Last week marked the end of National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) Greek Week, a celebration of community unity in Southeastern’s historically African-American fraternities and sororities.
Every organization that is a member of the NPHC had a hand in planning the week’s events, which included a Student Union Takeover, a bowling tournament, a showcase and community service. Lori Lucas of Zeta Phi Beta, Keonte Herrera of Alpha Phi Alpha and Kendrick Griffin of Kappa Alpha Psi spearheaded the event planning.
“We have retreats where we all meet up and set up committees where we basically come up with ideas for these kind of things from scratch,” said Griffin. “We stayed up until four in the morning to make sure everything worked and balanced with school, but we made it work.”
The whole week of events was dubbed “We Are The Yard,” a testament to the message behind the celebration.
“We Are The Yard refers to all Greeks on campus,” said Griffin. “Basically, we are the yard; we are the future. We want the rest of the student body to look at us as leaders and we want to influence them to join organizations so that they go out into the world and be successful.”
Lucas explained that the NPHC Greek Week stresses unity above all else.
“During NPHC Week we come together as a council; every organization puts on events and displays Greek unity,” said Lucas. “Students, a lot of times, don’t see us as a united front, but this week is to show that we do come together to do community services that empower not only our members and the student body, but also the community.”
The week reached it’s peak with 2013 NPHC Showcase.
“This showcase was to display to the student body the different talents, leadership skills and history of our organizations,” said Lucas.
Griffin was very pleased with the turnout at the Showcase, where each organization related the their history and performed a step show to entertain the audience.
“I just want to thank everyone who took the time to come out and see what the organizations are all about,” said Griffin. “And I appreciate everyone who helped out this week; their hard work and dedication.
To wrap up the week, NPHC students banded together at Zemurray Park in downtown Hammond for a street clean-up community service event.
“We cleaned up Zemurray Park, which is a park in downtown Hammond that the community uses a lot,” said Lucas. “We want to make sure that we give something back to the surrounding area and show that we care.”