Homecoming is a weeklong celebration at Albany State

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ALBANY – Festivities for Albany State University’s homecoming week were alive with the blue and gold spirit throughout the week, leading up to the weekend’s highly anticipated parade and football game.

Students, staff, faculty and alumni got to enjoy pep rallies, cooking competitions, R&B-themed bingo and two groundbreaking ceremonies for brand new facilities on ASU’s east campus. The university’s annual homecoming attracts alumni from all over who return to ASU and celebrate the festivities alongside current Golden Rams. This year’s theme is “Not Like the Rest: We Are ASU,” a celebration of diversity, unity, inclusivity and pride.

Traymone Rucker, ASU’s 21-year-old class president, and the Student Government Association group comprises the “men behind the curtain” who facilitate the fun, celebratory environment for the ASU community to enjoy.

“Our main goal here is to cultivate the experience for our students through leadership, advocacy and service,” Rucker said. “And so with that, a lot of times, we find ourselves representing the student body at various events throughout the week just to ensure student representation is there.”

SGA is present for most of the events, including the kick-off pep rally hosted at the beginning of the week and closing the week with Friday’s Homecoming Convocation, which Rucker said is a sacred ceremony for the ASU family to come together and commemorate its traditions and history.

Rucker’s Homecoming week looks a bit different from the typical student’s. He spends the week running between meetings, luncheons and networking events. He spent Wednesday, attending one of the groundbreaking ceremonies, leading a panel discussion and then introducing a celebrity guest at a school Top Chef competition. All within a three-hour period.

“I encourage students to go out and have a good time, while I’m here handling business,” he said. “But it’s good business. It’s my fun. I receive a lot of joy seeing the great things that are happening here at our university.”

Rucker said he’s happy to give back to the university that changed his life. He said as a young middle and high school student, he struggled with behavioral challenges resulting in more than 100 suspensions. Rucker said when he turned 16, he turned to religion and was able to pull himself together and build toward his future at ASU.

“I had left my old ways behind me,” he said. “This would be my fresh start.”

Rucker joined SGA during his freshman year. He took some time off during his sophomore year to seek counseling and do some “in-depth soul searching.” He came out on the other side as a strong student and leader.

“I tell people all the time that education is my assignment in life,” he said. “It’s my due diligence to pour back into the place that once restored me.”

When he’s not running around, acting as the face of the student body, Rucker said his favorite way to celebrate homecoming is tailgating on game day. He said he loves to connect with and learn from the alumni who return for the festivities.

Here are some of the other ways ASU celebrated this week:

Two groundbreaking ceremonies in one morning: A testament to the university’s commitment to growth, ASU leaders held separate ceremonies to break ground on two new facilities coming to ASU’s east campus.

The first celebrated the groundbreaking for the Dr. Portia Holmes-Shields Early Learning Center, named in honor of the seventh and first female ASU president. The center will allow for 80 pre-kindergarten students, twice as many as ASU’s current early learning center, as well as provide a space for ASU students to get hands-on experience. It will be a 10,000-square-foot building with projected costs at $3.2 million.

The Early Learning Center facility will provide safe and affordable child care for the campus and community. Education majors will complete student-teaching activities in the on-campus environment, physical therapist assistant and occupational therapy assistant students will interact with the pediatric population in a real-world environment, and health and human performance students will provide education in coronavirus prevention related to comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Lawrence Drake, ASU’s interim president, said new technology in the institution will use technology, including AI and Virtual Reality – something the old center did not have the capacity for.

“The earlier that you can engage someone’s mind that is still in development … we want to begin to help cultivate that, because we know that the mental health and mental condition of people when they get older, we see the remnants of what maybe didn’t happen when they were younger, or the journey of that learning along the way,” Drake said during the groundbreaking.

Jason Armstrong, ASU’s interim associate provost of academic affairs, said the project will transform lives and shape the future of the community. He talked about the importance of early childhood education on social outcomes, noting that more than half of inmates in the U.S. can’t read above a fourth-grade level, according to the DOJ.

“It creates an enriched collegiate environment that empowers our students to persist and achieve their goals,” he said. “But more importantly, for the children who will learn here, it’s a chance to build a strong foundation in literacy and learning … that research has shown can change the trajectory of their lives.”

The second groundbreaking ceremony was for ASU’s new 64-bed residence hall. The $8.8 million, 30,682-gross-square-foot student residential facility will house junior and senior students in the honors program. The proposed site location is on the East Campus near Residence Hall 6.

“As we stand on this site, we envision a future where students will engage in meaningful discussion, build lifelong friendships and make memories that will last a lifetime,” ASU’s Vice President of Student Affairs Terry Lindsay said.” The residence hall will also serve, not just as a building, as someone said earlier, but it will be a home where students can thrive academically and socially.”

Drake said the university is on a growth trajectory and is slowly working to increase its residence hall capacity to meet that growth.

Top Chef Cooking Competition hosted by Terrence J: At lunch time on “Wassup Wednesday,” Terrence J, an actor and television presenter, hosted a Top Chef cook-off competition.

Six groups of two participants were lined up in a row of tables with cooking supplies and stove-top burners behind them. They were given basic ingredients to work with, along with a secret one: the bumpy, green jackfruit, which is the largest tree fruit. The chefs rushed back and forth, whipping up hibachi pineapple rice, curry stew and “rasta pasta.” The smells of onion wafted in the air, while friends and family looked on.

Unique Pierce, who previously won ASU’s student Iron Chef competition, returned to be a judge for the competition.

Before the chefs began, Terrence J, held a panel discussion with SGA members about eating healthy while in college. His visit was sponsored by Aladdin Campus Dining. J is helping college dining facilities adopt healthier meal plans.

“It begins with the knowledge and knowing that everything that we put into our body, everything that we consume, has an outcome,” he said. “When you really think about the fact that our body is our temple, and everything that we put inside has a direct effect on our health — how we feel and how much energy we have — you start to really make the conscious decision that you want to eat better.”

The second step is having healthy options provided for students, J said.

Student Business Showcase and Panel: On Thursday, entrepreneurs who are part of the ASU “Ramily” got to showcase their small businesses at an event in the CW Grant Student Union. Sweet treats, plants, trendy clothing and “spicy bowls” were dispersed among different booths as students gathered around to shop the merchandise. A small group of ASU entrepreneurs listened in on a panel discussion of successful alumni who started their own businesses.

Jameal Jones, an ASU alumni from the class of 2014, returned to ASU to celebrate homecoming.

“It feels amazing to be back,” she said. “It feels like coming home.”

She was invited to showcase her business, “Seasoned by Mea,” which she started in 2019. She said she was happy to have the opportunity to hopefully inspire other young entrepreneurs. Jones makes her own spices and hot sauces out of all-natural ingredients, meaning there are no enhancers, additives or MSG. She lists all her ingredients right on the packaging.

Jones started this business after a family member struggled to find spice options because of an allergy. She said she wishes she had taken the leap and started her business while still in college.

She said this is her first time back at ASU in a few years, and she is happy to see old friends.

For a closer look at another ASU homecoming event, see Page 2A.

Special Photo: Reginald Christian