ILR knowledge to my peers, who aren’t all ILRies. I’m able to bring up topics that I discuss in class with people who may not be discussing them. I think about, for example, my STEM friends or any friends in other majors, we have similar Cornell experiences, but we’re not studying the same things so when we talk about race and gender, I feel like I’m primed on those conversations and I feel like I can force conversations that hopefully can get the ball rolling on these important things. 

How might the mission of ILR shape the next 75 years of work, labor and employment?

I think that ILR was always on the forefront of work, labor and employment, and as these change we will too. I can already see how we will be a huge part of those changes that are already happening. In my credit internship at IBM, where we are talking about hybrid work for employees with disabilities.The model of work is forever changing and I think that the research ILR is doing will really mold the next 75 years.