This past Saturday the “Expect the Great” Leadership Conference took place in Salt Lake City. As part of the conference, guest speakers and Black Student Unions (BSU’s) from various Utah universities gathered to discuss stereotypes and how to overcome them.
“Expect the great is an annual conference for Black African-American and African students, focusing on building, investing in and connecting these students together.” said Sheree Hagan, Multicultural Program Co-ordinator at Utah State.
“The purpose of the conference is to teach us things that we can do in our unions and clubs to raise awareness in our campuses and communities.” Said Jeunee Roberts, President of Utah State’s BSU. “It is important to raise awareness for the black culture because we are such a small number in Utah. We want to empower each other and move forward.”
The event consisted of workshops, seminars and a panel of BSU presidents. The themes of the workshops included “What Am I Made Of?” and “The Cost of Enacting Social Justice”. One workshop in particular, “Pathways To Greatness” was considered very thought-provoking by many students. One student said “The workshop really made me think about where I wanted to go in life and who I wanted to be. It empowered me.”
Sheree, who led the workshop explained it further, “LaShawn Williams (Interim Director at Salt Lake Community College) and I felt it was important for the students to have a conversation with us about things that were relevant to them. The underlining message that we wanted to express was that it doesn’t matter where they come from or what mistakes they have made. They can still achieve greatness.”
The conference also focused on college and career readiness and how high school students of black ethnicity can prepare themselves for the transition. “One of the main aspects is to make sure that high school students are ready to enter college, not only the financial aspect but academically” said Sheree.
The event ended with a career’s fair where high school students gained information about higher education institutions and current college students had a chance to meet with local employers.
“Its a good chance for us to recruit to our schools, so when they come, they know people are there for them”, Jeunee explained
“There definitely is a cultural divide within academia. Black students aren’t making it to college and for those few that do make it to college, even less are making it to graduation. Our goal is to bridge that gap and level the playing field” said Sheree.
The black ethnicity in Utah is 2% and at USU, enrolment of Black or African American students is 1%.
“We are predominantly a white campus; we have very few black and African students, and our retention of black students is low so we needed help. Our students need to know they aren’t the only students here (in Utah) who are experiencing discrimination or racial profiling.” Sheree explained.
Jeunee concluded “USU is so high up in the state. Expect the Great gives us a chance to get out of the area and meet people who have the same goals and dreams. It teaches us not just how to be ‘us’, but how to be a strong, educated and powerful ‘us’.”
Next year’s event is expected to be held at Weber State University, and expectations are high.
