Grant High School’s Black Student Union (BSU) is holding a school assembly focused on Black Excellence on Friday, Feb. 16 during what is usually FLEX time.
The BSU is an affinity group at Grant that provides Black students the opportunity to gather and eat lunch together in a space where they don’t feel singled out. In a predominantly white school like Grant, this is not an opportunity that is available to Black students during class time.
“We want it (BSU) to become a safe space for Black students at Grant to have somewhere that they feel comfortable coming to, where they feel like there’s a community behind them,” says Tsiyone Wolday.
For the past several weeks, they have been working together at least three times per week during lunch, as well as some days after school to prepare for the assembly. Grant’s BSU is led by seven students: Aday Alemseged, Marie Johnson, Ruby Lamb, Cam Reed, Katie Reed, Victorina Tchivandja and Tsiyone Wolday.
“It was kind of from the ground up,” says Alemseged of creating the assembly. She explains that BSU wanted to hold a different kind of assembly during Black History Month. Instead of talking about historical Black figures, they wanted to do something that would be uplifting to Grant students. They plan to highlight Black athletes and artists.
“I want people to be proud of the Black community here and what we’ve accomplished,” Lamb says. The BSU is planning to make the Black Excellence assembly an annual event. They know that assemblies aren’t always popular among students, but are hoping this one will stand out.
“If we can connect people in the crowd to what’s going on, then they’ll want to be there,” says Wolday, whose godmother started the Grant BSU in 2010. The idea of creating a Black Student Union at Grant originated in a Portland State University college success class, where the majority of students were Black. When the class was cut, a group of Black students decided to create a club to continue offering a place for Black students to succeed.
The BSU prompted Grant students to vote on Black students to be awarded on merit during the assembly. Based on the results of a public online form that closed on Feb. 14, the winners will be recognized during the assembly for displaying excellence. Through the assembly, the BSU leaders are excited to share what is often a forgotten topic in schools.
“I hope that this idea gets sent to other schools and that it can be highlighted there,” Alemseged says. Grant’s BSU would like to see other schools hold Black Excellence assemblies and help Black Student Unions across the district thrive.
“We’ve been trying to work with the Beverly Cleary (School) BSU,” Katie Reed explains. They have been working to create a new BSU logo with the students at Beverly Cleary. A competition is being held to decide on the new logo. Each participating Beverly Cleary student is partnering with a Grant BSU member to work on their design.
It’s a priority for Grant’s BSU to make the transition from middle school to high school as seamless as possible, especially within the affinity group. With seniors graduating, the leaders want to encourage more students to join. They are hoping that the assembly will help with that too. The regular lunch group at a BSU meeting is about fifty students, but for some activities they see higher attendance. Last year, the group took a field trip to see “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and had around eighty students show up.
BSU is planning to recruit speakers from different communities to visit at future meetings. They hope to have Nike employees speak in the upcoming months, one of which is Grant alumna, Lauren Miller.
“A lot of the people that we want to be speakers we know through connections,” says Johnson. “My grandpa was part of the Portland Black Panther community here.”
When club advisor Justin Tonkins (JT) was a student at Grant, there wasn’t a BSU. He came back to work at Grant in 2018 as a paraeducator. Four years ago he became the student engagement coach and, around the same time, started working with the BSU.
“From an advisor standpoint, my overall goal for BSU is to, one, provide a safe space for our Black students. And then two, it’s just really about setting them up with all the resources and connections that they need to be successful in high school,” says Tonkins.
BSU has found Grant admin and teachers to be helpful while making the assembly a reality. Dance teacher Jessica Murray is also helping them prepare a choreographed dance for the audience. After the BSU held meetings with Principal James McGee, their idea for the assembly was approved.
“What I want is for the Black students to be able to show a part of themselves,” says McGee, “a part of their culture and a part of their history with the greater Grant community.”
