The Black Student Union (BSU) hosted the event “Building Community with Our Majors” to help inspire and give students tips on how they can use their major to give back.
The event was led by Isis Davis, resident assistant for Halisi Living Learning Community, which is a group designed to help Black students currently living at Cal State LA.
“One of the tips was to specifically look for the gaps in your community. It starts with understanding where the needs are,” said Davis.“Another tip, was to connect your major to your community. Understanding what careers you can achieve with your major and apply that with filling the gaps.”
Attendees were assigned into groups to create a potential business that can benefit their community. Despite being in different majors, students could still be creative and build a network among one another.
“Hearing other people want to start non-profit organizations gives me an outlook that in the future I can network with these students and help them progress and increase the level of business they obtain in the future,” said political science major Khy-Lan Patton.
Students found importance in the event, as it helped them remember why they chose their major, like television and film major Alexandra Seddon.
“Even before attending Cal State LA, I wanted to have my own production company, but today just reiterated how important it is for Black students to create businesses that benefit other Black members in their community,” said Seddon.
For political science major Kalani Robinson, being surrounded by her peers pushed her to think of the future.
“I want to help the Black youth and Latino youth, I want to help all youth of color. Doing events like this is where I want to go in my life,” said Robinson.
“How I go about it will help me put things together and be beneficial not just for me, but the people around me,” she added.
BSU President Ayzai Clowney was very happy with the turnout as students engaged in the activity.
“It was so intimate. People were really able to connect with one another, get their thoughts out and flesh out a possible business idea,” said Clowney.
BSU plans to do more events in the future to help students advance not only their careers, but to inspire them to give back to the community.
