Celebrating Black Excellence: Featured panelists share their experiences during Black Excellence and Joy Panel

By Amanda Tague on February 10, 2025

To celebrate the achievements and joy of the Black community during Black History Month, the Stockton University Multicultural Center hosted its second annual Black Joy & Excellence Panel on February 6, 2025, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The event featured Stockton University staff and students on its panel.

The panelists and emcees of the Black Joy and Excellence panel. Photo courtesy of Amanda Tague.

Panelists for the evening included Stockton University’s Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff Dr. Terricita Sass, Unified Black Student Society President Elizabeth Macklin, Stockton Student Senator and MC Prep Team Member Nasir Terry, Stockton University Associate Dean of Students Marques Johnson, Stockton University Professor of Communication Studies and Chair of the Africana Studies program Dr. Donnetrice Allison, and Stockton University Adjunct Professor of Dance Saleana Pettaway.

Topics of the panel included defining excellence, overcoming challenges, what it means to be a part of the Black community, and embracing your identity. Panelists shared personal experiences and words of empowerment for audience members to connect with and feel inspired by. The floor was then opened to audience members at the end of the panel for a Q&A.

Pettaway and Sass smile as they speak on the panel. Photo courtesy of Amanda Tague.

Stockton students, Guivenchiali St. Jean and Timaya McGowan, emceed the panel event, asking questions for the panelists and sharing what they learned from them. St. Jean, a peer educator in the Multicultural Center, and McGowan, a member of the center’s prep team, helped put the panel event together. Planning for the event began in December 2024 as the team worked on selecting panelists, budgeting, scheduling meetings, and piecing together the final product.

“I wanted the audience to feel empowered,” St. Jean stated, “like, [to] be in a room with people who, you know, are either just like them, were just like them […] because they were all students too in college doing exactly what we’re doing now, so I just want people to know there’s success stories that’s around them. The students, the staff the faculty, everyone; we all are surrounded by Black excellence. Sometimes we might not see it and I just wanted to highlight it.”

For more information about Stockton University’s Multicultural Center and other upcoming events, visit the Stockton website..