by: Nicoline Hansen
On Friday, March 1, the first Student Voices event was hosted. It was an event focused on giving more voice to the students of Parkland College as a part of Black History Month.
The cafeteria, located in the Student Union, was filled with both students and faculty ready to support the performing students. With great hostesses ensuring everything went smoothly, the event was set up to be a successful couple of hours.
The performances consisted of both songs, spoken word and various original poems. The poems spoke on many topics like awareness about domestic violence, the strength of being a woman, discrimination, growing up in a small town, experiencing college after being homeschooled and anxiety.
Respect and support were both filling the room as the performances occured. The different stories had an obvious impact on the audience who were clearly mesmerized by the impowering, inspiring, and vulnerable stories being told.
It was several students’ first time performing their pieces. The focus, however, was not on the performances but on the words that were being spoken and the stories that were being told.
Jessica Jackson, one of Parkland College’s academic coaches, shared “[The event] allows us to have so much more awareness about what’s going on in the community.” Jackson also shared that this event was a great chance for the academic coaches to hear what students are experiencing and how they as staff can better support them and other students who are experiencing similar things.
At the same time, the event was also meant as a great conversation starter between students and to show students that they are not the only ones experiencing certain things. “When you get up and you do an original song or you do a spoken word piece, people come up to you afterwards and they’re like ‘this really resonated with me’ or ‘I had a time like this,'” Jackson said. “This allows you to really understand that we are really not alone.”
When asked about the idea behind the event, Jackson shared that some of the events that are often hosted can seem like a lecture rather than being interactive. “… We are not hearing and learning from each other and so I wanted us to have a platform for that,” Jackson said. “We always talk about the same people when we talk about Black History Month, but we have really awesome students here at Parkland and people in the community that are making history all the time, that are doing super cool things.”
Furthermore, the event was also meant as an opportunity for the performing students to improve their public speaking skills, which Jackson describes as being important when it comes to professional development. “We as academic coaches we work with students on how they can be more successful academically but also how they can be successful when they leave Parkland in terms of securing work,” Jackson said. “The same skills that you need in terms of employability skills, that you need to get a job, are the same skills that you need to be a good student in terms of being able to articulate your views, your wishes… and the ability to be creative so that you can problem solve. This [event] kind of incorporates all of those things and it’s fun.”
The purpose of the event was described as positive and empowering while being a confidence builder for the students. As a part of the audience, I couldn’t help but feeling all these things, as well. As each of the students left the stage you couldn’t help but notice the impact their words had on you. Though every story belonged specifically to the performing individual, there was so much to learn from each of them that you could apply to your own life.
Jessica Jackson shared that there has been a lot of gratitute for the opportunity to get on the stage and share an important story or message. Though the thanks have been appreciated, Jackson said that, “This is your all’s school… this is why we have stages and spaces for students to show us how incredible they are.”
