By Owen Salmon, Staff Writer
// The Acalanes Union High School District (AUHSD) hosted the BSU (Black Student Union) Summit at the Acalanes Adult Education center on Sept. 19 for Black students and staff from schools in the AUHSD.
The day-long summit aimed to provide a safe space for Black students within the district to come together and build connections.
“The purpose of the BSU summit is to create a sense of community between Black students across the district,” BSU Vice President and senior Amani Williams said.
Furthermore, the event consisted of several discussions and presentations on opportunities for students to get involved in the district.
“We had time to get to know our Black peers, along with presentations for opportunities open for Black students, things like programming and tech training,” Williams said.
At the summit, students had a chance to gain additional knowledge about support systems that are available for them within the community.
“We also had a presentation for Black male youth and getting support for entrepreneurship. We had a presentation on how the Hidden Genius Project can help Black male youth with entrepreneurship coding and also sorts of other life skills,” BSU President and senior Ava Freeman.
Finally, the summit allowed students to collaborate, discuss, and share their personal experiences with their peers.
“I think it’s really important that we do stuff like this because frequently I feel like as a Black student on campus we don’t really have these spaces besides BSU meetings. Like being in a full space all day surrounded by other Black students is really valuable,” Freeman said. “It’s important to be surrounded by people who understand our collective experience.”
Check out photos from the summit below.
Photos by Lynnā McPhatter-Harris, Courtesy Photos