CSO Ecourages Students to Rep Their Flags

CSO Ecourages Students to Rep Their Flags

By Elias Taveras

Students were coming in to Classroom building 112, as Briand Taylor, a theatre major and public relations chair of the Caribbean Student Organization from Buffalo, set up the Caribbean music.

Students making the Panamenian flag on a cookie.

"Any suggestion," Taylor said to the students so that they could have picked favorite songs.

The event called ‘Rep Your Flag,’ was hosted today at 6 pm. It encouraged student from Caribbean backgrounds as well as of any other to learn about meanings of Caribbean flags.

Even though, Taylor is not of Caribbean decent being part of CSO and learning about flags got her interested on the cultures.

“The dance team was what made me join CSO,” said Taylor. “I am American, however their cultures and their dance movements are very ethnic and close to my culture.”

The Caribbean Student Organization created an event aimed to raise awareness of the Caribbean cultures and nations through their flags.

Taylor, later said that reping your flag is importance because it shows people that are not of this country that they are not alone. It also helps people who are not Caribbean to become more familiar with that culture.

Student came in to learn about the cultures of the Caribbean. After, a PowerPoint presentation on Caribbean flags and a “Guest What Flag It Is,” contest, student had the opportunity to decorate cookies.

The cookie was decorated with the color of a flag of the student's choice. They use color bather to decorate the cookies. Students were broken into teams. The team with the best cookies received “caribbucks.”

Students taking photographs of their finished creations.

‘Caribucks,’ are fake money created and provided by CSO thought  the semester to students part of the organization. At the end of the semester the student with the most caribucks will get to meet backstage with the artist brought for their upcoming caribash event.

Ashley Louimarre, a junior exceptional education major and treasure of CSO of Haitian heritage from Long Island, said that to her it is important to show her flag and her culture.

“It is very important to keep the Caribbean cultures alive on campus alive,” said Louimarre. “Many of the students of Buffalo State College are of Caribbean decent and some are not aware of it.”

The event was not only aimed to bring awareness of the flags but also to keep all Caribbean culture together.

“It is definitely important to keep the nations together and that is the basic of our week called divided by water united by culture,” said Taylor.

The event was a moderate success judging by the 21 students who attended. Out of the 21 six of them were males. It also provided students with ways that they can help out with social and economic problems on the Caribbean.

Tiffany Chang, an undeclared freshmen of Jamaican and Chinese decent from Brooklyn, said that the programs provided by CSO helped bring all the different Caribbean cultures united on campus.

“To have pride in your flag and where your from and to be happy with where you are from,” said Chang. “I am a proud Jamaican, Jamaica is the best island in the world and I want others to feel the same way I do.”