In honor of Black History Month, one student at Tuerlings Catholic High School made an effort to make sure all students could find common ground.
Danielle Williams said one of her first thoughts to bring her school community together was food.
"We realize that food is a great way to bring everyone together, so we reached out to some black-owned businesses and we got them to come, and we have music playing, so everyone can enjoy this as a celebration," said Williams.
The event at Teurlings Catholic High was a celebration of mobile businesses all owned by African-American entrepreneurs.
It was also, perhaps, an eye-opener to ideologies and concepts and bridging the gap for students.
Chef and businesswoman Mel Decuir-Haynes said just being invited was, in her words, "very heart-warming".
"It means we are able to bring a product to a school where we're not usually able to come on the campus and it means all of the young kids are able to see us as entrepreneurs, young black entrepreneurs out here, working hard, and putting out a very good product," said Decuir-Haynes.
The host of this event was Common Ground, a campus organization in its first year of existence.
With 100 members, 9th-thru-12 grade, Common Ground is all about finding both tangible and intangible spaces where everyone can talk and be and realize that, among all of us, there are more similarities than differences.
"Common Ground is about education and communication to find cultural competence, which essentially means being able to navigate yourself in a world where everyone is different than you," said Senior Luke Broussard.
It was out-of-the box and the brainchild of a senior who wanted to say there are role models all around us.
"Black History Month was usually learning about Black historical figures and that was it," said Danielle. "So I wanted to make sure my last year here I would do more and allow the people coming after me to do more. I hope that this tradition continues."
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