Black alumni affinity group prepares for a busy inaugural year

February 12, 2025 — Grinnell College’s first Black alumni affinity group has established several important formal goals. But there’s one informal goal the group’s co-chair Opeyemi “Ope” Awe ’15 would love to see the group building toward.

“I’d like to see every Black student graduating from Grinnell with five phone numbers of Black alumni they’ve been able to establish relationships with and would feel comfortable reaching out to,” she says.

The Grinnell Black Alumni Network, called GBAN for short, is launching this month. Co-Chairs Awe and Noel Green ’94 say the GBAN leadership team are building a strong foundation for something meant to endure. “We’re taking the long view,” Awe says. “What will things be like three, five, or 10 years from now? We want to build something that will outlive us.”

GBAN is the third new alumni affinity group launched in the past two years, joining the Grinnell Rainbow Alumni and Conexiones. The affinity groups each have deep ties to the College’s Multicultural Reunion events, and GBAN is no exception. Awe says stepping into the co-chair role with GBAN is a natural outgrowth of co-chairing the 2021 Multicultural Reunion with Robert Quashie ’86.

Green, who worked as a student teacher in Chicago as part of the College’s Urban Education program and has gone on to be a lifelong educator, observed that this is a critically important moment to be launching an effort like this.

“We are interested in making sure that Grinnell is a place that supports everyone and particularly people who have been historically marginalized,” he says. Alumni have power, he continued, and it’s important for alumni to wield that “influence to shape the campus and reinforce an expectation that there should be a positive experience for students of color.”

The GBAN co-chairs also recognize that some alumni may have some hesitancy getting involved, and they want to reassure people that this is understandable. “People have very different experiences at Grinnell,” Green says, and their outreach and engagement efforts are going to be reflective of that. “We would like people to know that they are welcome, and we hope they consider giving GBAN a shot.”

Awe hopes that alumni “engaging with the network and one another” may provide the space for “trying to heal the emotional experience a lot of Black Grinnellians had.”

GBAN leaders wanted to be intentional about their approach to co-creating the group and seeking feedback and involvement from alums across time. To that end, GBAN embarked on a three-session road show (which was conducted virtually on Zoom) last fall to have a discussion with Black alumni about the affinity group, solicit their feedback, and identify opportunities for them to get engaged. A total of 25 alums attended the three sessions, ranging in class years from 1974 to 2020.

“The road shows gave us a valuable opportunity to hear directly from alumni and understand the full range of emotions that shape Black Grinnellians’ experiences – both as students and alumni,” Awe says. “One alum shared that this call was their first time engaging with the College in over 40 years. The road show was essential to acknowledge that while experiences vary, there is a shared hope for the College to fulfill its potential and promises.”

The highlight of GBAN’s inaugural year will be the first Black Alumni Weekend since 2014. The weekend long event will be held on campus this fall with the dates set to be finalized soon. Awe, who recalled attending the last reunion when she was still a student, was struck by the experience of “meeting Black alums, seeing the diverse careers paths they’d taken, and why they’d chosen to remain engaged with the College.”

As GBAN’s outreach efforts get underway, there will be regular Zoom calls, the launch of a GBAN WhatsApp group as well as email and social media outreach. There will also be opportunities for alumni social outings and events. Awe said that the GBAN committee will be conducting one-on-one engagement with calls and texts soon. “If we call or text you, please don’t hang up on us, we’re not telemarketers,” she says.

Another major component of GBAN’s work is going to be connecting alumni with students in more meaningful ways. GBAN is planning to meet with the Black Student Union regularly and to sponsor study breaks during midterms and finals week this spring and fall.

Grinnell’s newest alumni affinity group, the Grinnell Black Alumni Network, will connect alums with students in meaningful ways.

There’s also an effort underway to get a substantial number of Black alumni participating in the College’s efforts to create more opportunities for student-alumni connections like Virtual Meetups, which give students the opportunity to learn more about the lives and careers of impact Black alumni have pursued. In addition to Awe and Green, Jeffrey Fields ’90 will be focusing on alumni engagement while Kari Bassett ’98, Langston Thomas ’20, and Aziza Mabrey-Wakefield ’25 will be focused on engaging current students.

Awe, who recently graduated from Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, has also been thinking back on graduating from Grinnell 10 years ago. A Posse Scholar, she served as Student Government Association president and had the opportunity to regularly connect with Black alumni like Trustees Angela Onwuachi-Willig ’94 and George Moose ’66, Alumni Council member Ed Atkins ’66, and Quashie, not to mention classmates like Jacqueline Brooks ’15. She says that was a real comfort, and she wants that for every graduating student.

The impact of those meaningful relationships is also present in GBAN’s recognition that over the years, many Black alumni have forged the path that GBAN now hopes to build from. “I want to pay homage to the efforts that many people have made to engage with alumni over the years,” Green says. “The name of this organization is new, but many individuals have made contributions and efforts in the past and we can’t overlook that.”

That fits with the overall of “re-establishing trust and trying to meet people where they are even as we recognize and appreciate the unique experience that people have,” Awe says. Still, she’ll be the first to acknowledge that these efforts take time and are “not going to be perfect, but we’re doing our best, and we hope you give us a chance.”

—by Joe Engleman ’14

For your information:

Alums interested in getting involved with Grinnell Black Alumni Network activities and events during its inaugural year can contact Sarah Smith-Benanti, associate director of alumni and donor relations, diverse communities, at smithben@grinnell.edu or 641-269-9888.

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