On Thursday, October 15th, 2024, NJCU and the Latin American Center closed out the Hispanic Heritage Month with an amazing ceremony. The ceremony included poetry, musical performances, and a speech from our very own president, Andres Acebo. The MC/Host of the event was the one and only Jeffrey Dessources who engaged with the crowd with Storytimes, fun participative activities, and icebreakers. Mr. Dessources also delivered two powerful poetry slams.
Poetry also came from student leaders such as Sarah Ruilova (stage name Vale) who delivered a powerful poem about feeling lost and out of touch with herself due to being different from her family due to being darker and hair being curlier and coming to find out that she had a different biological father than her sisters. However, Sarah rose above and continued to find and be herself as she got older. Sarah is the VP of FELA and a fellow poet.
Our Greek life coordinator Bianca Cribeiro did two poems as well and she dedicated them to her late grandmothers and reflected on her Hispanic ethnicity, coming from Cuban & Puerto Rican descent. First-year student, Mariah Colon was our last poet as she spoke about being a lost Hispanic due to being raised with different ethnicities and not speaking Spanish fluently. Mariah was raised being called a ’Gringa’. However, Mariah speaks about being a proud Latina and embracing being a proud Boricua.
The ceremony also included great musical performances. The musical band VT, which was formed here at NJCU returned to give us a Steller musical performance which included lit-up violins, drums, and a guitarist.
The ceremony closed with amazing food and an art exhibit in the LATI Center.
It’s safe to say, NJCU closed out Hispanic Heritage Month with a bang!
