State of the Black Student Summit

This weekend the JNT team had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by the FAMU SGA; The State of the Black Student Summit. A yearly event that takes place in the spring, the Summit includes week long events and presentations ranging from financial security after graduation to breaking into the entertainment industry as a college student. The culmination of these events is a dynamic panel discussion hosted in Al Lawson Gym with a bevy of interesting and influential members. This year's panel included Carmen Ulrich, Arther Wylie, Dr. Jacquelyn Del Rosario, Marc Williams, Devin Robinson (aka Egypt), Omar Tyree, Eve Wright, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, and the big ticket seller, JOHN LEGEND. Together they covered plenty of important topics that are all apart of the black student experience.



Another aspect of the summit was the interactions with the student body. Not only did the event begin with a video presentation featuring FAMU students, but attendees were also encouraged to submit questions via Twitter for the panel to answer. Any student that attended could say that they did learn and grasp something completely real and influential during that panel. It was clear that these people really wanted to reach out to the audience and make a difference. Each panelist was confident in their strengths and weaknesses and they exhibited characteristics which truly embodied the summit's theme: Black Excellence.

The topics of conversation ran from starting a business in college, networking, relationships during and after college, the education system and many more. Of course there were some comedic moments; Omar Tyree and Jacquelyn Rosario discussing women who "give up the cookies" early on in a relationship. There were also some hard hitting statements, one of which was the effect of having a black president. Mr. Tyree responded by stating that a black president used to be a joke but now that it has happened we (black people) needed to be more inspired to do better.

The discussion brought to the forefront some of the most important problems facing black students  today, which included their lack of acceptance, inadequate knowledge of who they were, and retention in schools. The issue of how were communicated, especially through social media, was also addressed. It was a general consensus of the panel that that students needed to be mindful not only of what they posted on the internet, but also who was looking at them online and the image they portrayed.

The experience was truly a fun and edifying one, and though we didn't get any autographs :( the true benefit of the event has inspired JNT to start a series documenting the State of the Black Student, coming soon.