The United Minorities Council is celebrating the end of its 35th year anniversary.
The gala is meant to celebrate 35 years of the first coalition on campus that aims to promote interculturalism and social justice through civic engagement and community building. The majority of the night will focus heavily on alumni and their experiences with UMC and involvement in fighting for minority rights both past and present, according to College junior and UMC chair Joyce Kim.
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The gala is the final event for UMC’s Unity Month and will start off tonight with an alumni welcome and cocktail hour, followed by various speakers, dinner, student performances and panelists. The gala will end with a “toast to [the] future” and an opportunity to dance in celebration.
“We’re trying to reach back and learn from our alumni,” College junior and UMC Vice Chair Jesus Fuentes said. He explained that the gala is an opportunity to connect with alumni who made significant contributions that resulted in what UMC is today. “We hope that this can begin a solid connection that we can continue.”
Alumni include past UMC chairs 2004 College graduate Darcy Richie and 1997 College graduate Susie Lee, as well as past political chair and 2005 College graduate Rohini Khanna, all of whom took their experiences from UMC into a variety of different fields from education to law. Lee will be one of the panelists discussing social justice in the 21st century, while Khanna and Richie will serve as keynote speakers.
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“It’s important to acknowledge the contributions that they have done for the minority community [through] this organization,” College junior and UMC Programming Chair Breanna Martin said.
The fact that they’re eager to come back is a “testament to how passionately people felt about the impact of this organization in the past,” she added.
By bringing back alumni who were influential to UMC, Fuentes hopes that present and future boards will strive to do the same. “We’re all fighting for the same cause,” he said. “It’s really a night to connect with some special people.”
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The gala will start at 6 p.m. at the Inn at Penn with over 150 attendees, including members of constituent groups and the 5B, Penn’s five main cultural coalitions, as well as alumni and faculty.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to be inspired and to be reinvigorated,” Fuentes said. “It’s really to display what work [alumni] did to set a foundation for us, what we’ve been able to do because of that foundation and where we hope to go and continue working.”
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