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“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”
—Rev. .Martin Luther King, Jr., Aug. 28, 1963

On Feb. 2, students, faculty and staff gathered for the opening ceremony recognizing Black History Month at PVCC, sponsored by the African-American employee and student associations.

Ken Clarke, interim director of Financial Aid and Multicultural Coordinator at PVCC, acted as master of ceremonies, offering the first speech. He announced that the theme for 2009 is “Threads of Change.”

“As I look around the room, I can see many threads of change,” says Clarke referring to the wide range of people present for the ceremony: faculty, staff, students, young, old, white, black, Hispanic.

After Clarke, Dr. Paul Dale, interim president, gave a welcoming speech via video recording because he was unable to be present. Dale was followed by short welcoming speeches given by Alison Livingston, office coordinator for the Learning Support Center; Corey Loucy, coordinator of Enrollment Services; and Sue VanBoven, accounting faculty.

Following them was the Student Reflection, this year given by Terrance Thompson, 41, an active governing member of the African American Student Association. Thompson recited Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s nine minute “I Have a Dream” speech from memory with immense passion and emotion. The presentation garnered a standing ovation.

Next, starting with a comment about how it would be impossible to follow the high standard Thompson just set with his presentation, was the keynote speaker, Nicole Quow-Thomason, a professor of business at Grand Canyon University. She told her story of switching from a low-level, crowded, mostly African-American school to a mostly Caucasian populated prep school.

“It was not easy. It was more challenging than anything else I had done, but I felt that I had to prove something not just to them but to myself,” says Quow-Thomason. “I felt that I had to make sure that just because I was black, it didn’t mean that I could not achieve in the same way the other white students could.”

She also discussed how important education is as a foundation to succeed in life, how African-Americans are stereotyped as dangerous and about how to make a positive impact on the world.

“There are too many of us who believe that we alone can do nothing,” says Quow-Thomason. “We are great instruments of change. We can make amazing things happen. We just need to decide to do so.”

Clarke closed the ceremony by orating that the “threads of change” is because of all of us, and we need to combine our forces together to make a multicultural, multidimensional place to live.