Niles North hosted the annual Black Teen Summit for 2023 on Tuesday, April 4. Last year Niles West hosted the summit and celebrated black excellence with speakers and activities. This year, the theme was Young, Gifted and Black.

When planning the summit, Cherie Animashaun, talked to the Executive Director of Communications and partnerships at D219. Animashaun pitched the idea of Young, Gifted and Black and everyone loved the idea. So, they took Aminashaun’s idea and made it come to life.

To start the summit, all students had breakfast together. West students came to North to enjoy it together. During the breakfast, the keynote speaker who is the new Deputy Superintendent gave the first speech. After the keynote speaker finished, they introduced the rest of the 10 speakers that would be speaking at the summit.

Throughout the day, there were workshops that were created for the summit which Animashuan enjoyed the most.

“I really enjoyed the workshop. There was a black advocacy workshop that I loved which was called to lift every voice. We had a speaker for that, and overall talking about how we can use our voice to help people in our community. There were also a bunch of different workshops of every different spirit life, which I really liked,” Animashaun said.

Elizabeth Brent, the West BSU Sponsor who facilitated an affinity space for those who identify as female led the female affinity space for the summit.

“Later in the day, I co-led the female affinity space, encouraging students to build community and share their experiences from the day. The students had a great time sharing and listening to their fellow students speak. It was a great day,” Brent said.

Freshmen Damola Awonusi talks about his favorite part of the summit.

“I really liked the food but also the meetings and the people in them. It was a really fun day,” Awonusi said.

The summit also included a cookout and lots of dancing which students enjoyed.

“I think I speak for all students when I say we enjoyed the cookout the most. We had different choices such as Nigerian, BBQ, Jamaican and a lot of other food that represented our cultures. Everyone at the summit knows that we also danced a lot, which was definitely a favorite,” Animashuan said.

Although it was a success, some students have suggestions on how to make the summit more beneficial in future years.

“To make the summit more fun and interesting I would add more types of meetings. There were only a couple to pick from, so I think if there was a variety of options people would be more interested in them,” Awonusi said.

The summit ended with many affinity spaces that pertained to the black community. Some examples of affinity spaces were African, Caribbean, and people who identified as African American.