Gamma Beta Phi event promotes GCSU diversity

What started as a party for the honor society, Gamma Beta Phi turned into a celebration of diversity, an important focus at GCSU.

The event occurred Oct. 3 and involved food, mingling, games and dancing. This is exactly what Dr. Cynthia Cano, the advisor of the club, wanted. Cano is a marketing professor who also works on the diversity work group of the Initiative to Examine Student Retention, so she understands just how many minority and international students GCSU has.

“I feel it’s important to have this event so that students can learn about different cultures,” Cano said.

Senior math major Hilary Rogers is president of Gamma Beta Phi. She and the rest of the club’s executive board played a huge part in planning the event. They also invited the Swing Dance Club out to give dancing lessons.

“We wanted to get our members and these additional invitees together and enjoy a fun filled afternoon getting to know each other and spreading the word about our honor society,” Rogers said.

People gathered at the West Campus pavilion to chat and mingle, just like Rogers hoped. There were many members of the honor society there, including senior exercise science major Amber Hoge, who brought along a friend to the festivities.

Hoge took part in the swing dancing lessons that were provided, and according to her it was her first time swing dancing.

The connection between the Swing Dance Club and the honor society was great because Cano is the sponsor of both clubs. The president of Swing Dance Club, senior mass communication major Desiree Maynard, is a member of Gamma Beta Phi.

Maynard was very excited about bringing two of her clubs together for the event.

“Diversity is very important. We try to incorporate moves from other cultures in our dances as well,” Maynard said.

Diversity is important to another member of Gamma Beta Phi as well. Junior Spanish major Tenay Carty is also president of the Black Student Alliance. She invited her fellow BSA members out to the event.

Gamma Beta Phi has a diverse group of members and is an honor society based on service. This was their first social event of the year to get to know other people as well as fellow members.

Posted by Danielle Paluga on Oct 8 2010. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.