Kent student, Glory Oluwaseun, has been recognised for her contribution to citizenship, winning a Young Black Achievers Award from Medway African and Caribbean Association (MACA).
Glory, who studies Liberal Arts (BA) at Kent’s School of Politics and International Relations, was awarded the accolade at MACA’s 15th annual Young Black Achievers Awards on Saturday 23 October. MACA is a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting an awareness of African and Caribbean Culture through arts, educational and social programmes in Kent and Medway.
Currently a Student Ambassador and Work Study Student Research Assistant in the University’s Student Success team, Glory is passionate about increasing awareness of Black History and the opportunities for ethnic minorities in academia through outreach initiatives.
Upon joining the University, Glory led the Outreach Debating Programme, helping to develop resources and expand the programme to schools in Kent and Medway. She has also led on the Mentoring and University Insights Project for Year 12 Black students at Chatham Grammar School (her alma mater) and Brompton Academy. Based on this project she with other student ambassadors completed a pilot research study which they presented at the NEON Conference (National Education Opportunities Network).
Further to this, Glory has created and led webinars for incoming Kent international students as well as provided research on ethnic minority students and cultural societies for Student Success.
Glory has since designed and co-ordinated a Black British Culture project for Year 10 students at Chatham Grammar School to learn about Black British history, culture and heritage while also learning practical research skills. This will be a collaborative project with Kent professors and lecturers supported by student ambassadors. Ancient Africa and Transatlantic slavery is on the project syllabus, as well as figures from the UK Civil Rights Movement and a contemporary look at Black Lives Matter.
Regarding the Black British Culture project Glory said: ‘I don’t think one month should be all that you study, it should be part of every single day that you live and integrated into the main syllabus. We learnt about US figures like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King but not about UK figures. After all this is not just black history, it’s our history, this is everybody’s history.
‘The programme will lead to the students creating their own research proposal about a topic of interest that centres on Black British Culture. Students will be encouraged to develop a question and be given creative freedom in what they produce, it could be a piece of art, a video, article or just a written piece.
‘This may be a pilot project but my hope is that we expand and that it becomes UK wide to help teachers create syllabuses that are more diverse and inclusive.’
Glory is also a part of the Oxford UNIQ programme and the Vice President of Rock Solid, a Christian society at the University.