Experience
I have had the honor to be involved with numerous special event chairs, positions and committees.
During my time at EIU I created a RSO (Registered Student Organization) which is still on going on Eastern Illinois Campus even after I graduated. You can also see more examples of events I have done and conducted and the many people who helped me and follow my lead.
The Untold Truth
The purposes of the Untold Truth at Eastern Illinois University is to unite, empower, and inform the campus of civic, domestic, political, and controversial issues that happen on campus, in the United States, and in the world.
I created this organization because being a Black male at a PWI I felt a need to step up have something where a Black male can have an active role and leadership position in a lot of controversial issues my peers and I felt were not talked about; and not only minorities but all races should be aware of. Below are some examples of things we have done. I created the flyers you see below also.
The Forbidden Fruit was an event I came up with that shed light on domestic Violence issues in homes and our community. I felt this was an important event that many of my peers all have witnessed or were a victim of, whether it was verbal or non verbal. We displayed this by using local orgs. on campus to do spoken word poetry, sing, and also dance to express their feelings and emotions on the topic.
This was another event we conducted after the campus put forth harsh penalties against numerous minority organizations but also a historical Black Fraternity Phi Beta Sigma were getting negative back lash due to an annual event where many minorities come together to enjoy each others company that the campus shed negative light on. We joined other organizations and students to walk around campus with signs that had statistics and facts. Also students saying speeches about unity and peace during our walk.
S.T.R.O.N.G. MENtoring
S.T.R.O.N.G. is an acronym that stands for Successful Teaching Relative to Overcoming Negative Generalities. This is EIU's only mentoring program dedicated entirely to uplifting and educating men of color here on Eastern Illinois University's Campus. Successful Teaching Relative to Overcoming Negative Generalities (S.T.R.O.N.G.) helped me focus on addressing the issues and challenges men of color face while pursuing a higher education. We have hosted a series of events, discussions and workshops that helped educate students on the history of men of color so that we can break the stereotypes plaguing men today. Below are just a few examples of the many things we've done on campus.
During this time the men of the organization, including myself all came together to stop the racial profiling that was occurring on the PWI campus and spread awareness that we do not condone any of the acts of violence that happen on the campus after a small burst of robberies that were occurring which turned out to be local grade schoolers and not the minority men of the campus. We all came together starting a social movement on social media called "Not On Our Campus" where we posted pictures such as the ones presented and captioned saying: "We do not condone the senseless crimes happening around our campus and are committed to restoring EIU to the safe place it use to be! Join the cause. #STRONGMENforaSTRONGCampus #wewanttofeelsafetoo #stoptheviolence #weareEIU #UnitedWeStand"
This was an award Banquet held on Campus where S.T.R.O.N.G. MENtoring excelled and took away many awards and acknowledgments for the work we did on campus.
