ETHS hosted the 10th anniversary of the Black Student Summit on Wednesday, February 12, and continued into Thursday, February 13. The event, part of the ETHS Social Consciousness Series mission, was designed to instill pride, culture, joy and community in ETHS’s Black students.
As orchestrated by the 2025 Black Student Summit Committee, this year’s theme for the summit was “In Lak’ech: Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers,” continuing on ETHS’s Social Consciousness Series overall mission for summits while encouraging Black unity throughout the summit’s sessions.
“We started creating the summit by bringing in many ideas from past summits. We looked at keynote speakers from the last 10 years and talked to a lot of adults who are still in the building and outside of the building so we could connect with the past and the original meaning of the Black Student Summit,” said Nyel Rollins, a senior and organizer of the summit.
The opening ceremony for the summit began in the dimly-lit main auditorium, with the Black national anthem, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ permeating the entirety of the assembly room. Sung by four ETHS seniors, the anthem was followed by a speech given by Principal Dr. Taya Kinzie and Superintendent Dr. Marcus Campbell, who emphasized the importance of hosting summits here at ETHS despite federal regulation attempts to suppress them. The opening ceremony broke into a series of student-led performances, including a culture dance, which had students from different countries, including Nigeria and Togo, show off their ethnic dances, and a performance by the Pomkits.
The performances were followed by speeches by ETHS alumni, including this year’s summit speaker, Naquan Jones. Jones played football at ETHS as a standout athlete throughout all four years of high school. After graduating from ETHS in 2015, Jones continued his football career at Michigan State University. Now, he plays for the Arizona Cardinals as a defensive tackle in the NFL. Through sharing his experience at ETHS and the many obstacles he faced as a student and athlete, Jones urged summit attendees to prioritize making the most out of their academic careers here at ETHS.
Once the opening ceremony concluded, students headed off to affinity spaces: sessions designed to create an environment where students could freely express their personal experiences, connect and learn from the many shared and differing experiences as a Black student at ETHS.
After exploring the affinity spaces, students had the opportunity to participate in workshops designed to engage them in interactive activities related to different aspects of Black culture. Among the numerous workshops offered, some included intensive trivia games on Black culture and history or discussions about the realities of the Black experience at college. For lunch, attendees who filed into West Cafeteria were provided with a variety of Black diasporic cuisines, including Jamaican, Haitian and Ethiopian food from Queen K’s Kitchen, Spice Restaurant and ETHS Nutrition Services.
The summit ended with a dance in Beardsley gym, DJed by J Bambii, allowing attendees who missed the dance on Wednesday due to the early dismissal to join their friends on the dance floor.
“I loved being able to connect with everyone here at the Black Student Summit,” said Amaya Johnson, a sophomore attendee. “I’ll definitely come back next year.”
