By Catherine Sanders
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Towson University’s Center for Student Diversity hosted its annual Black Student Leadership Conference in the West Village Commons ballrooms last week and gave students a chance to discuss everything from racial intolerance to entrepreneurship.
The Feb. 4 event, which was called “How to Make it in America,” attracted students from local and out-of-state colleges and provided a variety of breakout sessions that touched on career planning, resiliency, and overcoming adversity and cultural bias.
Dalis Graham, a Towson student who was attending the conference with a group of her friends for the second straight year, said the event does a good job of helping students plan for their future.
“I just want to learn how to get where I want to be in my career,” Graham said.
Sherman Ragland II, the president and CEO of Tradewinds Corp., who was the conference’s keynote speaker, said students must get out of their comfort zone and prepare to lead society into the future.

Students who were interviewed said they came to the conference for different reasons. Some said they hoped the conference would assist them in becoming better leaders; others said they wanted to find the appropriate resources to actively get involved in their community.
Towson student Brittany Martin, who is a senior majoring in psychology at the school’s Northeast campus in Harford County, said she aims to learn innovative ways to continue to exercise her leadership abilities as a young African-American woman.
“I want to enhance my capacities in leadership as a colored person,” Martin said. “As a colored woman, we are underestimated in society and I believe in order to become a better leader, you need the materials and tools to accomplish these goals.”
After students attended the keynote session, they had the opportunity to choose two out of the eight breakout sessions that were offered during the conference.
Towson student activist John Gillepsie, who led a session called #WeAreMizzou: Reimagining Radical,” spoke about the protests that occurred at the University of Missouri last year as well as the Occupy Towson movement that convinced interim President Timothy Chandler to sign off on 13 demands of the African American study body last semester.
“Towson University has to be anti-racist,” Gillepsie said. “There’s a difference between diversity and inclusiveness. You can be invited to the cookout, but it’s a difference of being offered food aside from just being invited.”
Chrystine Johnson, a graduate student from Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York, said it is often challenging to get officials at predominantly white institution to help create well-rounded, diverse atmospheres.
“Staff and professionals really have to instill that we are inclusive,” Johnson said. “It’s something different to be diverse and inclusive. It’s a total different concept that people use interchangeably.”
Arthur Woodard, who was the first president of the Black Student Union at what was then Towson State College, attended the conference as a memorabilia vendor.
Woodard said he was part of the group that organized the first student sit-in at the president’s office in the 1970s after he and other students did not have their credits from other colleges transfer to Towson.
Woodard, a retired Baltimore city planner, said he is proud of today’s students for continuing to stand up for what they believe in. But he said it is a shame that African American students must still struggle with these issues.
“We don’t have to hit anyone or throw sticks, all we have to do is say, ‘No, we are not going to be treated this way,’” Woodard said.
Towards the end of the program, students had the opportunity to hear closing remarks from Dr. Dennis Rahim Watson, the president and CEO of the Center for Black Student Achievement.
Watson’s said one of his missions in life is to get students to become a generation of academic achievers, problem solvers, global leaders and entrepreneurs.
“I want to bring honor and acclaim to our communities and a generation of black students who are addicted to knowledge of reading and writing,” Watson said.
Anee Korme, the associate director for Student Diversity and Development who coordinated this year’s event, said she is happy to see students who are like she was 10 to 15 years ago. She said her hope is that the program eventually becomes a national conference so that the West Village Ballrooms are filled with a mix of all nationalities and ethnicities.
“I hope students are able to think limitlessly and push themselves to beyond where they initially hope they will end up,” Korme said.