UA News

The Black Graduate Student Association is hosting its second annual Sankofa event, encouraging students to remain motivated about their education.

The Black Graduate Student Association is hosting its second annual Sankofa event for students of color, encouraging them to remain motivated about their education. 

University of Arizona students organized the Feb. 27 gala, which is sold out, which includes an art exhibit, food, speakers and dance.

In all, the event is meant to aid in student retention while also opening an honest discussion about about racism and how it effects people’s lives. 

John Grant, an assistant professor in the Africana Studies department, is the keynote speaker. Grant is expected to talk about why racism matters today. 

"Sankofa," a Ghanaian meaning “to go back and bring forth,” is referenced to acknowledge previous generations.

“The word really talks about using the past and progressing by taking what we know and where we’ve been and moving it on into the present and onward into the future,” said Dee Hill Zuganelli, a UA graduate student member of the student organization, also known as BGSA.

Zuganelli, who also serves on the Sankofa Planning Committee, said the knowledge students gain from the event and the connections they make are meant to help them stay motivated to work hard to achieve their goals. She also said the event connects people of different backgrounds.

“I think part of what I want student to walk away with is this ability and maybe some increased comfort getting out of your typical socialization, your typical groups of people,” Zuganelli said.

“What we’re trying to do this year with Sankofa is we’re trying to bridge communication and meetings among people that normally encounter one another," she added.

Candice Morrison, president of the Sankofa committee, said the organization was founded to support students of color, particularly toward graduating. 

"This is just one of those pieces of the puzzle that help minority graduate students," said Morrison, who also is a graduate student in social, water and environmental science. "We want graduates and the University wants graduates.”   

Sankofa was first held in March of last year with the event's highlight being a "hat walk," which developed in predominately black churches. Because this year’s event is bigger and designed to be more formal the emphasis is on talking about sensitive issues and addressing a history of racism.

The event will include a special presentation from Coriana Close, the UA fine arts student who created the exhibition, Deface," which was shown this month at the Union Gallery.

“We’re going to have some ballroom dancing. We have a couple of people from the UA school of dance coming in to do a ballroom lesson. It’s three hours but there’s a lot going on," Zuganelli said. “It’s just a really great message and a way to wrap up Black History Month."

Zuganelli said that one of the goals was to make the Sankofa bigger and hopes that they have been successful in designing “an event that says ‘look how far we’ve come and look how much we’ve done,’ while still recognize we have a long way to go."