Black Student Union makes a comeback at Hoover High School
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Hoover High School’s Black Student Union, or BSU, made a comeback this school year.
Although principal Jennifer Earl said the BSU has existed on campus for the majority of the 10 years she’s worked at the high school, the group fizzled out about three years ago because there was a lack of student leadership.
Katrina Manor, a senior at the school, took over as BSU president this past November.
“It’s nothing against Hoover. We just haven’t had a lot of black representation. This is the year we’ve had the most black students at my school and that includes biracial,” Manor said.
“What better opportunity to do something than now. Even if the number decreases, we have kids in Black Student Union that are white and Hispanic,” she added.
Out of 1,605 students at Hoover High, 2.2% identify as African American, according to California Dashboard information.
Tyrone Allen, the school’s academic counselor for the junior class, became BSU adviser early in the school year.
“I definitely wanted to help reach out to students that are feeling underrepresented. I’ve learned that a lot of the African American students on campus feel disenfranchised,” he said.
He added, “I don’t think it’s anything to do with the culture of the school. It’s just more or less — as an African American minority, you just don’t have a lot of opportunities to feel like you are interacting with other African Americans to talk about issues.”
Allen described the group as a club that meets almost weekly and is open to all student demographics.
The BSU collaborated with the junior class of the Associated Student Body, or ASB, to end Black History Month with a celebration on Feb. 28. During lunch time, the students played music and handed out popcorn, sweet potato chips and bowls of mukimo — a Kenyan dish.
At the center of the quad, the African Soul International group played traditional African music and danced. Students and staff, including Glendale Unified School District Supt. Vivian Ekchian dropped in to participate.
They ended their performance chanting, “Peace, love, respect for everybody for children for the planet, for ourselves.”
Melia Movsesian, ASB secretary, and Monet Nadimyan, treasurer, were on hand to help organize the event.
“We hear from other schools and there’s a lot of talk about feeling separated and that there’s no unity at the school. So we thought this event would bring everyone together,” Movsesian said.
The Black History Month celebration was part of a larger series that started last year.
Nadimyan said members of the Korean Club raised funds and put on an event celebrating their culture in November. Inspired by the club, ASB decided to celebrate various cultures throughout the school year.
Armenian and Latin American heritages were celebrated in past months, while the ASB plans to celebrate Filipino, Italian and French heritages in the upcoming months.
When asked about the future of the BSU, Manor said, “I made it clear that by March or April, we are reelecting [student leadership] because this is not going to end. This needs to continue.”
BSU is planning to raise funds for a future field trip to the California African American Museum, located in Exposition Park.
