In celebration of Black History Month, the MSC Carter G. Woodson Black Awareness Committee hosted the BHM Thinkfast Gameshow in the Bethancourt Ballroom.
The WBAC sponsored event took place Sunday, Feb. 16 from 7-9 p.m. Through the game show, the organization promoted the knowledge and recognition of black Americans in modern society while three teams competed for a cash prize of $200.
Psychology senior and senior chair of WBAC Kayla Hood said the competition is a valuable addition to Black History Month events because it incorporates an entertaining aspect to their mission.
“WBAC is an educational organization, and we strive to bring as much education and awareness about black history to campus,” Hood said. “But of course, we want to keep things fun at the same time. Instead of always having a program where we bring in a speaker, we also make it interactive for everybody.”
The organization collaborated with Thinkfast Interactive, a program that aims to achieve multicultural awareness and to educate audiences in the form of informative trivia questions. Matthew Francis Jr., political science sophomore and WBAC membership development director, has been coordinating the event with them since last semester to ensure that it would be ready by February.
“Yes, Black History Month is about black history, but black history is every day of the year,” Francis said. “It’s so much that happened during these time periods that now I have the chance to show people everything that happened in a year on this one day.”
The three competing teams and university organizations consisted of the Black Student Alliance Council, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and MSC Hospitality. Audience members were also given the opportunity to sit in their own groups and compete. Representing the NAACP, business senior Toriah Taylor participated in Sunday’s game show.
“It’s nice seeing all the organizations come together to participate in one event,” Taylor said. “It’s important to know our black history, and a game show to force people to actually study these questions is a good way so that when it comes up later, we know it.”
The game show quizzed participants about various accomplishments of important black figures. To add a personalized element, the organization also tailored questions about the works of black students at Texas A&M.
“This is a fun chance to learn more about our school and black individuals in Texas, the country, and around the world,” Francis said. “This event is taking black history, things that you hear in a classroom a lot of the times that get drowned out, and turning this classroom setting into something fun.”
In between rounds, when members were not answering questions, they participated in mini competitions, including a dancing, singing and rapping battle to keep the crowd energized. Biology junior Melina Niño was one of the contestants.
“It was fun with the different types of activities that were meant for a lot of people,” Niño said. “When I first signed up, I thought I just had to memorize a bunch of things, but the competitions made it more entertaining.”
At the end of the game show, the Black Student Alliance Council had accumulated the most points from correctly answering questions during the championship round, earning the cash prize of $200.
“A prize like that goes a long way,” Francis said. “It may not seem like a lot, but for an organization, that $200 is probably the entire budget for food.”
Francis said he is proud of what was accomplished in the game show.
“This is something that I can do to raise awareness,” Francis said. “It means a lot to me to be able to show more people about my people and also allow them to understand that black people have really done a lot of important work.”
While the event offered the opportunity for friendly competition, Hood said the information featured in Sunday’s game show was more than trivial as it remains relevant today.
“I hope [people] recognize how many contributions that black people have made to our society, not even just America but to the world in general,” Hood said. “The historical events that happened in the past are still correlating with what we see today.”