Edgewood College Black Student Union Producing Edgewood’s Black History Month Celebrations: Fostering Knowlege, Belonging and Unity
Jazzma Holland, Edgewood’s Black Student Union advisor (l) and Rachel Rogers, the president of the Black Student Union
By Jonathan Gramling
The saying goes, ‘If you want something done right, give it to a busy person.” Rachel Rodgers, a senior at Edgewood College, fits the bill. Rodgers is a Community Scholar who is an apartment coordinator, president of We Empower, vice-president of the student senate and president of the Black Student Union. She also works with kids through Eyes of Hope, a non-profit located in her hometown of Stoughton.
She is no slouch with her academics. She will be graduating with honors in May with majors n political science and environmental studies and a minor in health and society. And it is her commitment to community that drives her.
“I take tasks on because I think it is really impactful to work in your community, but also to get to know the people in your community,” Rodgers said. “I came from a really small town, so we all knew each other. I’m from Stoughton, Wisconsin. We all knew each other. And I think being in clubs and organizations in high school really inspired me to want to be in clubs and organizations in college. And I knew it was going to be more impactful to be in these clubs and organizations because we go to a predominantly white institution. And as a minority, I know that a lot of our voices go unheard or we just get overlooked. And so I wanted to give the students here — White, Black anyone — a voice. And I wanted to make sure that it was amplified and that we heard exactly what they needed and what they wanted.”
Rodgers is really big on community and her infectious smile and level of energy brings everyone along with her.
“Our goals for this year include things like building community,” Rodgers said. “But to have community, you have to feel like you belong. We have to begin by building belonging first. I work in Res Life because I am an AC. And so we have our own set groups that we talk to the RAs about and
how they can incorporate that into their halls. My group is actually belonging. And so when I am training RAs and things like that, a big part of it is teaching them to have an open mind and be willing to listen to people with different perspectives and backgrounds. Again, this is a PWI, so we don’t have that many people of color here. And the ones that we do have, this is probably the first time being around a bunch of white people. It is something new and it is probably their first time being away from home as well. And then you are required to live here for two years. It is really different and we just try to incorporate different things like the way that we do programming so that everyone feels included. That’s really important, especially when you live on campus. So BSU’s mission is to create community, help people feel they belong and a lot of educational things. We teach people financial literacy. We did a program not too long ago where we took them to an African American museum in Illinois. That took us all the way back to Jim Crow and housing segregation. I think we are just trying to do anything to educate the community. We even did voting, a Get Out The Vote effort. Last time we voted, we put up posters around campus. We educated people. We told them where to vote and to know the difference between the candidates. A lot of kids who live on campus can just vote here in the library. I think we are striving to build community, build belonging and teach people. As I said, I stand largely on knowledge is power.”
Rodgers is big on Black History. While she has big plans to accomplish in her life — she would like to be elected mayor of Stoughton — Rodgers knows that her dreams are possible because of those who have come before her.
“Black History allows us to recognize and also celebrate those who came before us,” Rodgers said. “I feel like recognizing and acknowledging their achievements and how far they have come is important. But it is also important to recognize the past so that it doesn’t repeat, but also we can grow from it. For example, with the BSU, next week we’ll be hosting a week of events catered to self-care, cultural knowledge and heritage in general, celebrating all people, but especially Black people because it is Black History Month. Like I was saying, knowledge is power. If you don’t know your history or the people who came before you, you don’t know who paved the way for you. Without our ancestors who did what they did before us, we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t have that opportunity. But now that we have those opportunities, we need to acknowledge that we have them because of them.”
It is no surprise that the figures from Black History that Rodgers looks up to are Barack and Michelle Obama.
“They serve as role models for me,” Rodgers confided. “I always thought growing up that some things are attainable for people of color. To see someone who is a person of color become president and actually make some changes was really inspiring because it showed me that no matter if you are the first or the last, you have the opportunity to do it. You just have to work for it.”
Rodgers and the Black Student Union have a full week of activities planned to celebrate Black History Month. It all starts on Monday February 12th with Karaoke and Punta.
"It is a collaboration between BSU and the Latinx Student Union to celebrate the Afro-Latina as well as African American experience,” Rodgers said. “That will intermix the communities and have them learn something new about the different communities.
Tuesday and Wednesday will focus on self-care. Tuesday focuses on mental and physical self-care.
“There will be a mental health quiz,” Rodgers said. “We will be teaching students how to make lip balm and face masks. We’ll make it a safe space, so that they feel free to share and connecting them to the school resources like MVI as well as our health and wellness services. We have counseling and things like that. We’ll be connecting them to the resources, but also giving them resources. There will be stations they can go to.”
Wednesday is focused on Black hair care. Thursday highlights Rodgers’ interests, namely educating people through a fun activity.
“It’s Black History Bingo,” Rodgers said. “It’s bingo and trivia. We will be doing regular bingo, but as the rounds go, it will change. For the first round, you’ll play bingo. And then before we go to the second round of bingo, there will be a trivia question like, ‘When was Brown v. Board of Education? Who was the first Black woman who ran for president?’ They will be having fun winning prizes, but they will also be getting educated.”
The celebration wraps up on Saturday night with the Black Student Union Celebration banquet, which is open to the public.
“I think the banquet will be a really good time to have everyone come together, especially here at Edgewood to not only acknowledge Black History Month, but also acknowledge the hard work that our Black Student Union is putting forth, the contributions that our Black students and Black staff and faculty have made to Edgewood College,” said Jazzma Holland, BSU’s advisor. “I just think it is a night of celebration. It’s a night to get dressed up and be proud of who you are and your heritage and culture. It’s a time to be proud of what the people who came before us have done, the path that they have paved for us. And it’s a time to enjoy a wonderful soul food meal by Melly Mel’s. We’re going to learn a little bit about the history of soul food. We’re also having our souls fed by our keynote speaker, Shaundel Spivey. It will just be a great night to celebrate and to be inspired to continue on with the wonderful work that our students and our Black community have done.”
Edgewood College’s Black History Month celebration is food for the soul for Edgewood’s Black students, but also a learning experience for the entire Edgewood community. And that is just how Rachel Rodgers likes it.
