The Bowie State University and University of Maryland Social Justice Alliance (SJA) recently hosted its sixth annual Symposium at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center on the College Park campus.
The Bowie State University and University of Maryland Social Justice Alliance is dedicated to eradicating the ideology of intolerance, while confronting individuals and combatting systems that normalize indifference, justify injustice, perpetuate hate and inflict violence. The SJA is committed to social justice change through advocacy and action that impacts local, state, national, and global challenges.
As part of each year’s Symposium, SJA recognizes several members of both the Bowie State and University of Maryland, College Park communities who exemplify qualities like disrupting racism, engaging in anti-racist work, and recognizing those who have gone above and beyond in their work for the Social Justice Alliance.
This year's Student Impact Award honoree from UMD is Miriam Oke, an alum of Public Leadership Scholars. The SJA Student Impact Award recognizes students who disrupt racism and white Supremacy in their academic institutions, organizations, and/or communities.
Miriam Oke was selected for her impeccable leadership and communication skills. Oke, as she prefers to be called, is a student in the Plus 1 (Masters) program with a major in Finance and a minor in Nonprofit Leadership and Society. Among many leadership roles at UMD, she serves on the SJA student advisory board and continuously demonstrates her unwavering commitment to the alliance and social justice as a whole. Her dedication was instrumental to the success of the SJA Student Advisory Board.
The 2024 Symposium was titled "Lift Every Voice" and featured panelists across the entertainment industry. Lift Every Voice and Sing, often referred to as "The Black National Anthem,” is a hymn of liberation and affirmation for Black communities, used as a rallying cry through pain, protest, joy, resistance, and persistence. Lift Every Voice and Sing has been an anthem of Black joy and justice performed for well over a century; it encourages us all to channel our experience into art and carry Black liberation, which is intertwined with other social justice movements, forward to new generations. By centering Lift Every Voice and Sing in our 2024 Social Justice Alliance Symposium, we commit to living the mission and vision of the SJA toward Black liberation and collective liberation - we are not free until all of us are free.