The 26th Annual Black Graduate Celebration

Performing Arts Department Professor Amissa Miller served as the master of ceremony for the  Black Cultural Graduate Celebration on Thursday, May 19, 2022, in the Soda Center, celebrating 26 graduating seniors and their families. Psychology and Sociology major Shilei Bell-Lipsey ’22 delivered the keynote speech, drawing on the strength of the Black community at SMC. “I had the privilege of seeing the joyous and celebratory actions that we bring, not only to SMC, but to the entire world,” shared Bell-Lipsey. 

As the Black Student Union president, Bell-Lipsey devoted her time at Saint Mary’s to bettering the community. Over the past four years, she has supported the Southern Asian Society, ASL Club, Psychology Club, the Expressions of Blackness Cultural Night executive team, Cummins Institue Committee, Gender Equity Committee, 50 Years of Women Planning Committee, Associated Students, and the Student Coalition Against Assualt and Rape. 

Bell-Lipsey thanked her biggest supporters: “My family, both biological and chosen…. Being from out of state, I quickly found on-campus support with my chosen family too, including my close friends, club members, colleagues, faculty, and staff members who always rooted me on.”

New Assistant Dean of Student Life and recent graduate from the Kalmanovitz School of Education’s Educational Leadership program Dr. Calvin Monroe presented Shilei Bell-Lipsey with the Corliss Watkins Student Leadership Award. Mubarak Osiremiza Haruna ’22, who plans to study computer science at NYU and pursue a professional soccer career, presented Monroe with the Pamela Y. George Staff Award. Monroe has worked closely with first-year and transfer students at SMC since 2017; taught Ethnic Studies, Jan Term, and Collegiate Seminar courses; advised the Black Student Union and the Expressions of Blackness Cultural Night; and was recently appointed to serve as Assistant Dean of Students. 

Jessykah Frank ’22 presented the Dean Thomas Earl Brown Faculty Award to Professor Amissa Miller, who teaches the popular course A Seat at the Table With Lemonade, an exploration of contemporary Black womanhood through Beyoncé and Solange’s music. 

SMC alumnus Lloyd Schine ’98, ME ’04, MA ’14, director of institutional advancement at Bay Scholars, presented graduates with their alumni pins. After the kente cloth presentation, graduates participated in the tradition of passing a rainstick, and recited the Ghanaian Adinkra phrase “Nea onnim no sua, a ohu,” meaning “One who does not know can know from learning.”