The world is dividing, living and educating for different purposes. That is not the case for the community being created inside Allen High School through the African Students Organization (ASO) and Black Student Union (BSU) clubs.
“We try to have two meetings a month, and one meeting will be BSU led, and the next will be ASO led,” ASO president senior Deiren Smith, said. “It requires a lot of communication between our two clubs and a lot of planning. And sometimes the talents will be more BSU centered, which is more about, you know, black Americans. But then sometimes they’ll be more ASO centered, which is more about the African continent.”
While the two clubs, ASO and BSU, have meetings together, they stand for different parts of the black community. ASO focuses on history and conflicts on a more global scale.
“The main goal of ASO is to facilitate discussions about the problems that we face in the African diaspora, as well as create cultural awareness within our own community and with our global community,” Smith said. “So part of that is having discussions about problems that we face in our community as black Americans, but then also in the world as a whole. We talk about those kinds of implications on the world as a whole, and how we can kind of see the same problems in other places, and drawing those connections, so that kind of gives us some awareness about the world we live in”.
BSU focuses more on the culture in America and the continued development of that culture and the people a part of it.
“Black Student Union isn’t only for black students, but it is just about understanding people better and just having a place to discuss and grow,” said BSU president senior Nia Bethel.
It can be difficult to find people to fit in with during high school. ASO and BSU provide a space for African American students to build a community within the school where all feel secure.
“I think because of [Allen’s] diverse population, the students were looking for a place that was comfortable and familiar to them, that represented them,” said ASO and BSU sponsor Kala Poche. “They wanted a safe place where they could express themselves and interests that were very particular to them.”
The clubs have the ambition to educate those that attend the meetings and those who include themselves in the club regularly. They intend to help the community grow in their knowledge of culture to strengthen interactions with others.
“The biggest lesson that I hope to teach is that through education, through learning our history, through learning the current political state that we live in, we can act smarter,” said Smith. “We can communicate better, we can achieve more things through education and all sorts of education.”
The expansion of knowledge is not the only reason for attending ASO and BSU meetings. The leaders of the clubs try to make each meeting interesting and engaging for those in attendance. Their passion and energy towards their causes make the meetings more captivating to their regular participants.
“The amount of spirit we have for what we participate in is really big because we have such a big culture that there’s a lot to talk about and there’s a lot of things to get excited about, like, music, dance, there’s just so many things,” Bethel said. “So I think what separates us is our zeal and our passion for what we’re doing.”
The students who run the club have created a place that is vital to those a part of it and inspire others to stand up in their position.
“It’s spreading knowledge,” Poche said. “It’s enhancing their knowledge, and it’s forming their own little community here at Allen. So they are doing a wonderful job. It’s building leaders. They are controlling the publication of it, or, you know, like the public relation part of it. They are, you know, the parliamentary part of it, they are separate. They’re doing so much in building their character and their skills here that it’s beneficial to the individual person, but it is beneficial to Allen because they are providing a space for any and everyone.”
