Black Student Union attends state conference at KSU

Taylor Bullock, Staff Writer

Manhattan High School’s Black Student Union attended the statewide BSU Leadership Conference at Kansas State University. It was K-State’s fourth annual BSU Leadership Conference. The convention is a free, day-long meeting that gathers students to discuss skills and tactics needed to thrive in post-secondary education, specifically four-year colleges.

“I’m a person that doesn’t really feel like [I should go to college],” freshman Trevion Burklund said. “But, then when you find out stuff, like there’s a lot of people that worked for you to be able to go to college, we should really take chances and believe in ourselves.”

Things began with breakfast and morning workshops, followed by lunch and afternoon workshops. The workshops included sessions covering topics on how to use your confidence and education, and also included a job fair.

“I learned that I should be confident with my intelligence and not hide it,” freshmen Daija Wilson said. “[Also] to help other people and use my intelligence to better myself.”

The seminar also had a keynote speaker, Kevin Rome, president of Lincoln University, who gave a speech titled “African Male Leaders: Moving from anger to reaction.” The speech was a way to make the youth attending aware of their power to participate in leadership positions.

The students learned many practical life-lessons and skills from attending the conference.

“I learned that being confident gets you far in life,” senior Makayla Vandyke said. “[Also to] never give up in what you are doing, because then that leads to failure.”

The members of BSU had a significantly educational and inspiring experience overall.

“My experience here was very exciting,” Vandyke said. “From hearing from these speakers, I enjoyed hearing their story, [and] how they became successful and what led to that.”