Black United Body recently reached out to Vanguard for an interview and I chose to be the interviewer, not knowing what exactly I would learn or discover. And while I did learn a LOT, the main feeling I had after the interview was “wow they know how to do things right”. In short, I was inspired. But enough about me. During the interview I conducted, I interviewed three key people from Black United Body (BUB): Mozart Saint Cyr, the Vice President of BUB, Nyleah Febles, the fashion show director for BUB, and Anuar Bessam, the assistant fashion show director for BUB.
First of all: what is BUB?
Black United Body (BUB) is a cultural organization on campus many of you may have heard of. I too had heard of Black United Body before, but I never knew just how impressive and huge their organization was until I interviewed them recently.
In the words of the Vice President of BUB, Mozart, BUB is an organ whose mission is to “Educate, Advocate and Celebrate [black culture on campus]”. Additionally BUB strives to promote retention and academic success for Black and African American Students.
What’s BUB known for?
Black United Body holds an annual fashion show for black models, brands and designers. This fashion show occurs in the arena and is a SUPER popular event, having drawn over more than 1000 people in past years. This year it will be March 25th in the Arena and signups should start early on in March according to Nyleah Fables, the fashion show director.
What makes BUB stand out from other organizations on campus?
Several things stood out to me from my interview with Nyleah (fashion show director), Mozart (Vice President) and Anuar (assistant director) about BUB. Firstly, Black United Body is very organized. They have their own committee for the Fashion show, and an Eboard of over 25 members so that no one member is doing too many things. To make this feasible, Mozart mentioned that he, as Vice President, helped form a link between general Eboard with Tyler, the president, and the fashion show committee so that the two sectors of the group don’t fall out of sync.
Due to this organizational structure being so solid, they are able to host a large number of big events per semester such as the fashion show, the Black Carpet event, the Black to Business event, and many others in addition to weekly meetings! This is remarkable to say the least, particularly when you step back and think about how many people, and how much money it takes to put on a proper large fashion show. I was very impressed with how they were describing their ability to pull all of these appealing and huge events off in such a show timeframe.
At this point in the interview I was curious about hearing more about BUB’s Eboard structure, as surely a 25 person Eboard must be hard to maintain, and their Eboard was also clearly very competent based on the fact that they’re able to run so many huge events. Curious about how they ensure the longevity of their strong Eboard I asked the group, how do freshmen get involved in your org? Do you let them participate in planning any events like the fashion show?
Their answer was fascinating. First they mentioned that they make the freshmen apply to become freshmen liaison, a normal practice. They then mentioned that these freshmen liaisons host their own event each semester, which is a common practice for organizations on campus. What was more unique however was how they talked about how they pick their freshman liaisons, of which there are many. Mozart, Nyleah and Anuar each pitched in stating several things they thought were the most important qualities. Important traits mentioned included “someone who knows how to take initiative [without being asked]”, being a potential “future leader”, and “knowing how to talk to adults”. The qualities of leadership, assertiveness, and charisma being highlighted in these descriptions of the perfect candidate was inspiring.
Personally, I know many organizations on campus that don’t have enough candidates applying so that they can’t be too picky with who they let on Eboard, which made the Eboard election process for BUB shocking for me in a way. Even though they were saying things I knew to be true, I kept thinking to myself: wow they’re really doing this right! Let’s just say, I left the interview thinking to myself: wow no wonder BUB is doing so well as an organization on campus. With impressive organization, and charismatic, intelligent leaders like Mozart, Nyleah and Anuar who definitely know how to talk to adults, Black United Body is sure to be making waves at Bentley for years to come, and in my option it should be a model for how all clubs at Bentley should be organized.
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