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The ALANA Multicultural Leadership Conference started off with a bright display fashion Saturday night, during the 27th annual ALANA Fashion Show.
For show featured students from different cultural groups performed using traditional clothing as a part of a packed fashion show at Waterman theatre in Tyler Hall, providing an exciting opening show to the ALANA week festivities.
The ALANA Student Leadership Conference started on Saturday and runs until Sept. 28th.
According to The Point website ‘The ALANA (African, Latino, Asian and Native American) Student Leadership Conference promotes a multicultural environment at SUNY Oswego.’
“It’s a way for the different organizations to present themselves, let people know who they are and share their culture,” Garcia said of the conference.
Rhett Krist, a graduate assistant at The Point, has been setting up and running events throughout the week.
Krist said that it has been a busy week, but is motivated by what ALANA is all about.
“It promotes multicultural student leadership,” he said. “It’s getting in touch with your roots culturally,”
The fashion show itself featured a wealth of different student organizations on campus.
Groups that performed included the Asian Student Association, Black Student Union, African Student Organization, Caribbean Student Association and the Latino Student Union.
Freshman student Chelsie Campbell, had her first experience of ALANA dancing with the CSA group.
“I was nervous to start with, but once I met everyone it was fun,” Campbell said.
She said it was important to be dedicated and a hard worker to fit in with the theme of the show and conference.
Jamie Garcia, who was a team leader at the fashion show, said she enjoyed seeing the different dances.
“All the dances are big in their culture,” Garcia said.
Garcia also worked as an assistant to the Conference Coordinator, Magdalena Rivera, putting in several hours to keep the festivities running.
“Whenever she couldn’t be there I would be,” Garcia said. “It was nice to see the outcome of the work we put in.”
With events like the Alumni Student Leadership panel, Krist said that the conference gives students and faculty a chance to network.
“Different student alumni came in and talked about what they do now and how they got there,” Krist said of the leadership panel.
Other presentations and workshops throughout the week included Collections of Expressions, Nature’s Secrets and Women’s Economic Empowerment: the Rise of Independence.
The conference ends this weekend with the dinner banquet at Hewitt Union Ballroom Friday and the ALANA/ Alumni Networking Fair at The Point on Saturday.
