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It is important to know where you come from and celebrate it with people who share the same culture as you.  For SBBS, Juneteenth represents an opportunity to spend time with Black students who navigate the academy together.  Juneteenth also offered a great opportunity to bring like minded graduate and professional school students from all different disciplines together.  That is why we partnered with the Student National Dental Association, Black Graduate and Professional Student Organization, Student National Medical Association, and the Black Law Student Association to coordinate a day to celebrate Black Life.  This was held at the local Chapel Hill Community Center and was spearheaded by the SBBS Co-founder Xavier Bonner.  “Its imperative that we celebrate Black Lives on this day and many days.  As future black doctors and professionals we are constantly thinking of propelling our careers and completing tasks for the University but we do not often kick back with fellow black students that we learn with and that is what this day is about” Xavier comments.

This experience offered graduate and professional students from all disciplines the opportunity to mix and mingle.  As one looked into the crowed you could see a future physician and dentist conversing about the difficulties of providing care to patients.  Also it was refreshing to see the more seasoned students getting to know the younger participants in their respective programs. After students were allowed to mix and mingle, we received a speech on the significance of Juneteenth and the impact of Black culture in society from the distinguished Dr. Ted Shaw.  Shaw teaches Civil Procedure and Advanced Constitutional Law. His research areas include the Fourteenth Amendment, affirmative action, housing policies regarding fair housing.  Following this progressive talk, we began the food service.  This was a student catered event that each president of the involved organizations aided in allocating the resources for. On the menu we had grilled chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, pasta salad, pies, an assortment of cakes and much more.  It is the hope of SBBS that more collaborative events with other affinity groups within UNC occur like this Juneteenth Event. This was the first ever Juneteenth Celebration student led UNC event that had more than 5 different Black affinity groups involved in the execution of this event.