Cailey Wright
Staff Writer
Freshman Forum not only acknowledged the accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr., but also celebrated who he was as an individual last Thursday during a ceremony put together by the organization.
Freshman Forum Public Relations Chairwoman and first-year history education major Shalyn Merida explained that King was more than just his successes during the Civil Rights Movement. To honor his legacy, Freshman Forum organized a canned food drive.
“He was also about service,” Merida said. “That is why we did the canned food drive. We really wanted to focus on the service part and not just the marches and the speeches.”
King made a tremendous impact by being a servant leader, according to Merida. Leaders with Freshman Forum and the other organizations that attended the event, such as the Black Student Union, Miss E.L.I.T.E., and the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, said their group members strive to be servant leaders.
Emma Ellis, a Freshman Forum member and first-year broadcast journalism and Spanish major, said that members of her organization strive to be community and campus leaders through servitude.
“In Freshman Forum, we try to put on events and do community service projects to help students throughout campus,” said Emma Ellis, a Freshman Forum member and first-year broadcast journalism and Spanish major.
The ceremony consisted of Freshman Forum members reciting King’s “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” speech along with organization representatives sharing their favorite Martin Luther King quotes.
Roberto Earle-Lynch, the president of Omega Psi Phi and a senior global business major, said his favorite quote is “Time. Time itself is neutral; it could be used either destructively or constructively. Time.”
“It actually changed my perspective at a point in time when I was possibly seeking to be a part of this fraternity,” Earle-Lynch said. “I had to change the way I thought and the way I used my time.”
Although there was a change the location of the ceremony at the last minute due to bad weather, the new location in John Robert Lewis Hall was significant to King’s legacy.
“I do know that Martin Luther King is the one who gave John Robert Lewis his nickname, ‘The Boy from Troy,'” Merida explained. “I think it is significant that we are in John Lewis’s building to give his friend a ceremony.”