Black Student Union is a student-led organization where students can come to learn about history, diversity throughout the school and community and celebrate black culture and history.
“Black Student Union is something that is mostly seen in colleges, but it is something that seems needed in our school,” adviser Rashonda Coffee said. “it is not just for black and brown students; it’s for anyone who wants to learn more about the black experience, history and culture.”
On March 26, the Black Student Union Club held its first meeting for the year. The meeting was held in room A229. Their numbers were low but advisers didn’t mind.
“The number of people who attended was low, but I think as can be expected because there is so much going on,” co-advisor Caitlin Stephens said. “I get discouraged easily sometimes, and I try to remind myself that’s how it all started in the same way in 2019/2020. I feel not very discouraged by the small number of people because I think that it will pick up beyond those kids who are all so excited or not discouraged. I think there’s definitely sparks from the candidates that we saw that it’s going to grow.”
“The reason why I’m not discouraged about the turnout is because everything is not necessarily for everybody,” Coffee said. “We want to be able to serve everyone that wants to be here and come and participate and even see what’s going on. We recognize that everything is not for everybody, and that’s okay. You know, that’s the beauty of diversity and all of the different clubs that we have here and all the different organizations and sports and things like that. I’m excited about the future of where this club could possibly go.”
The first meeting consisted of talking about what a Black Student Union traditionally entails and the history of them and about club goals.
“We talked about if we were to do a Black Student Union here, what would we be working to achieve?” Stephens said. “We asked them if they had any idea of what they wanted to share like fundraisers and events and stuff, but then we got some time to share some ideas that we had come up with and things that we thought we could potentially do. We got some ideas to do social media Instagram presence so that we can get out there a little bit more and get more interest sparked among other students, and ask them to kind of let their friends know word of mouth.”
The club is new but still has members who are looking for leadership opportunities.
“Since the club just started a couple of weeks ago, right now I am just a member of the group, but I am hoping to take a leadership role in the club next school year,” junior Isabella Graham said. “Currently, I am coming up with ideas for T-shirts for the BSU. I am also advertising the club and trying to recruit more students to join. I am also taking over the BSU’s Instagram page.”
“I am just a member of the group who helps put it together; I am supporting it and bringing it together with Miss Coffee. It’s just a place for students to be and understand each other,” senior NahJay Hardy said. “I advertise a lot; I make sure that social media pages are up and flyers are hung and just throwing the word out into the world.”
Two members express what this group means to them as an individual.
“I have a feeling that the BSU will become a very important club to me,” Graham said. “I think that, in a place like Altoona, it is important to pay tribute to African American history and culture because too often it is overlooked. I love the idea of paying tribute to not only African American culture in general but also local events regarding it.”
It means understanding, a safe space, a place to go where you don’t have to worry that you are a different shade, you are just a person that can do what you want to do. You feel like you can express yourself in this area.”
— Hardy
The group is looking into and planning to get involved with the community in any way they can. Towards the end of the school year, they will be looking into doing Toona Toon Up and partnering with the food pantry to help the community in any way possible.
“We are trying to branch out into the community this year with Toona Tune Up and have Black Student Union shirts made so that we can go out as a club together to give back to the community as a group,” Coffee said. “I just kind of thought that would be a really awesome cause to get involved in and then also maybe be able to serve a large number of individuals.”
“We talked about the African American Heritage Festival during the summer, and we talked about someone being available to go to it would be great, but to volunteer at it would be better, and just starting to look at some opportunities that we can do community outreach and share it is great, but also to educate to enrich our own experiences too,” Stephens said.
Posters are hanging around the school with information on them. The Google classroom code is hfce4mq if interested in joining. The Instagram is _aahsbsu.
