From childhood, Zola Mashariki '94 has taken an active stance in community affairs one of her first memories of childhood is picketing with her father.
Mashariki, the recently elected president of the Afro-American Society, said that memory helped her decide to use the AAm presidency as a bully pulpit to promote the enrichment of Dartmouth's black community through academic and cultural education.
"The AAm has to focus on getting everybody involved, not just at parties, but at cultural and academic events as well," she said.
Working with the AAm's executive committee, Mashariki has already organized the entire year's agenda. She said she hopes the programs will draw all sorts of students at the College to AAm activities.
After a particularly divisive year within the AAm that Mashariki described as filled with "apathy, controversy and disillusionment," a main goal is to pull upperclassmen and freshmen back into the organization.
"Last year, many people felt that the AAm was not their organization or where they could go. Many of our issues weren't geared to the whole black community," Mashariki said. "The AAm dealt with specific issues that may have excluded a lot of people."
Another focus this year will be the Academic Peer Advisory Council, created in the fall of 1990, which provides academic support and counseling for incoming classes. And a new program called Black Alumni at Dartmouth will link students with alumni who agree to serve as role models.
The AAm also plans to host cultural celebrations during Black History Month in February and Kwanzaa, which is a cultural holiday during the harvest season that focuses on family and community.
A new program created during the summer, the Inter-Ivy Conference, will bring black students from different Ivy league schools to gather for a weekend to share their college experiences.
Mashariki said she strongly believes that a black person will always be a reflection on the black community as would anyone of any other race. Therefore, it is important that everybody feels they belong to the community, she said.
Some members of the AAm are guardedly optimistic about Mashariki's term.
"She'll be a good manager of the system and will run things smoothly. However, no one person can make a great change in the structure for the better, certainly not in an elected office," said Amiri Barksdale '96, an AAm member. Barksdale resigned as AAm president-elect in the spring.
"In dealing with the community, everything is great but when a leader takes a role, a leader follows her own actions while working with the general community," said AAm member Julian O'Connor '96.
"So, in the end, things eventually remain the same," O'Connor added. "But what we can do is look forward to special events that are coming up and see what she organizes."
Aside from her responsibilities as president of the AAm, Mashariki is also the president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She works with the Black Underground Theater and Arts Association and the Ujima dance troupe.
Last year, Mashariki received the College's Martin Luther King Jr. Award for excellence in leadership in the black community.
