Despite Rio’s relatively small Black student population, senior Kenesha Smith and sophomore Eryn Turner have managed to make the school’s BSU (Black Student Union) a thriving community that aims to both uplift Black students and give them a place to connect with their peers.
Smith summarizes BSU as an inclusive space where the club not only focuses on Black struggles but also Black successes.
“It’s where all these people of color, especially Black people, can come together and we just uplift each other,” Smith said. “I feel like a lot of people hear about Black struggles in the world, but a lot of people don’t get recognition for Black successes. We also talk about just fun things. We talk about school. And we make sure everybody’s on top of their stuff.”
In recent meetings, members have had discussions and learned about famous Black activists. While they have held a few fundraising events, they are planning broader events for the future.
The club also talks about graduation with senior members and makes sure everyone is set up to graduate and has figured out their post-high school plans, Smith said.
“I know that I walk around the halls like ‘Oh, I don’t have anybody,’” Smith said. “And then I go to BSU and I’m just like, ‘Wow, it’s amazing.’”
One of the club leaders’ main goals this year is to increase meeting turnout and club membership, as many students don’t know about BSU, according to Smith. While Rio lacks a large population of students of color, the president and vice president still hope more people will join. The current members, however, are “really amazing,” Smith said, and show up every week.
Turner also hopes BSU can be a space where freshmen and sophomores can meet new people, and where the community legacy is passed down.
Smith and Turner made it clear that its moniker isn’t exclusive—students of all races are not only welcome, but encouraged, to join BSU, according to the club’s leaders.
“Even if you are not in the Black community and you’re just an ally, we want you to be there,” Turner said. “I just want people to know that.”
Smith has even met White vice presidents at other BSU organizations.
Smith began her journey with Black Student Unions years ago when she pioneered one in middle school, describing herself as the “CEO” of it. When she got to high school, she immediately joined Rio’s BSU, first as a member, then as vice president, and now as the club’s president.
As president she finds it important to take initiative and lead the group.
“You have to have people’s ideas come into action and make them come to life,” she said.
Turner participated as a member last year and says stepping into the vice president role has been very fun and exciting.
“It’s like a job for me,” she said. “And I like to interact with the people. I get to speak to everyone and see everyone come to the meetings.”
Smith and Turner concurred that attending an overwhelmingly White school like Rio comes with its challenges, but that their involvement with BSU has given them an empowering space to be in the school.
“It’s very hard,” Smith said. “I think it’s very weird, to say the least, because I did go to a predominantly Black middle school. So I think it’s just really a struggle to try to adjust. Because I feel like sometimes I can’t act the way I do at school opposed to the way I do at home, because it’s just a different area, different community.”
Smith also feels that the more recent incoming classes at Rio have been more diverse than the upperclassmen.
“I feel like sometimes I do have to work twice as hard to get where I’m going,” she said.
Turner, who is mixed, has struggled with the different communities she belongs to.
“I don’t fall into the category of this or that,” she said. “I am White, I am Black, I am Islander; no one is like me basically. I moved from a predominantly Black and mixed school, so coming here, it’s just different. Sometimes I do water down my personality a little bit when I’m in this element around these people I can’t relate to [or] experience different things than I do.”
“I want the goal for BSU [to be to] just come in and see a space where I can see other people like myself, see faces that look like my face and see the same skin tones as mine,” Smith said.
When not attending to BSU business, Smith likes to participate in all the other activities and opportunities Rio offers. Turner loves music, especially jazz and R&B, and enjoys watching football.
After high school, Smith plans to major in chemistry and become a chemical technician before deciding if she wants to be a chemist. Turner hopes to go to an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and study cosmology. They both intend to continue participating in a BSU.
BSU is always accepting new members and meets every Friday at lunch in J5, the medical careers room.
Rio’s Black Student Union has become a popular engaging space to discuss issues, celebrate achievements and have an all-around good time, and as Smith put it, “Man, I just love BSU.”
