– I was new to Texas State. I was trying to find my tribe, find my community as an African American student. I didn’t really grow up hearing much about Greek life or like The Divine Nine. I didn’t know about Hump Day. I just so happened to stumble upon it.
I was at the library studying, and I just heard like music, and I just see all these people. And I was like, “I’m gonna go check it out.” – My first year on campus, it definitely was like a eye-opening experience, but the first one I actually went to,
Was my first one of participating in and you know you get to go perform and show out and have like all the eyes on you and show them your ways and your values and things like that, while also having fun. I feel like it’s a great opportunity.
– So Hump Day at Texas State a tradition that historically Black fraternities and sororities, the Divine Nine partake in where we stroll do like our roll call songs and it kind of like highlights that fraternity or sorority in that moment. – Hump Day is an opportunity for the school to just come out
And get an idea of what like the NPHC culture is ’cause that’s probably the only time where like a large portion of our chapters are all there at one time. So just knowing like, you know you’re guaranteed to get a good crowd all the fraternities and sororities will be there
And just being able to socialize with each other and hang out, meet new people meet new orgs, meet new staff and faculty. – Just seeing the different organizations express themselves through their strolls or through their hops marches. It’s a great way for us to like come together
As a community, but it’s just a snippet of what we do because behind the scenes we put in a lot of work we do a lot of philanthropy, we do a lot of volunteering try to uplift the community, be role models to the youth and other people who look up to us.
And so Hump Day is kind of a one of those events where it’s kind of like, ah, like this is where we can like relax have fun, kick back, but also it’s like we’re in unison. – It’s a great energy, great atmosphere. Everybody’s just, like I said, having a good time.
Smiling, dancing, I mean whether it be strolling or like a line dash, you know just show things you’ve been working on to each other and just go back and forth and see who’s gonna get the crowd going the most and just have a little fun competition. – Sometimes we have the other councils as well who participate as well as the other councils we invite out just to like come and see what we’re about. So it’s like not only a opportunity to get others involved but to, to show them new things that they probably never would’ve thought of.
– I think it is a great way to like show inclusiveness at Texas State because it is a historically Black tradition that Black Greek letter organizations have done and it’s a way to show our presence on campus who we are, what we’re about.
So this is like one of the spaces where, you know we feel like we can make our voices heard or at presence of seeing that knowledge strolling, stepping, marching, hopping. It all encompasses part of what we do as Divine Nine as part of our history.
A snippet of what makes us, who we are how we represent ourselves. Of course, that legacy, that tradition continues on. – It’s a fun thing to be a part of. Just like knowing you’re doing some of the same routines that like people five, six years ago are doing
And something that y’all can partake in together and just like share that bond with each other. Hopefully pass it down to other individuals in the future. They do the same and feel the same about it. – Like I said, it’s like an experience that we all have
In common that we can all share. It allows us to like network and really relate and have like a close connection with people who came before us. They would teach us new strolls like, Hey, when I was in undergrad or when, you know, when I was in your shoes
These were some of the strolls that we did. And I was like, oh, that’s so cool. And you know, it’s just like one of those interaction pieces. It’s like that shared camaraderie that we can all relate to. – The first thing I’ll tell people is just not to limit themselves. Broaden your horizons
And try new things out and just come out. Have a great time. – It’s very fun. The music has popped in. It’s the best. I look forward to it, so.
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