Study Hall from School News Network
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Study Hall from School News Network
Multiracial Black Student Alliance celebrates ‘spreading culture and diversity’
Each week at City High Middle School this year, about two dozen high schoolers gathered to celebrate and learn about Black culture, from music and cooking to history and current issues. But the Black Student Alliance isn’t restricted to Black students; in fact, the majority are not African American. Founding members Elijah Jones and IMara Smith Skyers talk about the group’s ambitious array of activities and the importance of students from all backgrounds to share their cultural diversity.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Study Hall from School News Network, your window into the public schools of Kent County, michigan. We're here today at City High Middle School in Grand Rapids, home to some of the highest achieving students in our beautiful state, and we're here to talk with two of those students who are part of a very cool group dedicated to celebrating black culture and sharing the coolness of that culture with their peers. Sharing the coolness of that culture with their peers. Seniors Elijah Jones and Imara Smith-Skyers are two of the founding members of the Black Student Alliance.
Speaker 1:The BSA consists of about two dozen City High students from all grade levels. They meet once a week after school to hold conversations, maybe play some games and cook up ideas for programming. Although focused on black culture, the group is open to all students. In a recent School News Network story, faculty advisor Aaron Fillenworth says BSA is more than a club. It's a community where students can celebrate their culture, support one another and advocate for change. It serves as a platform for amplifying black voices and fostering conversations that promote awareness, equity and inclusion within our school. They're not just shaping their own futures, they're creating a more inclusive environment for everyone. So, elijah and Imara, welcome to School News Network, thank you for having us.
Speaker 2:It's great to be here. Thank you for the warm welcome.
Speaker 1:Sure, and I'm happy to be here and I'm honored to be here with you. Thank you for taking a break from your finals to talk with us. I understand this is a pretty rigorous examination schedule you have here at City High, which is an international baccalaureate school, right.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Can you tell me a little about what the next couple weeks are like for you guys?
Speaker 3:This week. Well, tomorrow we have our first English exam. That consists of we're given two random texts and then we just have to compare them using different textual analysis different language.
Speaker 1:Okay, how many exams are you looking at for the till graduation? I think coming up.
Speaker 3:I wanna say we have like eight more.
Speaker 1:Okay eight. Elijah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and while the exams are like, there are eight more exams. Like mentioned previously, they are split into different sessions. So like, for example, I was talking about our English paper, we start tomorrow. On Thursday, we have our paper one. Well, that's a two hour, three hour exam session On Friday. Well, that's a two-hour, three-hour exam session. On Friday we have our paper two session, which is also another two to three-hour exam session. So while we have like eight to seven more class exams, it's split up into 14 to 13 more exam sessions.
Speaker 1:I gotcha and graduation is May 22nd. I think you said correct. Yeah, tell me what you each planning to do after graduation.
Speaker 2:I plan to go into film. I'm actually spending my first year at DRCC here in Grand Rapids and then I'm transferring to University of Southern California to do their cinematic media arts program.
Speaker 1:Have a good film school down there.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's one of the best, or considered the best, in the country, so it's just a very competitive thing, which is why I'm spending more time in Grand Rapids just building up my portfolio and focusing on getting my genetics finished up and then transferring to do specifically the cinema program Very cool, imara.
Speaker 3:I will be going to UC San Diego for political science. I plan to become a lawyer one day and I really like California, so we're both, I guess, hopefully going to be in California together and that'll be really fun.
Speaker 2:I haven't really thought about that till now. Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Wow, nice land of sun and surf. Well done.
Speaker 2:After being in the land of snow, it'll be a big acclamation yeah, but you got the Great Lakes man.
Speaker 1:I mean it's pretty good still a big acclamation yeah, but you got the Great Lakes man.
Speaker 2:I mean it's pretty good. Still it is. I'm going to miss the lakes. Well, I'm a big fan of the Four Seasons, so I don't actually plan on being in. California for a long time after college. But yeah, probably end up back in Michigan or Washington or somewhere with Four Seasons.
Speaker 1:Come back to Michigan, do some great film work here, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always think it's cool when people go back to the places that they like grew up and like kind of take their expertise and try to make it better for the communities that they got help with.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, yeah. Great thing to do, like Naimara, I understand you have quite an artistic streak to you, right?
Speaker 3:yes, yeah, one big role of mine in the BSA is creating all of our posters, and I actually run our Instagram account, so a lot of time on Canva I'm creating posters and stuff and I also, when it comes around to Black History Month, I like to take a leadership role on decorating the bulletin boards around our school. So, yes, oh cool, I really like art.
Speaker 1:I've seen some of your work on Instagram.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's great You've got this group, Black Student Alliance. You've kept it together for two years now, right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you're two of the founding members, and that's, I think, about six students all together, or something like that. So yeah basic. Tell me what Black Student Alliance is all about.
Speaker 2:When the idea of Black Student Alliance came up, it was mainly more of a continuation because before Black Student Alliance was made, the founding members that being me, aymara and some of our other fellow seniors we were all already very important in the planning of Hispanic Heritage Month, like we were already very involved in like celebrating other cultures around the school. But we kind of noticed that, like after those respective months were over, it was kind of like that kind of celebration would dissipate a bit and we were mainly thinking how can we have this but like a place where we can do it year-round, where that celebration of different cultures could happen and it wouldn't just be towards this respective month or a couple months through the year?
Speaker 1:Interesting that you were doing a lot of different cultures, not just black culture. That's cool, Imara. Is that pretty much track with your understanding and idea about what you're all about?
Speaker 3:Since seventh grade I've been participating in the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration. I am Dominican, so that is big. And also, like a lot of my friends you know, I push them to do these things. Like my friend Kelly, she's really shy, so I'm like, oh, like, let's say after school and plan this. Actually, another thing starting the Black Student Alliance. We've encouraged other cultural groups to do the same, so now our school has a Hispanic Heritage Club and an Asian Heritage Club as well.
Speaker 2:I think we also have a Jewish American Heritage Club as well.
Speaker 3:I think that just started too. No kidding.
Speaker 1:Wow, cool, yeah. So like sort of big idea-wise, what do you consider like the driving idea behind Black Student Alliance? What's like why you're here?
Speaker 2:For me, I think the biggest driving idea is making sure that we all remember that, like any other culture, black culture is so many different, multifaceted things, whether that be art, fashion, politics, news, sports. It's much more than like what is shown in, like that month of February. It's so many different things that I wish that everyone could be able to appreciate more and taking my part and being able to, I guess, be the change I want to see in the world, to start with school. So that's when I was more like like that's my driving idea for what I wanted to see in the school, especially how about you, Amara?
Speaker 3:I definitely wanted to encourage the younger kids to start hanging out with more people other than their close friend groups, because I noticed a lot, even in my class, that we do seem to separate based on their respective cultures, which I don't know why, but I guess that's a natural human thing. You want to be by people that look like you. So, with the BSA not making it more of a union but instead of an alliance, and inviting all these other people we see like, oh, we all like the same thing. Because music, the black culture dominates music. So we all have things that we don't really recognize as belonging to the black culture, but we all love it. So, coming together and sharing those interests, it's a really good place.
Speaker 3:And also just conversing between the grades, because we don't, as seniors, we're not really talking to the younger grades but, coming together. We can ask them oh, how do you feel about the school and what things would you like to see more of?
Speaker 2:I also really appreciate the aspect of BSA where we kind of destigmatize the uncomfortability that comes with like conversations regarding black history or black culture or just news and, especially in current times, like making sure that everybody feels comfortable to share their thoughts or like their questions about something that's going on. I think that's something very special that BSA has in particular and I hope that spreads to the other heritage culture groups that are at Citi as well.
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:Which is just another thing that we share from classes as well. Even on our regular day-to-day courses, we always have that slate of respect before we have any conversation with each other about certain topics.
Speaker 1:So sort of like reduce the political temperature a little bit on conversations to make people feel more at ease bringing up things that they might feel a little uncomfortable with you. So yeah, it's open to everyone. What is your composition at this point? Is it all African-American black students, or are there other groups involved as well?
Speaker 3:I feel like it's like about a third. Yeah, I think about a third.
Speaker 1:What um african-american students? Yeah, oh, and about two-thirds other students, yes just mix.
Speaker 3:Yeah, white, asian, hispanic, a lot of hispanic, I would say, because even just in general in our school, like we actually do have a big hispanic population, yeah, but you're saying they're part of the black student alliance yes, part of the regular group.
Speaker 1:Wow cool. So you meet once a week, which is an impressive schedule.
Speaker 3:I have to say for a student group.
Speaker 1:What goes on at your meetings? What do you talk about? What kind of activities do you do?
Speaker 2:Usually there are two different meetings, different meetings. There's like a staff meeting on that Tuesday or Thursday. I mean at Tuesday, wednesday, before our normal meeting with like the whole group on Thursday, which is where some of my founding members and other students that like to help with planning meetings get together and talk about like. Are there any like specific topics you want to hit for our next meeting? Are there any like like tune-ups we want to do for any of the planned activities, which is basically that meeting, and then Thursdays when we have our normal scheduled meeting where new or returning members can come and we have our lessons.
Speaker 2:But it's never the same thing, it's always something new. We try to really approach that with like either having a conversation or watching a film or everyone listening to a song that they like. Like will ask like next meeting, bring back a song that you like, that you think kind of associates the black culture. Like has ties to the black culture. Or we look at a history lesson that's not really talked about during Black History Month. It's like a mixed bag of things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we try to kind of have an like an umbrella, like a theme.
Speaker 3:So once we did music and like we talked about the history of have an like a umbrella, like a theme. So once we did music and like we talked about the history of music and like how like black culture has influenced music especially, like focusing on Beyonce and stuff like that, or like another day we'll have film. You know, like the first um pictured film was like a black man riding a horse. So like we'll have these different topics and not just arts, but like we'll go into stem as well, because in our like our board member group we do have these different topics and not just arts, but like we'll go into STEM as well, cause in our like our board member group we do have like like me and Elijah are more artsy film focus, but we also have like McClee and Jada who are more like STEM focused, and we also have Jaden who really like he's into really sports and stuff. So kind of like there's always a topic that like any of the kids can relate to and like have their own say.
Speaker 2:And then we have Anna. She's going into like international business, and we have Jaden, who also wants to go into trade and business as well. So I guess that also part of, like all the founding members, having different aspects of their personality or like chosen career, kind of helps with making sure we keep that mixed topic aspect of bsa really going so usually like a unifying topic of the day, like when you meet who might be arts it might be music, it might be right, yeah and we'll have like a 15 minute lesson and the rest will have like a game like charades or, um, like black jeopardy like yeah, we'll have yeah, or like the SNL variety
Speaker 2:of black, yeah, kind of like almost like review, but not really yeah, or like trivia I see okay, uh-huh um lessons.
Speaker 1:You talk about. What do you mean by lessons? I?
Speaker 2:don't even know if lessons is the correct word to call it, but more just like taking time to like teach them or like what's the word introduce to them maybe an aspect of black culture that they didn't necessarily know about before the meeting, or an aspect that even another student wanted to talk about, like, I think that's a big. Another big thing like we don't always plan the meetings per se, like well, well, I guess we don't always come up with ideas for the meetings we could like, if a student wants to talk about, hey, I'm really interested in, like the sports industry and like how that has ties with the black culture and I think it'll be really cool if we have a meeting about that next thursday and I'm like okay, you come to the meeting, are the staff meeting on tuesday and we'll talk about that with you and we'll see how we can incorporate that into next week's meeting which is I think a really cool thing as well well, you mentioned music, uh, imara.
Speaker 3:So, for instance, might you be talking about the roots of R&B or the roots of rock and roll and going back into gospel, yeah, or like Elvis, like who influenced Elvis, you know, and like because during these staff planning meetings or staff board members, we will make a slideshow, because like one thing, like we're really big into visuals, so we will make a slideshow. So that's like kind of like the lesson part. We'll have a slideshow that we introduce, like the students with and like we'll also have music playing in the background, so so it's very educational yes and would that include some of the black students as well as the non-black students learning about their own culture a little more?
Speaker 3:um, yes, well, we mainly focus on black culture, but um yes like, well, like. If someone wants to like, share like a similarity because like there's a lot of similarities like between you.
Speaker 1:Know this world, especially nowadays, so yeah, we'll open that, like the room up to comments and stuff so it sounds like there's a lot of awareness building like how black culture has helped shape american culture correct maybe people don't realize all those things um so um. You mentioned kind of the, the times you know the. Do you guys get into politics much or do you try to stay away from that, because it's a pretty hot issue right now?
Speaker 2:um, I don't think we stray away from it, but we like, like I mentioned prior, we keep that level of respect for everyone's ideals or their thoughts.
Speaker 2:So, while we may like talk about a topic, we don't ever lean a certain way or like on a certain viewpoint or perspective on the political topic, yeah, but that doesn't mean we like, we open for conversation regardless.
Speaker 2:It's just, I guess, since we have like a lot of younger kids in our grade as well, if they see us showing respect for other people's viewpoints and perspectives, they are very good at following along and thinking, hey, if they're able to, you know, show respect and lend an opening ear, to like somebody else's thoughts, then I can do it, which is like something I'm very proud of our other younger members were doing. And going back to um, when we're talking about, like, how black culture is part of shaping other cultures, um, a big part of the IB program is looking at issues and topics and subjects on a global aspect. So, for example, like our previous Black History Month theme was talking about the black diaspora and, globally, how black culture and African culture has kind of created subcultures and how that affects other cultures and that, being like Afro-Hispanic, afro-jewish people we like looking at it from, like how everything connects and how those differences and those similarities kind of make us who we are.
Speaker 3:And I will say, in our meetings we have held a couple kind of like calm debates where we'll have a topic on the board and then, um, you go to either like it's kind of like I want to say middle ground or something like there's like youtube videos where we'll have like strongly agree and then on the other side, um strongly disagree, and like in the middle towards like immediate viewpoint, and we're always at respectful during this. But like we do want to like open like people's eyes to these kind of topics, because, especially living in grand rapids, like what has happened and like with the grpd and stuff, we're definitely because even at our school we've held, not like strictly the bsa, but as a student body we've held protests over um like these issues case correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the blm protests so um we're definitely spreading awareness in these hard topics, so we're still respectful, but we also do want to show them these things are happening and they are real, and politics is everywhere. So, we'd rather be more informative than ignorant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you mentioned BLM. Black Lives Matter. Is that a subject on the table sometimes, what that movement's about? Yeah, Black Lives Matter. Is that a?
Speaker 3:subject on the table, sometimes like what that movement's about? Yeah, or just like yeah, because we do talk about Grand Rapids, because almost all the kids that are in BSA have lived in Grand Rapids for a while and have been at City, so they've seen some things. Everyone's on Instagram and stuff, so we definitely share that.
Speaker 1:Can you give me an example of a topic you've discussed recently as a group and how has that played out? Has it been a good, respectful discussion? Has it gotten into some push and pull here and there? Can you give me an example of a topic like that?
Speaker 2:I think our last discussion we had was related to that Black Diaspora theme that we have for Black History Month and just talking about how black culture has changed and like sprouted different subcultures, like I mentioned prior.
Speaker 2:Like I'm talking about like kind of the disconnect from African culture and African American culture, right, and kind of perspectives and biases or stereotypes that those respective cultures might have built against each other and kind of shedding light on that as well and approaching things from like a goal of unity but still recognizing those differences. So I think in that last meeting a lot of students were talking about specifically like African students were talking about how they kind of have heard things in the past from like African American students and vice versa more like discriminatory things and just talking about how that's made them feel and like wanting more of the like open eye on those like perspectives that might oppose theirs. And I think it went fairly well. I think the biggest thing I took away from it is like how emotionally intelligent people are, and especially the younger students, and just like being honest with each other is like a big thing that I applaud them for.
Speaker 3:So or with diaspora. We've also talked about issues like colorism within the black community and like the idea of not feeling like black enough, or being sheltered or like pushed away. Um, so we also yeah, we with bring up black culture. Like a lot of our students are of mixed race and like haven't fully feel like connected to the black, like or what the idea of black culture is.
Speaker 3:Because, like that's one thing we push, like there's no such thing as like one black culture, like everyone's individual stories are like black culture, so like we'll talk about, you know like, expressions like hair expressions and stuff, and like the impact that has. And like we'll like have workshops like hair workshops, like teach kids how to braid, you know like so that we've held after school.
Speaker 2:so especially with food as well I think it's a big one, yeah we for our last, because black history month is a very busy month for bsa. I think um we had one of our younger students had done um a book display of different books where different like black authors and mixed authors and Afro-Latin authors wrote about their experiences or stories in the black culture. Like I mentioned prior, one of our younger students also did like a showcase on different hair textures. We played a game talking about like Brett, like basically introducing those different hair textures and styles of different black cultures, just showing the different aspects of how there's no particular black culture that you have to fit the mold of so do?
Speaker 1:two students talk much about their own experiences, uh, as young black people in Grand Rapids and how that goes for them.
Speaker 3:I would say so, yeah, or even um, like what we said, like introducing food and different cultures. Like we have one student her mom's from Cameroon, so she's like shared stuff about that, but she's also half German, so it's just like the different split and like how growing up has been, but I will say, growing like the kids that did grow up in Grand Rapids. Grand Rapids is a pretty diverse place. Especially where our school's located there is a big black population. So I will say we've had topics on how undiverse our school once was and how before the Black Student Alliance there wasn't a lot of outlets. Like well, our school does try to have like the monthly observances that they call it. We're like we have one for Women's Month, black History Month, hispanic Heritage, aapi, etc. But it's all like mostly white staff.
Speaker 3:So, our students have talked about maybe not feeling connected to the school.
Speaker 2:The academic rigor that comes with being here, there's not much time for like a lot of like. We don't have a sports team, we rarely have big mass collective meetings, like assemblies or pep rallies or things of that sort. So creating the clubs and like the cultural, like recognition that the clubs have is kind of like our biggest way of like getting community and like school spirit. I would say Cause I think I've created a lot more friends and like looked into myself, like created a lot more friends and like looked into myself, like learning a lot more about like Asian culture or Jewish American culture and just that history aspect which is, like I guess, motivated to keep myself informed on other people.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like this might have been your group, but also other groups have been agents of you know, helping to bring people a little closer together in the school right. Get to know each other better, get to know their, cultures better. And part of your growing up was in North Carolina. Elijah, you grew up in Grand Rapids. What have your experiences been like as young black people in Grand Rapids?
Speaker 2:experience has been like as young black people in Grand Rapids. Well, I grew up in East Grand Rapids, which was kind of like a more, I guess, white population of people and my family lived more like sprawled out in Grand Rapids so I didn't really have like big family reunions or like just connections with some of my like black culture besides my parents. So once, um, I went to city and like moved around and moved closer to like the downtown area, it was really like kind of like a shift in my personality or even just like how I thought about myself and the people around me, just like being able to see people being so, um just proud about their cultures and like, um, proud of who they are and not like being well, I guess they weren't sacrificing who they were personally to build community. I guess it was more of that aspect of your differences and like everyone being different is what made that community so.
Speaker 2:I think, that's like the biggest change that happened for me.
Speaker 1:How's it been for you, Aymara, transitioning from warm, sunny North Carolina? I?
Speaker 3:will say I only lived in North Carolina for sixth grade, so I mainly grew up, yeah.
Speaker 3:I mainly grew up in Chicago Because I, growing up from Chicago, I went to Montessori school and like throughout like third grade I was actually in a Spanish immersion school, so a lot of time I was spent like with mainly Hispanic students and stuff. So, and I grew up in Evanston, illinois. So I would say it's kind of a diverse population. There are a lot of white people as well. So mainly I have like been more exposed to like white culture and stuff, because growing up I was, I mainly lived with my white side of the family so I was kind of not like distant, but I definitely in school like I would like, I would try and like hang out with like as much people as I can, but I will say like I mainly grew up hanging around either Hispanic or white people.
Speaker 3:So, moving to Grand Rapids, like in seventh grade, I immediately connected with Elijah like he's actually the first one of the first kids to ever talk to me. So it was never like a. I never really like saw race, like I just like came in, like with my bubbly personality and like, oh, I just came in and we or maybe not bubbly, but contrary to what Imar is telling you.
Speaker 2:um, we met in seventh grade and I would like to say she was on the shyer side especially, but like Once you get to know me. Once you got to know her and kind of like cracked her shell open. That's when I got to meet like the bubbly person.
Speaker 3:Our personal friend group. It does mostly consist of people of color. So I will say I have like learned new things and like express myself more, even getting braids I got braids for the first time, like last year um, so, like touching these different parts of black culture and learning things not only about others but about myself, um, it's definitely, yeah, a good thing. So I I would say like, even though city, like I said, is like a majority white student population, um, we do find like are like people of color.
Speaker 3:So I will say yeah, it's it's been nice yeah.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like you've learned more about black culture through this group.
Speaker 3:That's educational for you guys as well.
Speaker 1:How's the reception been here at Citi? Have you gotten feedback from anybody or pushback from anybody on the group? It has been very, very good.
Speaker 2:Okay, we've been on a steady like I wouldn't. Actually, I think it's more of a rapid incline and like positive reception. I think especially because we're very ambitious and everyone that's a part of BSA and Black History Month is very ambitious. When we kind of use BSA is like our normal program throughout the year, but during Black History Month is when we get our most reception because it's like, okay, we're gonna take this 28 or 29 or however many days it is that year and we're just gonna make every single day count well, you do a lot of activities throughout the year, not just black student.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like what? What do you kind of?
Speaker 2:well, I'm just gonna go off what we did this year. We had a movie night for spider-man across the spider-verse and we talked about the main character, miles morales's afro-latin roots. We also had a cookout at the end of the month where anybody could bring like food that was like focused on their specific cultures or like has like cultural tradition tied to it, and bring it in and share it with all the other students.
Speaker 2:Karaoke yeah, we had a karaoke day where, like people could like just belt out whatever songs they wanted to. And then we had our monthly assembly, which is probably like the biggest one, where we get the whole school rounded up in the auditorium and like we have this whole production and like, yeah, it's a busy month you, you, your group puts on a production in an assembly for the whole student, correct?
Speaker 3:yes, because the club um and mainly yeah, the uh, his uh, the black history month celebration it is all student-led so that's a big thing, it's very like time consuming, but we we make it work and I will say, with feedback I think we never really got any negative.
Speaker 3:We'd have like jokes like oh, like when we'd at, like when we first started out, ask everyone in the hallways like oh, come, like thursday after school, like join bsa, you know, get the word out there. And we would like have groans or like kind of like insensitive comments. But I will say because of the size of our school and especially the size of our grade like we're we only have like 115 students in our graduating class everyone already knew us and like all like the board, we've been friends since like seventh grade, so everyone kind of knew us already. So us starting this club, we were never nervous about it. So that really helped on um, getting the word out there and like getting good feedback, because we knew like this is something the school needs and so why would anyone push back on that?
Speaker 2:and then we've also, especially with school news network, we've had like the article that's been that that's published, the podcast we're making now. I think last year we had focused on like HBCUs Historically Black Colleges and Universities and we had sororities and fraternities reach out and come to the school and perform for the students and talk about their values. We talked to Howard students themselves who came and talked about their experience. Who was also a city student talking about that transition for her from Howard to city and vice versa. Just like a lot of community around, like Grand Rapids has been very helpful and like recognized how I guess important that the club is.
Speaker 1:Okay. You know, at the federal level. There's been a lot of talk about so-called DEI programs diversity, equity, inclusion. Has anybody raised that issue for you and how do you look at that? What does that mean to you? The whole DEI.
Speaker 3:It's definitely worrying, I will say here at Citi it hasn't really affected us, but I know graduating we have a part of one of the board members, anna Wetzel, is going to Howard and they recently set out that there's supposed to be some cuts there. So it's definitely like we have a part of one of the board members, anna Wetzel, is going to Howard and they're recently like set out that there's supposed to be some cuts there. So it's definitely, you know, even at um University of Michigan. So like being well, the entirety of the board, we're all seniors like going into, like the adult world while this is happening. It is kind of nerve-wracking, but it just shows us the importance of these groups and spreading culture and diversity within places, because definitely needed in that right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just talking more about that. Like all of the founding members are seniors and we're all going into higher education, but even not in BSA. Like I have one of our friends, viri Diana. She's going to University of Michigan, their business school, and she got a full ride scholarship because she's just so amazing and we were all like having a little bit of worry for her because it's like a lot of University of Michigan students of color who got like grants and scholarships were getting them pulled back. So there's like there's that worry that we all have. But I mean we can't just falter and let that like stop what we do, because I feel like it's too important for that. So I think the biggest thing for me is like it's even more of a reason to like for student led education. So yeah.
Speaker 1:So you'd say, if anything, black Student Alliance is needed more than ever, as they say right now, in this moment, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's been great talking to you. I really so appreciate it and it's I think what you're doing is is amazing. It's really cool and, uh, I thank you for meeting with me today and I thank our listeners for coming to study hall. Hope you enjoyed the conversation. I look forward to joining you again soon on the school news network webpage or wherever you get your podcasts. So thanks for coming in. Thank you, thanks to uh. I'm Ara and Elijah, and we will see you next time. Listeners, don't forget your pencils.
