Umoja is a national community that is established across 70 different colleges and various high schools. It focuses on its participants learning about African-American history. Here, they learn through workbooks, bingo games, and quizzes. The Umoja (a Kiswahili word meaning unity) club helps participants learn more about black history, while the Kente club helps seniors get through their final year of high school, and earn their Kente Stole. Teaching Assistant Sabrina Scott is the club adviser for both of these clubs.
The clubs meet in the Large Group Room once a month. They recently hosted the Soul food festival on Jan. 16, and now they are preparing to arrange the Black History Month assembly on Feb. 14. The soul food festival was held in the small cafeteria to observe Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday.
One of the participants of the club, sophomore Chinemerem Okereke, said that his favorite thing about the club is the meetings. He said they are “fun and calm.” He says that he learned about African-American history and its importance.
These clubs both encourage a safe space for anyone to join. They are helping students move closer to “being comfortable in a white dominant school in their [own] skin,” said Scott. Scott recommends this club to anyone who “is in a friend group (and) thinks they need to be like their friends. I want students to have a mindset to be themselves.” But, as Okereke said, “The club isn’t exclusive; anyone can join.”
The Kente club is a club for seniors only, and in that club, students can earn a stole to go with their gowns at graduation. This club can impact your high school resume in a big way. Students in the club meet once a month in the Large Group Room, where Mrs. Scott discusses where students could get their community service hours in, where students could work, senior dues, and the responsibilities students will have once they graduate.
There is a symbol on the Kente stole that changes every year. It is usually something that represents the Kente culture. Along with that, there are also different colored stripes on the Kente stole. Black represents spiritual strength, red means political passion, blue symbolizes peace, love and unity, green means renewal, white represents cleansing rites, and maroon/purple symbolizes Mother Earth.
In order to earn their stole, students need to complete 10 hours of community service, go to at least five meetings, and hold a decent GPA.
Participants get to listen to guest speaker presentations at a speaker series where people come and talk about financial literacy, and their businesses. Scott listed some of the past speakers, which include members from the Syracuse Cooperative FCU Credit Union, the nonprofit On Point for College, as well as Shani Davis who owns Luminary Electric, Sharon Owens who is assistant mayor of Syracuse, city councilwoman Rasheeda Caldwell, and J-DHS graduate Robert Drummond, who played in the NFL.
The students will receive their stole in a ceremony called the Donning of the Kente, which will occur on Saturday, May 31, in the Large Cafe. In this ceremony, there will be performances, students, speakers, and singers. There will also be a table where the students display the awards they have earned and accomplishments that they have gathered since kindergarten. In the ceremony, the students will also go through something called the rite of passage, where an alumni from this school, who was in the club, places their stole on their neck.
The Black History Month assembly is an observance of Black History Month. The biggest change from the previous assemblies is that they will be focusing on celebrating the new history, instead of old history. The J-DHS band and chorus will be there, along with dancers, and the keynote speaker will be 19-year-old Zay Goodrich, an early graduate from Corcoran High School who now goes to Syracuse University.
Scott also has her clubs go on field trips, such as ice skating or bowling. The most prominent one is the MLK Jr. dinner at the SU Dome. It’ll have a “fancy soul food dinner [with] lots of people, [an] art show, then a show with performers and speakers,” Scott said over email. The 40th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration was held on January 26th.
