Stevens Admissions: Molara

Stepping Through Black History

Last night, the National Society of Black Engineers and the Black Student Union hosted a Step Show event in Jacobus. One word to describe the night: AWESOME!

I'm actually on the E-Board (Executive Board) for both NSBE and BSU. I'm Vice President of NSBE and Publicity Chair for BSU. Just so you all can get an idea of what the event was about, here's a little blurb I read to introduce the purposeof it:

"We've invited you here today to take you on a journey. A journey to the discovery of the evolution of African dance. And we will achieve this by Stepping Through Black History. What is stepping? Where did it come from? How was it created? These are questions we hope to answer tonight. African dance has contributed to the many popular dance styles of today. Stepping is a tradition of many fraternities and sororities, and the pride of these greek organizations. But how did it orginate? Whether someone is a part of a multicultural, Divine 9, Asian, Latino, and the list can go on and on, Greek organization, THIS tradition of stepping came from the same place. We hope that tonight you can discover this!

The show opened with a video of Whitney Houston singing the National Anthem and then the Black National Anthem (and it's ok, not everyone knew it existed. I didn't until a few years back). It was so nice because everyone sang it together because we had some...technical difficulties...which unfortunately didn't allow us to show the video. But it was a great way to start the night: uniting everyone through song.

After that we had the first performance of the night, which was a beautiful interpretive dance performed by an African dance company. After their performance we had multicultural Greek organizations step, stroll, or salute. The ones who performed were Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Mu Sigma Upsilon Sorority, and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. Their performances were amazing! It's something you don't get to experience every day at Stevens. To close the night was a breakdancing performance from Five Elements, which was awesome as usual.

Overall the night was super fun, from all the performances, to the amazing hosts, to the mini competitions (who could African dance the best and who could "Kappa Shimmy" the best. The Kappa Shimmy is the Kappa Alpha Psi signature move when strolling). It was so entertaining! And it's great to know that students like those in Five Elements have an amazing talent of hip hop dance and breakdancing. So you CAN be an engineer AND a b-boy, or whatever your heart desires. 

Next year's show is going to be even bigger and better and I hope to see YOU there! :)

 

 

 

Happy Chinese New Year!

Xin Nian Kuai Le! Happy New Year!

This year is the year of the dragon!

Last night, the Chinese Student Association had an awesome celebration for the Chinese New Year! There were wonderful performances, a fashion show, a dumpling eating contest, and raffle! And I ACTUALLY WON SOMETHING! I got a cute tea set that I'm going to give to my mom. I was so excited, I usually never win raffles. There were so many different types of people there too. It was packed! I almost didn't get a seat.

You could tell that everyone had a great time. It was so much fun! The whole room was beautifully decorated. There were lanterns everywhere and floating candles on the tables. The decorations and energy in the room really made the celebration seem genuine. And did I mention how delicious the food was? 

It's crazy how much you don't know about a culture, or what you think you know. When I think of Chinese New Year, I think lanterns and the traditional lion (or dragon) dance. But there's so much more to it. It's a festival celebration with a lot of pride, and it is actually one of the longest and most important Chinese holidays. I had a fun night and can't wait to go to next year's celebration! 

"...A geisha is to be judged as a moving work of art."

"You cannot call yourself a true geisha until you can stop a man in his tracks with a single look."

I'm sure many people have seen or heard of the movie, but did you know that it is based off a best selling novel? 

The reason I've been reading it is because of the Book Club here at Stevens. It's through the Women's Programs, and for $5 we get dinner at a cute cafe on Washington Street and a discussion. I'm glad I chose to take part in the Book Club because I almost forgot how much I love to read! Yes, I love to read, even though some think "engineers aren't supposed to like reading or writing." Not true! I'm an avid reader but haven't had much time to read, so this was a great opportunity for me, not only to read such a beautiful story but to discuss it with a group of like-minded young women. Discussions are held about every month or so, each month with a different book. So if you like to read, I encourage you to join the Book Club! You'll get to read amazing books you may never have even heard about!