Busy, Busy: Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Day and MORE at Babson
Hello prospective first years!
This has been a very busy week for many students on campus, as there are only two more weeks until Spring Break (I cannot wait to hit the beaches in Florida!) and a lot of classes have had midterm exams. I had an exam for QTM2420 (Quantitative Modeling) today, and all freshmen have an FME exam Friday morning.
In addition to the class work, a number of really cool events are being held this week: MLK Legacy Day, the President’s Gala, and a huge party in Van Winkle (one of the residence halls located on upper campus) on Saturday appropriately themed “Party in the Penthouses.”
Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Day is a very special occasion on campus, and it was held tonight in the fully-packed Sorenson Center for the Arts. In its seventh year, MLK Legacy Day serves to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and his continuing impact on the world. The presentation centered on the theme “American Culture and the Pursuit of Justice in a Global Society,” and the speakers really focused on the importance of activism and promoting equality in today’s increasingly globalized society.
We had some remarkable speakers at this event, including my fellow classmate, Kadia Tubman, who won the Martin Luther King Jr. Essay and Speech Contest. Kadia addressed the crowd about her experience with the “indivisibility” of justice today in the United States with reference to LGBT equality, and her conviction brought about a dutifully-earned standing ovation from everyone. She was unbelievable, and I am still speechless hours later.
The winner of the MLK Creativty Contest, Mona Gimenez, followed Kadia with a beautifully written and performed song, “The Dream That Lives On.” The final speaker of the night came to Babson from the Columbia University School of Law—Patricia J. Williams. A graduate of Wellesley College (just one mile from us!), Williams is a staunch supporter of multiculturalism and civil rights, and she says, “Racism is an enormously subtle perceptual matter. Understanding its conventions involves figuring out how to insinuate one’s way through all sorts of well-guarded hierarchies…Finding a door in is a trick of social vision as much as it is of legal remedy or political recourse.” She was just as amazing as the prior two students, and her speech capped off the night, making everything a complete success. I have attached a picture, but please forgive me for the poor quality as I only had my cell phone with me and the lighting was not the best.
It’s truly great to attend a school that cares about diversity, equality, and globalization. Babson never fails to amaze me at the speakers that we attract—just last semester, we had El Shafei Mohamed visit us for nearly a month, and later in March Jhumpa Lahiri, author of New York Times’ Numer 1 Seller Unaccustomed Earth, will be gracing our stage. The college really cares about bringing its students some of the brightest and most influential minds of the time.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful February! The month has flown by, and everyone here on campus can practically taste Spring Break…
Stayed tuned for more blog posts in the upcoming days and weeks…In fact, Puja and I are giving a tour tomorrow and we will be taking pictures about each destination spot so that we can give all of our readers a “virtual” campus tour!