17:41 - 03.04.2002
AHANA Leadership Conference
Well, I'm back from the conference. And I can honestly say I had a good time. There were moments that I cried, moments when I was so tempted to call my mom to take me away from it all (even though she probably wouldn't).
The conference was called AHANA, African-American Hispanic Asian and Native American. It's a leadership conference for high school students in Wisconsin, who are "minorities". It lasted from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning. The conference itself, with it's caucuses, workshops, and presentations, took place at the UWM Student Union. We stayed in hotels; girls in one, boys in another.
Most of the presentations and lectures were unbelievably boring. The racial caucus I went to, Multiracial, was pretty good. We talked about how sometimes we feel torn between races. And how everyone feels about being asked that question "What are you?" Also, why people feel the need to ask us that question. It was really nice talking to people who felt the same way I do.
One really good thing that we went to was the Guaranteed 4.0 Plan presented by Donna O. Johnson. She was the best. Not only funny and energetic, but interactive as well. Granted, I went to her presentation, and enjoyed it. But it's more likely than not that I will not be getting a 4.0 this semester.
It wasn't all one big boring class-like experience. There was a banquette dinner, a dance, performances, a talent show, etc...
So, on a scale of one to ten I'd give this year's conference an 8�. Donna O, FACES of America, Black Elephant, and other things really put it over the top. But the food was pretty bad, and the boring presenters brought the score down a tad.
