2021 grad reflects on strongest aspects of his time at CF

Jamari Kline graduated from Cedar Falls High School in 2021 and was greatly involved with the start up of the Black Student Union. Kline said that schooling systems are “designed to work against you, but I also learned how to play the system and make it my own.” 

Kline said that the Black Student Union started small and grew exponentially as time went on. “We made sure to be present anytime a BSU member or a minority got in trouble.”

Many current students believe that BSU was created for and only for black students, but Kline said that in the start-up, “We chose to be inclusive. All we wanted was for students from all cultures and races to join our Union.” 

When it comes to talking about how BSU affected the school and Cedar Falls/Waterloo as a whole, the Union did many team-building activities to raise morale and awareness to certain topics.

Since he graduated a couple years back, Kline has had to transition onto living on his own and started to gain more and more responsibilities. “If I could tell students one thing, I’d say that everyone needs to research the problems in their country and city. There’s a lot hidden in the world that gets put on the backburner, and I think people should understand these things,” Kline said.

“And if you’re a senior, I recommend joining CAPS or some type of business classes. It’ll probably be difficult and a new setting, but it’s definitely worth it. The payoff of the knowledge is crazy,” Kline said. “Don’t forget about job shadows as well. Businesses love when you get out of high school with a variety of experiences and skills.”

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