INTERVIEW BY JULIA BOCCABELLA
Junie Joseph stands in front of Wolf Law Building at the University of Colorado - Boulder Law School.
Photographed by Julia Boccabella
JUNIE JOSEPH, MAYOR PRO TEMPORE OF BOULDER, COLORADO
“I believed in what I was saying. I believe in everything I was saying wholeheartedly. And I said the same thing everywhere I go. I think that was the power of my campaign.”
On her place of special meaning, the Wolf Law Building: Part of the reason why I chose here is because I feel like this is what brought me to Colorado. I moved to Colorado about three years ago. I was working as a human rights officer in the Central African Republic, and I was thinking I wanted to come back and go to law school so that I can better learn the law. And then I got into CU. So that's how I ended up here. And then it kind of became that story or that journey where I came to law school here, and I was struggling with housing. And I thought - this is an issue that I'm passionate about.
“It’s not one person on council that really gets the work done. It’s all 9 of us together. It’s very collaborative work.”
On her service in the Central African Republic and her start in Boulder: I think why I ran for Council is that I just wanted to serve. I wanted to participate. I left Central African Republic, an extremely difficult country. I lived there for about 11 months to a year. There were a lot of shootings, a lot of killings. And I do believe my life was in danger because of these different situations that I found myself in, working as what they call a peacekeeper or human rights officer with the UN. And I wanted to come back to law school so that I could better educate myself. When I was leaving there, I prayed - I'm a deeply spiritual person, I go to church and everything. I remember when I was there, I had a contract. And I said, “God, please take me out of here alive, and I will not give up this thing that I promise that I will do, which is serving other people - I will still do it. Just not in this context. Just take me out of here alive and I will still serve you.”
“There are days I wake up and I think, oh my goodness, I’m not sure I can deal with this today. I am not sure I can even do this today. But I still wake up and still do it anyway. Because it’s not really about how I feel. It’s what I stand for.”
On learning on her feet: Men think they can walk into any situation and figure it out. But we women can't? What is this limitation? I think it's an imposed limitation that has nothing to do with our intellect. It's more to do with this person's perception, their own prejudice, their own ageism, or their own sexism that makes them believe that a woman can't walk in and figure it out. Yet a man with absolutely no knowledge or understanding of the issue can walk into the issue and figure it out. And I think for me - I think part of it is because I came to this country, I didn't speak English, and I had to learn it. And so I'm someone who learned quickly on my feet. […] And I thought for me on counsel, of course, there were a lot of things I didn't know about this community. But I was open. I was open to learning. I was open to having coffee with people. I was one of those council members or people who were running who met with so many people just to learn. I would just sit there and learn. If I didn't know something, I said I didn't know. “Teach me.” So I was willing to learn from anyone, everyone.
Connect with Junie Joseph on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: @Junie4Boulder!