Black Student Union celebrates Black History Month

Iguebuike hosts events to highlight black community

Igwebuike, the Black Student Union at Santa Clara, is celebrating Black History Month this February by hosting various events centered around the black community on campus.

Co-chair of Igwebuike Josephine Schultz’s goal is to help ensure that the black community at Santa Clara feels secure, given that it is a predominantly white campus.  

“They have a place where they can go and be with their people,” Schultz said. “People that look like them. They feel like they belong more on campus because they have this group of people that will always bring them in and make them feel safe.”

Since black history is so expansive, the club decided to extend the events in honor of Black History Month to the whole quarter.

Igwebuike has already brought a black baptist pastor from Oakland for Sunday’s best service on Sunday, Feb. 9 in the Mission Church. She gave a sermon, they sang songs, did a worship service and the event ended with a brunch. The student union hosted a screening of “Moonlight,” a film about a black queer man, on Tuesday, Feb. 11 in partnership with the Rainbow Resource Center. 

“We talked about the intersectionality of being black and queer and the stigmitization that is in [and against] the black community...in the queer space because you have two identities that are marginalized,” Schultz said.

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, members of Igwebuike showed a black romantic film, ate pizza and snacks and made cards in celebration of Valentine’s Day. 

Igwebuike will host their Big3 tournament this week where members will compete in a basketball tournament with the National Society of Black Engineers and Leavey Black Business Association. Igwebuike will also host “Rock Your Profile,” during which  LinkedIn’s Black Inclusion Group will discuss how to enhance students’ LinkedIn profiles.

Igwebuike’s other co-chair, insert grade level Jasmine Rovaris, supervised the planning of the events with Schultz to celebrate black culture.

“Everyone [is] so welcoming and so nice and I made a lot of friends and memories through Igwe, so I feel like that is why I am so involved in the community,” Rovaris said. “It is comforting for me to be surrounded by people who understand certain struggles that I have as a black person and as a black female and to also help other people who have to deal with the same things that I deal with.”

The club meets every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Multicultural Center where members play games, socialize and discuss the black experience on and off campus. The student union also hosts traditional events throughout the year for the black community on campus.