When Alicia Lenard heard about an award ceremony for minority students in Bloomington-Normal, she made sure her fifth-grader, Christina, was there.
Lenard understands the importance of recognizing youth accomplishment at an early age. That’s what happened July 15 at the 28th annual Multicultural Academic Achievement Recognition Ceremony.
“This ceremony in itself, seeing so many young people of different races that aren’t always highlighted, means a lot,” said Lenard, whose daughter attends Stevenson Elementary School. “It’s giving them the courage, motivation, and recognition needed to keep moving forward, and I think that’s important.”
In partnership with Illinois Wesleyan University, the Neighbor to Neighbor Educational Activity Club created the event that this year recognized over 900 multicultural fifth through 12th grade students in Bloomington-Normal who demonstrated academic achievement this past school year.
Antonio Ramirez, an incoming eighth-grader at Bloomington Junior High School, said the event was special to him because it let others see him as a good person.
“I was happy receiving my award because my friends and family were able to see that even though I joke around sometimes, I’m still serious about my work,” Ramirez said. “I’m also happy because I've been able to meet people from other cultures, and it’s not too many times you see an event like this for people like me. I feel special.”
McLean County public defender Carla Barnes was a guest speaker at the event and used her platform to give a thought-provoking speech that encouraged the students to continue in their education.
“Our hope is that they get this award, are excited about it, and continue to overachieve because they are our future leaders,” Barnes said. “We want them here every year as honor roll students so we can let them know they’re appreciated and we recognize their work.”
Barbara Sims-Malone, executive director of Neighbor To Neighbor Educational Activity Club, said her vision for the event came after an eye-opening experience.
“About 30 years ago I was at a dentist office sitting in an area with two Caucasian men who were reading a news article. The article was about a minority youth who had gotten in trouble and it wasn’t a surprise because whenever media outlets referenced minorities, especially back then, they glamorized the bad and didn’t hesitate to fill the page,” Malone said.
“One of the men said to the other, ‘Are you reading about these kids? These kids aren’t worth our tax dollars,’ and the other one said ‘Yeah the only time you hear anything good about them is when they’re playing football or basketball,’ and the other man said, ‘And with that, they probably cheated to get on the team because you never hear about them doing well or being honored for things in school,’ and they went on to talk bad about our youth. I felt offended, out of place, and the experience stayed on my heart throughout the day.”
Malone decided she would take her experience and create the very thing that contradicted what the two men said: A ceremony that recognized academic excellence among minority students.
“My thing was, how can I shed light on the black and brown community and show others that we do have kids that are thriving outside of sports, we have kids making the honor roll, and we have kids that are smart?” Malone said. “God gave me a vision that he would use me as a stepping stone to resolve this stereotypical issue, and here we are today reaching our 28th year with the ceremony, still making a difference.”
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