(upbeat music begins) - The Utah Black Student Union Alliance connects Black Student Unions statewide, empowering students through leadership, cultural engagement, and academic pathways.

Co-directors Michael Adams and Gilles-Henri Michel Jr.

are here with us with more, and hopefully I said your name correct.

I practiced it before.

Thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you for inviting us.

- Thank you for having us.

- If you could start, how did you come up with this idea?

- Well, we started in October of 2022, we were both working for a school district where we were in a high school together, and we're just having conversations about our students.

And that's when we were looking to, how do we unify our BSUs in the state?

How do we help 'em engage in collaboration, in having the consistent mentorship, consistent access to resources.

And that's where the Alliance was born.

- What made you see this as something that was necessary?

- Well, it became very, very clear to us that, myself, having grown up here, Mr.

Michel having been in a city where there were a lot of opportunities, a lot of spaces that were provided for Black students, we talked about what was lacking here and what was missing from my experience, and what he could share with his experience.

So it was important for us to recognize the different high schools that had BSUs, currently we have 24 high schools across six school districts, excuse me, including three independent schools.

So actually one of them works along with the University of Utah, AIMS.

And so it's extremely important to understand that our students, as wonderful as they are, need access to spaces that cultivate and nurture their brilliance and their desire to learn and to succeed.

- And when I met you guys, you were telling me that you've even taken them to trips to DC to see leaders, and to see all kinds of things all over the place.

Did you have a similar experience when you were students?

- Well, grew up, like he said, I didn't grow up in Utah, I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and there's opportunities in Brooklyn, New York that exposed high school students to many activities, and that's what we thought needed here in Utah.

- All right, well thank you so much.

If you would like to learn more about this organization, the information is on your screen.

It's the Utah Black Student Union Alliance.

All you have to do is head to instagram.com/utahbsualliance and you can get all the information about the events and how you can join.

I'm Liz Adeola and thank you for watching "Contact."

(upbeat music continues) Philanthropy, Arts, culture.

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Hi, I'm Liz Adeola, the host of Contact, a show that connects you with local events and organizations that serve your community.

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