Unity meeting/ celebration

 The Unity Celebration of 2021 was held on Feb. 26.

There were a lot of people performing at this year’s Unity Celebration, including LBCC Poet Laureate Sofia Griffith, the LBCC choir, keynote speaker Christopher Hughbanks, and the winner of the Black History Month Essay Contest Jason Davis.

Hughbanks is earning a Ph.D. at Oregon State University, and his major is Language Equality and Educational Policy. How he has connections to LBCC is that he and English instructor Ramycia McGhee are good friends and he has attended events that are a part of the NAACP. They also hosted the annual freedom fund banquet. 

What Hughbanks wants to do when he graduates is to continue teaching and focusing on working for social change in Linn and Benton counties. His goals include continuing to work in his community, he also wants to focus on health and wellness. How he is going to achieve these goals, is to take it one day at a time. He is doing his reading and writing each day to get closer to his Ph.D and celebrating each day because he is a little closer to what he wants to do and he is staying connected with his friends. 

If Hughbanks could change the world and he had to pick his top three it would be to create more spaces that cultivate care, connection, and love between human beings; to take care of the environment; and honor the original caretakers of the land. He also wants better transportation within the state that uses renewable energy. The last thing he would want to change is a better health care policy that supports taking care of ourselves physically and emotionally. 

Jason Davis was the award winner of the Black History Month Essay Contest, and was in the unity meeting. What made him want to write a paper for the contest was that his teacher wanted him to enter this contest and he hadn't thought anything about it till his teacher brought it up to him. When he was writing this essay he felt good about how he was sharing his experience. 

He loves writing but he doesn't really share his work, but when he won the award it was a real confidence booster to him. He didn't think that he was going to win the award of first place of the Annual Black History Month Essay Contest; he didn't think that his writing was award worthy. When he was writing his essay he felt energized, he felt like there was good energy while writing the story. Davis wanted to create a story that people could connect with. 

Davis is currently going to LBCC with a major in psychology. When he graduates he wants to become a psychologist. He would like to work in schools and work with children. Davis believes that at a young age it is important to learn about mental illnesses so it can change people’s lives so people can move through it together. His goals include being able to educate parents and children about mental illnesses, especially African American communities. How he is going to achieve his goal is to be honest, so America's school systems will be receptive to teaching mindfulness and mental health. 

If Davis could change the top three things in the world he would erase racism because it serves no purpose to have others divided between people. He would also change the perception that material things and monetary wealth are important. “If people were more focused on what was truly important in the arts, science and exploration of the unknown,” he said.  He also would want a flying car. He wants to make our history always be told honestly, not sanitizing it because it may be deserving to some people or because they may be ashamed of the events in the past. Our history can help us dictate what our future looks like but only if we can see the truth. 

The celebration, now in its 12th year, began with a song written by LBCC student Mari Estibel Valverde and sung by the college’s choir.

Along with Davis, the other essay contest winners were Lacy Kennedy, second place, and Serenity Wilson took third place. 

Adult Basic Skills faculty member Jan West earned the Analee Fuentes Unity Award,  which is presented to one employee (or employee group) and one student (or group of students) for their contributions to diversity and social justice on campus. The students honored were Christopher Byers, Alexis Castaneda-Perez, Nyssa Cronin, Cassie Cruze, Shonna Dempsey, Ruta Faifaise, Jessica N. Hampton, Katherine Hemlock, Amy Huskey, Carla Medel, Hannah Morelos, Katie Niemeyer and Wesley Sharps. They were nominated for their contributions to the newly released (open educational resource) text for HDFS 201, “Contemporary Families: An Equity Lens.”

First awarded in 2015, the Gary Westford-Robin Havenick Community Connections Award was presented to Deb Powell, executive director of Love INC of Linn County.