“Community” fanning the flame of cultural change
Elena Fry-Hernandez - Music Editor
On Wednesday, October 25th, Monmouth College’s Community presented its first event of the school year. “Written in Color” was a poetry night open to anyone who wanted to share their work or personal stories. The event’s goal was to “understand those around us better,” with Community’s President Ethan Panganiban encouraging everyone to come up to the mic at least once and share a life lesson. Panganiban said, “Everyone has a very unique perspective and purpose as to what this group is.” He stated their mission is to “create cultural change on campus through events, education, and working alongside faculty and other organizations.”
Madison Heiser, Community’s Public Relations Manager, says the group came to fruition after the incidents involving hate speech towards students of color that took place at the end of last semester. Panganiban said that, “[After what happened last year], we sat together and created ‘Community’.[we wanted to] have our foot in the door like all the other groups on campus, such as ASAP and the Champion Miller Center.” Treasurer Kamea Graham said, “[We want to] bring everybody together. Not just when something happens on campus, but always nurturing that feeling of community so when things do happen, we have each other to lean on.”
Co-vice president Izzy McDermott said the group is working on establishing themselves on campus. “We kind of discovered that while we are one of the first [diversity, equity, and inclusion] focused groups on campus, we are not the first group to do DEI work on this campus,” said McDermott.