Some 200 students, faculty, and friends gathered at the Robsham Theater May 6 for the final event in a yearlong celebration of the acronym AHANA (African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American), which was coined during the 1979-80 academic year by two Boston College undergraduates and remains part of the campus vocabulary. The evening began with remarks by University President William P. Leahy, SJ, followed by musical performances and an account by Valerie Lewis-Mosley ’79 of how and why she and Alfred Feliciano ’81 created the acronym as a replacement for the term “minority.” In addition, three undergraduates presented brief essays in the final round of an oratorical contest on the subject of cultural identity.
Pictured on the Robsham terrace beforehand are (from left) Alicia Martinez ’12, whose talk on coming to the United States would be the contest winner; Micaela Mabida ’11, cochair of the evening’s events (and newly elected president of Undergraduate Government of Boston College); Susan Choy ’11, cochair; Matt Dunn ’11, head of the contest committee; and the second and third place finishers Rayana Grace ’13 and Jamila Jones ’11.