BSR & C5 Rolling In Hot! 🛼

Catherine Omeh assisting a student

Two things I love most are roller skating and giving back. So, when the opportunity arose from BSR's community service chair, Kabien Thompson, to engage with some of Atlanta’s youth WHILE on skates, my decision to attend was an easy one.

Black Students Roll, commonly known as BSR, is a registered student organization (RSO) within the Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC). What sets BSR apart from many other great clubs in the AUCC is that it’s more than just an “organization.” It’s an enterprise rooted in giving back to the lives that came before and after us. Many of our initiatives are driven by our amazing community service chair, Kabien Thompson. Almost every month, Kabien organizes a new event for our members, ranging from clothing drives for the unhoused to campus-wide clean-up days. I can confidently speak for the entire BSR E-board when I say that none of this would be possible without his relentless commitment to BSR, its community, and the world.

Our April event was a collaboration with C5 Georgia.

C5 Georgia Logo

C5's mission is “to change the odds for high-potential teens from under-resourced communities by inspiring them to pursue personal success while preparing them for leadership roles in college, work, and their communities.” This leadership program helps students develop five signature traits: character-driven, community-focused, challenge-ready, committed to a better future, and college-bound.

BSR e-board panelist (all e-board not pictured)

We kicked off the event with a panel discussion featuring the AUC’s and BSR’s E-board members: Catherine Omeh, Kabien Thompson, My’ah White Drew Covington and, Malone Hemsley [pictured respectively]. While the participants of the panelists were random, it turned out to be perfect as we represented a diverse array of college students.

During the panel discussion, we focused on the top three questions submitted from C5's “college-bound” students:

1. How do you balance social events with your course load, especially during stressful exam periods?

2. "One of the biggest concerns for incoming students is making friends and getting involved.” What were some of the best ways you made friends and found clubs or activities?

3. What's the biggest difference between the workload in high school versus college, and how do you manage it?

After graduation, I plan to draft an article about the things I wish I knew before entering college. To be most effective, I internalized and took note of these questions. I aim to address specific questions and concerns that college-bound students have, rather than offering blanket advice they may not care about.

Further in our conversation we opened the floor to any last-minute questions from the students. After the conclusion of the panel and a quick stretch, we all laced up our skates to begin our lesson.

Considering many of the students were beginner skaters, and for some, it was their first time, I knew the lesson should simply focus on skating forward and backward. While many can sustain forward motion, they might not know some key fundamentals to elevate their skating skills.

These skills, what I call The KEY 🔑 to skating, include:

1. Keep your knees bent: Straight legs while skating are a recipe for disaster. Imagine a pogo stick without its spring—it would be hard and painful, right?. Your knees act as that spring, providing improved stability and control.

2. Eyes up: Your body follows where your eyes look, making you more likely to fall if you're looking down. (This is something I still struggle with!)

3. You're a penguin: I often see people trying to skate as if they were walking or running. Instead, move like a penguin. Penguins shift their weight from side to side, which is what propels you while skating.

   
   

While the KEY to skating was specifically formulated for beginners learning to move forward, these skills are applicable to many different aspects, including skating backward. There are numerous elements to becoming a proficient skater, so many that a book couldn’t encompass them all. However, I argur that mastering the KEY of skating will set you on the path to becoming a great roller skater.

Let's continue.

The students quickly picked up skating forward and backward, so we moved on to free skate time and later concluding our afternoon with pizza meal.

This was my first time being part of something like this, but I hope it’s not the last. I constantly preach that as we progress and grow older, we have a responsibility to give back to the generations that follow, especially if they look like us. No one should be forced to make the same mistakes or face the same challenges if they could’ve been prepared and advised beforehand. This isn’t to say everyone needs to make grand gestures like starting nonprofits for kids or becoming a middle school teacher. Rather, when opportunities to give back come your way, as this event did with C5, take a moment to consider your choice. I know I will.

Plese feel free to browse some of the photos from the event below:

Panelist Malone Hemsley

All Panelists

Panelist Ma'yh White

College bound students stretching

Kabien Thompson

College bound student putting on skates

College Bound student streching [alternate view]

Ma'yh leading stretching

College bound students

BSR's e-board (all e-board not pictured)

Drew Covington & Malone Hemsley skating

Catherine Omeh assisting a colege bound student

Kabien Thompson skating