After Daniel Ciciarelli’s first Umoja meeting, he was hooked.
A football teammate had invited him to the after-school club at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. At the meeting, Cicarelli recalled, club members talked about their struggles as minorities, about their different cultures and backgrounds.
“I was just hooked from then on,” said Ciciarelli, a senior at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
Now Ciciarelli is one of the two presidents of Umoja, a multicultural club at the school. Some are black. Some are Asian. Some are Muslim. Some are Jewish. Some are white.
The word “umoja” is Swahili for unity, which is what the group promotes. And they celebrate their unity with a dinner every year.
David Reed, social studies teacher and faculty adviser to Umoja, has been working with the group for 10 years. Originally, he said, Umoja was meant to give black students a place to freely discuss the issues they faced as minorities. Two years ago, Umoja transformed itself into a multicultural club.
“The students, especially the black kids, get irritated when people say, ‘I thought Umoja was a black club,’” said Reed.
The yearly dinner, for example, used to be called “Black History Month” dinner. It is Umoja’s biggest event of the year. This year, Reed said, the students insisted that it be called Umoja’s “Celebrate Our Diversity” dinner.
The first Umoja dinner, Reed said, drew fewer than 30 people. This year, he and the students expect about 150. Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler will be this year’s guest speaker.
The Umoja dinner invites students, teachers, parents, and community members to share in what the members of Umoja learn each week. The event focuses on spreading cultural awareness. The students perform step routines. They recite bilingual poetry. And they put on a fashion show.
Another tradition is the skit “Did you know?” The students act out a scene that educates the audience on historic events for minority communities. Senior Quron White wrote this year’s script. He was inspired, he said, by the movie “Barbershop” so he used that familiar setting and casual conversation to get his points across.
“It starts out with old people talking,” said White. A group of kids walk in. They don’t think they need the older people’s help, said White. The older generation, he said, “fills them in with history they didn’t know.”
At their regular meetings, Umoja’s students run their programs. Sometimes they watch videos to spark conversations. They discuss current events. And they participate in “sit downs” or “open floors” — informal sharing of personal stories and concerns about minority issues.
For Umoja co-president Daniel Ciciarelli, the sharing of those stories attracted him to the club. “I get to learn more about other people’s cultures,” said Ciciarelli. “That’s my favorite part.”
(Alexandra Spychalsky is a senior with dual majors in magazine journalism and Spanish language, literature & culture.)
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