The Register, 2004-09-16

              elected sga senate new photos by sheila whitley aggies in africa album review of long awaited second iff sheila whitley a tographed by journalism and mass communi cation professor at a&t a&t drama stu dents right per form a play with their south african counter parts above south africa's massive tabletop mountain which was pho page 3 see elections the fall 2004-2005 by neena ramsey contributor student government association elections were held earlier this month in the exhibit hall of the student union approximately 1,030 stu dents turned out to vote in the fall elections the new sga members have great expectations for this school year 51 students were elected to new offices the judiciary council elected seven new members freshman class officers were elected president leo d breckenridge vice president breana l greenlee secretary angela l english treasurer vinnetta g singletary and miss freshman anice n hagler rodney williams is the new sophomore class secretary kourtnye worth is junior class secretary crystal satterfield is junior a&t student writes philosophical book by patrice withers layout and design editor by erica franklin senior writer showers t-storms hi 75°f lo 68°f nion news entertainment after long days spent teach ing and observing schools the partic see south africa page 2 see carnegie page 3 chance t-storms hi 78°f lo 68°f compiled from www.noaa.gov schools they had a rude awakening of how these children came to school eager and very willing to learn aggies serve up a win against norfolk school a&t top carnegie may name saturday friday ■ going their we felt very apprehensive because we were going to south africa to teach the gum dance boot dance alvee kingsberry sen ior electrical engineering major said although the dance originated from south africa many had heard about it but had never actually done the 12 hours a day a great portion of their time was spent on teaching south african teachers the gum boot dance that originated from south africa amazing to the students intimidation when they were told they would be teaching this dance to approximately 20 teachers they felt a little sense of chance t-storms hi 78°f lo 68°f the kids didn't come from a rich background and we didn't know what they had to go through before they came to school akeeya umstead junior business manage ment major said when we arrived at the first school a choir came to perform for us these children opened their mouths and started singing to us american idol could n't even compare to these children it was a breathtaking experience to hear the voices coming from these children the south african children looked up to the a&t students to gain hope from their successes many of the south africans aspire to come to the united states to be given the opportunity to get an edu cation monday sunday chance t-storms hi 76°f lo 63°f on sept 10 it was announced that north carolina a&t state university qualified for the doctoral/research intensive category established by the carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching this category is the second highest classifi cation and consists of areas degrees a year in three schools that grant a mini mum of 10 doctoral after countless hours were put into fundraising and attending workshops to learn about other cul tures eight n.c a&t students from across disciplines took a journey to the western cape of south africa students who participate in theatre the e gwynn dance company and the department of journalism and mass communication boarded a plane on may 9 to attend a six week cultural exchange program the american south meets south africa 2004 a cultural arts exchange project ironically enough the stu dents traveled by plane for about 18 hours from the united states to south africa arriving on the 10th anniversary of apartheid ending the apartheid era emphasized territorial separation racial discrimination and institutionalized laws much like the civil rights movement that was found in the united states four decades ago under this era south africans were then classified into one of the three categories white black decent african or colored of mixed 1-3 5-7 the carnegie foundation was founded by andrew carnegie in 1905 it is an independent the fact that we were americans because we are known as cream of the crop was exciting for them but we weren't only americans we were black americans umstead said we were the same skin tone as many of the children and they looked up to us to uplift them they thought if they can dance then so can we 8-9 10-11 despite what many african americans believe the south africans embraced all of the african-americans and were very willing to work with the a&t stu dents the cultural exchange partici pants also spent a considerable amount of time observing the schools of the south africans teach ers they had taught the students were so excit ed for us to observe their class kingsberry said the students were so willing to share with us during apartheid times students were taught to speak english so they spoke to us in english even the homeless chil dren were able to speak their native language as well as english when the eight a&t stu dents went to the community the focus of this cultural exchange program was for a&t stu dents to learn about the south african performing arts and their cultures students had to brace them selves to be ready to work for about north carolina a&t state university a&t register lime lxxix issue 2 va september 16 2004 www.ncatregister.org inside - american south meets south africa officers