BSA Brings Women Empowerment to Campus

BSA (Black Student Alliance) hosted their third annual “Sisters: Women’s Empowerment Panel” on Oct. 19 at the TLC. BSA hosted the event along with HerCampus, For Us Nursing, College Girls Rock, The National Council of Negro Women and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc., all UWG organizations charted for and by black students.

This year, the theme was inspired by the 2000s television show Girlfriends that regained popularity on Netflix in 2020. Last year, the event was based on Insecure, another popular television series in the community. Panel guests brought up scenes and characters of the show and tied them to girl talk questions. Much of the content discussed men, sex and relationships. But this October, the panel discussion was different.

“This sister’s rendition is different because I wanted to talk about real time topics,” said BSA president Nycole Latham. “I really want to have an emphasis on women’s empowerment because I don’t see that a lot on campus and I wanted to be the change.

 “I wanted to have different organizations come together and talk about things that are going on in society, especially in the Black girl world,” continued Latham. “I like when we get together and have different conversations. They’re stimulating.”

The event began with an all-female panel that featured members of partnering organizations. Each girl talked about their role in their organizations and what they believe their real-life superpower is.

“I hope that we can shed some light on different things that have been going on in society like when we talk about our body, our workplace and friendships,” said Latham. “Just celebrating the different trends we’ve had and shedding some light on us and making it positive.”

Latham directed the conversation throughout the event, asking the panel guests about trending topics in the social media world along with age-old questions about womanhood and adult life. The audience didn’t shy away, adding their opinions and questions to the conversation with varying and diverse answers. Both the audience and the panel offered a safe space for girls to talk about both humorous and sensitive topics.

Girls defined the soft girl trend on TikTok, shared the notions they would tell their younger selves, practical ways to practice self-care and the black women they look up to and why. Self-development was discussed in depth as the trending topic has many different angles. The answers generated a sense of community as many girls shared similar life experiences with each other.

“I want us to keep in mind that we always need to look out for each other outside of school in the real world and the workplace,” said Latham.

BSA has more events coming up to celebrate Black achievement and culture, such as The Black Project, The Black Excellence Leadership Awards and Showtime at the Apollo.

“BSA is always for black, the black culture and black history. We’re all about captivating history with every single event that we have,” said Latham.