Martin Luther King, Jr. Award

Celebrations:  Hindu (upper left), Jewish (center top), Muslim (bottom left),
Christian (center bottom), Fayon Pellew (right photo).

GAM’s Cultural Celebration

It was during the summer of 2009 that Professor Gregorek first came to me with the idea about the cultural celebration. I liked the idea as soon as I heard about it.  It was to be an event highlighting four religions:  Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. There is a lot of information to be said about those four religions so I thought of four common themes that they all share but practice differently.  They were births, maturation, weddings, and deaths.  We also decided upon presenting the holy books and the major holidays of each religion. The presenters were students who wanted to share their religion.  We also incorporated presentations from students about the influence of each religion on the United States.  In addition to presentations from students there were also professionals invited who gave presentations on doing business internationally with different cultures and on using etiquette when interacting with those cultures.  In order to make the cultures that students spoke about more palpable we also added music, food, and clothing of each religion.  It was a great way for students to get to know each other effortlessly because they were talking about something that is so much a part of themselves and their identities.  --Fayon Pellew (B.S., Business Administration, 2010)

[Editorial Note:  GAM's Commander Fayon Pellew was nominated for and received the Martin Luther King Jr. Award.  Apropos to note on his national day of observance.  You can read more about GAM’s Cultural Celebration online.]