A tri-campus event on Feb. 13 honoring Black History Month challenged students to look inward to achieve the best versions of themselves.
The “Empowerment Through Adversity” event took place on Eastern Campus and was simulcasted to the Ammerman and Grant campuses.
“What is it that would make you walk away from you this workshop together that we’re having right now and say to yourself, ‘I feel more equipped to live my life?,’” Traciana Graves, a leadership coach that helps executives improve skills such as, communication, complex problem solving, and how to sustain a successful environment.
Graves has over 17 years of coaching experience and is dedicated to helping others discover their potential. She is also an acclaimed vocalist and the founder of both Happiness 360 and The Visionary Leader Network. While Happiness 360 helps leaders cultivate success on their own terms, The Visionary Leader Network focuses on corporate training services.
Malika Batchie-Lockhart, the assistant director of Campus Activities and Multicultural Affairs at Ammerman, said Graves’ presentation was especially important given the cultural climate, “where people are feeling attacked, not heard, and just in a state of uncertainty and fear.”
Students were asked to share negative comments they have received from others, ones that have sat with them, and if they thought the comments were true.
Graves said that science has found that for every negative comment or interaction a person tolerates or receives, “the impact of that encounter lasts forever.”
This resonated with Angelina Longo, a student who watched the event through simulcast in the Mildred Green Room of the Babylon Student Center. “I thought that it was really important and interesting how we kind of latch onto things and it doesn’t go away. Like, when it comes to those negative things that have been said.”
A common sentiment that was expressed in the workshop was to have empathy for others and to offer kindness.
“It has to be the whole community realizing that we need to have empathy, wanna know people’s stories, wanna understand people that are different than ourselves right,” said Sarah Boles, the coordinator of Mental Health and Wellness Services. “I think that’s a large admission at the moment.”
Though it was an empowerment workshop, the message of Black History Month was still there. “Black history is American history,” Batchie-Lockhart said.
