On Friday, February 26, Saint Xavier University held the second annual African American Achievement Awards. The awards ceremony was held in McGuire Hall from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. The ceremony was followed by a black tie affair that was held in the Butler Reception room
The event was sponsored by the Black Student Union, the African American Studies Diaspora club, the African American Studies Department, Campus Life, Campus Ministry, and the Office of Records and Advising, and other organizations that make up the Black History Month Committee.
The African American Achievement Awards ceremony and Black Tie Affair were the last events of SXU’s celebration of Black History Month. The theme of this year’s month was “black history is American history.” Other events held during the month included movie screenings, an information session on African-American hair, and a panel on diversity at SXU.
The awards ceremony was hosted by students Valencia Pringle and Alexis Harrison, who are both members of Elected of Zion, a faith based student organization. The ceremony began with welcoming remarks by Pringle and Harrison and a greeting from President Christine Wiseman.
During her greeting, President Wiseman spoke about SXU’s commitment to diversity. The award presentations began after the opening remarks. Many of the nominees and winners were announced by the recipients of last year’s Achievement Awards.
Before naming this year’s nominees, the previous winners spoke about the accomplishments they have made since they won their awards. One category of awards presented is the MVP Award, which recognizes two students from each grade level who have demonstrated involvement and leadership in student organizations, campus activities, and community service efforts.
The Freshman MVP awards were presented to Louis Douyon and Brianne Lewis. Keyanna White and Esau Hemphill received the Sophomore MPV award. This year’s Junior MVP awardees were Brianna Stuckey and Khalfani King. In an interview with the Xavierite, Stuckey explained what these award mean to her.
“They mean a lot to me because I take pride in my education and working hard and really making sure that I make that effort to get involved in the SXU community because I do love it so much. So, it’s really important to me and it’s nice to be recognized and to have this type of recognition to know that you’re doing something well,” said Stuckey.
The winners of the Senior MVP award were David Sode and Alissa Alexander. Finally, the Graduate MVP awardees were Ashley Robinson and Raheem Moore. For Sode, receiving the MVP award is a validation of his efforts as a student.
“To me, it means that I’m doing my part as a student, that I’m doing a good job, that I’m working hard. It just means that I’m doing my job right,” said Sode.
Also presented at the ceremony were the Student Leader Awards, which recognized Norris Campbell and Valencia Pringle for their contributions on campus through their leadership. Norris is the president of the Black Student Union and Pringle is the president of the Elected of Zion. The student Athlete Awards were presented to Deandra Stokes and Justin Hunter.
Throughout the ceremony, undergraduate students with at least a 3.5 GPA and graduate students with a 4.0 GPA were also recognized. Samuel Hentz, Vice President of the Black Student Union, said, in an interview with The Xavierite, that these awards are important because they can be an encouragement to students “It’s really important because, as you can see, there weren’t a lot of black students our age, in the graduate, the senior, the junior category. “
“As the years went up, the population diminishes, except for the adults. So, I think it’s important to encourage students our age to participate more and stay in school,” said Hentz. Students were not the only ones who were recognized during the ceremony.
The Outstanding Staff Awards were presented to Associate Director of the Office of Financial Aid, Jacqueline Griffin, and admission counselor, Sean Bea.
Dr. Joyce Hunter, associate professor at the Graham School of Management, and Jason Lambert, assistant professor of Management received the Outstanding Faculty Awards.
A new award that was added this year was the Legacy Award, which was presented to Dr. Michael Clarke, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science.
Clarke has taught at SXU since 1996 and created SXU’s African-American Studies Program. The award ceremony featured several performances during the intervals between award presentations.
There was a dance performance from the Chicago Contemporary Dance Company and by SXUs own Paw Prints. Award winner, Keyanne White also performed spoken word.
The last performance was a song by Chicago RB singer/songwriter, Keith James. Stuckey, Sode, and Hentz all agreed that this year’s award ceremony was a success.
“I think it was very nice. I liked that different people had the opportunity to win different awards. I like that they added the legacy award, which was great to see, and I just think it was very nice. I liked all of the different performances. I loved the Chicago Contemporary Dance Team; I thought they were excellent. I loved the spoken word piece by Keyanne White. So it was very well done,” said Stuckey.
After the ceremony, a reception was held to celebrate the awardees. During the reception, organizers and award recipients took pictures in front of an SXU backdrop. Relatives and friends of the awardees also attended the ceremony and reception. According to Sode, the African Achievement Awards celebration is an important step in the right direction.
“I think events like this are important so people can have pride in who they are. I think that this is a great step in having an African American Awards but I feel like every nationality should have their own awards. I feel like there should be a Hispanic awards ceremony, I feel like there should be an Arab awards ceremony, an Asian awards ceremony, I really feel like this is the first step,” said Sode.
Yasmeen Abdellatif
Senior News Editor
About Post Author
