The color of success
A 20-year tradition of solidarity and support was cause for celebration at UB Law School's Students of Color Dinner, held at the Buffalo Niagara Marriott.
The dinner, with the theme "Lifting as We Climb," is a joint effort of the Law School's Black, Latin American and Asian American Law Students Associations. Those organizations honored the achievements of their members set to graduate in May, as well as recognizing distinguished alumni, minority trailblazers in the legal field, professors and administrators.
Those in attendance were urged to the highest standards of ethics and integrity by the evening's keynote speaker, Buffalo State College President Dr. Muriel Howard.
Howard recently announced she would be leaving Buffalo to become president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. She used that news as a springboard to reflect on her upbringing and the lessons that have served her throughout her life.
Born on a farm in North Carolina, one of six children, Howard moved with her family to New York City as an adolescent. She remembered traveling an hour and a half to attend a brand-new high school in a predominantly white area.
Buffalo State College President
Dr. Muriel Howard
"Those were very, very challenging times for me personally," she said."My economics teacher in ninth grade made me sit in the last seat in the last row, behind all the boys, because he didn't think I should be at that school. Although I experienced a lot of challenges, my parents always kept us focused on the goal, and that is to obtain a good-quality education. My parents firmly believed that education was what would transform their children's lives, and they were absolutely right." Distinguished Alumni Awards were presented to Margaret Wong '76, accepted by her daughter, Allison Chan '11, and to Tasha E. Moore '98. The Trailblazer Award was given to Brenda W. McDuffie, president and CEO of the Buffalo Urban League.
New at this 20th annual Students of Color Dinner was the Monique E. Emdin Award, given in honor of the 2007 UB Law graduate, who died tragically of cancer at age 28.It is funded with an endowment from the Buffalo law firm Hiscock & Barclay LLP, where Emdin worked as a summer associate and briefly as a full-time associate, and by Bethesda World Harvest International Church, where she was a member. The award was presented to graduating third-year student Kerese Foster by Emdin's brother Christopher. The event's traditional candle-lighting ceremony closed the evening.