February has been an exciting month for the Black Student Union. Tamyia Rowell, senior in operations and supply chain management, has been the backbone of it all.
Rowell serves as the special programs director for the BSU and is responsible for planning and programming annual events such as the Welcome Back Celebration, Kwanzaa, Awards Ball and Black History Month.
Black History Month is very important to the African-American community because it allows members to embrace and represent their culture unapologetically.
“The best thing about Black History Month is seeing everyone enjoy being black and learn new things about our culture that they never would have imagined,” Rowell said. “It is also amazing to see everyone else’s talents, such as singing, dancing or even poetry.”
Using the hashtag #TheBlackExperience, Hale Library has even committed to archiving some of the posts made on social media platforms. This gives BSU the opportunity to keep posts students have created. Over time, students from different schools even participated in the hashtag.
“The hashtag has helped because when people see others participating in the conversation of the day, it makes them want to do the same,” Rowell said.
Students even had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by Maggie Anderson. Anderson spoke about African-Americans not supporting other African-American owned businesses. The lecture was very empowering and was even a reality check to some.
Anderson kindly gave copies of her book “Our Black Year” to the first 50 students who attended the lecture. She mentioned how she would love for our BSU to support her movement whole-heartedly, and they have by registering for her “Maggie List” app. This app will provide a list of African-American owned businesses that she supports.
“I never knew how important it was to support our own people,” Rowell said. “Her lecture was definitely an eye opener.”
The month concluded with the Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government held at the University of Kansas. K-State’s BSU was awarded the “Clarence Wine Most Outstanding Big 12 Council of the Year.” With the help of Rowell, executive and general body members, this would have never been possible. Even their adviser, Brandon Clark, won “Adviser of the Year” for Big 12 Council.
“This was just the icing on the cake, all of our hard work has paid off,” Rowell said.
BSU will continue to uplift the African-American community at K-State by providing support and allowing those to embrace who they are unapologetically.
#TheBlackExperience #InheritTheRevolution
