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During Black History Month (BHM) the SBBS Executive Board but together a couple of events that aimed to positively influence and inspire our members.  In PhD programs its always difficult to visualize the road that lies beyond graduation. What job is available to someone who has the accolades that I have?  How can I serve my community during Black History Month? And why do I not often see 4th and 5th year graduate students?  All of these questions SBBS Exec was challenged with answering during BHM.

Whats better than having a game night after a long week?  The answer is nothing!  SBBS wants to build a community here at UNC and one of the best ways we can think of doing that is to encourage fun and positivity with a competition. On February 3rd, we decided to host a game night where we played Jeopardy and Culture Tags on campus after doing research.

In order to create a jeopardy board we used jeopardylabs.  It was super fun to think of the questions that people knew and would not know.  In honor of Black History Month we decided to have black trivia categories (see our categories below).  Reach out to us if you would like the link to the board!  Unsurprisingly, our members have an aptitude for black movies and television.

Jeopardy Board Categories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next event we held was Project Console II on February 12th.  If you remember the first Project Console we had the mission of serving those in need by giving away care packages that we carry around in our cars.  That way, when we stop at a red light, we could easily give the package recipients snacks, water, masks, and feminine care products.  Here is a picture of us assembling the packages!

Our penultimate event was a career panel that included giants in their respective field.  Our panelists included intellectual property lawyer Kerisha Bowen PhD, NC A&T tenured biology professor Checo Rorie PhD, podcaster and Illumina staff scientist Janina Jeff PhD, and children’s book author and Ecologist Cylita Guy. So much advice was given to SBBS participants!  Advice about finding a post doc positions, what to do if you’re stuck in your research project, and how to manage expectations were common themes panelists commented on.

To round out the month long event catalogue we reached out to Dr. Ishmail Abdus-Saboor who is an assistant professor of Biology at Columbia University.  Dr. Abdus-Saboor was always attracted to the allure that a career of science could afford him. In his keynote talk he described how he grew up and his humble beginnings as an African American child trying to make his dreams come true. After graduating from NC A&T with his degree in Zoology, he went on to earn a PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. During his talk he also highlighted his current research which investigates how chronic pain impacts the basal states of the nervous system.

Flyer for Event

Black history month is a time to share our culture with others. SBBS did just that and allowed us to serve our members in the process.