Alpha Chi believes that those who use their scholarship to learn the truth can better serve the community as leaders. We work to support, develop, facilitate, encourage, and celebrate our future leaders! We believe that those who use their scholarship to learn in their respective disciplines are best prepared to serve the community as leaders. Because these things are true, please join us for the 2024 Alpha Chi National Convention, Apr. 4-6, next spring in Birmingham, Alabama.
Convention City History
Birmingham, Alabama, known as The Magic City, has a history and a present that speak to truth and leadership in the area of social justice. As a municipality, it faced the tension between those who were unwilling to move beyond Jim Crow laws and those who courageously fought for justice and reform. Much of today’s public rhetoric is similar to the public dialogue in the Birmingham of the past and the present. There are lessons to be learned from the Birmingham community’s trajectory, and there are applications for today’s tumultuous times. There are lessons for us all, though we may describe them differently. The Birmingham experience represents a microcosm of the unique challenges and struggles that we continue to face as a nation built on the reality of a multicultural society. The Magic City reflects the variety of people, processes, institutions, and behaviors implemented that stand for the promise of equity and social justice.
Those attending the Alpha Chi convention will have an incredible opportunity to consider the role of scholarship in meeting challenges and what it means to sit with the inevitable discomfort that comes with awareness, so that we may act with courage in developing the leadership our world and our communities need us to find. As leaders, we are obligated to elevate the safety, value, mental health, and well-being of all people.
From a Birmingham jail, a man wrote his reflection on justice. If you have a chance, read Letter from Birmingham Jail by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many courageous People of Color lived and died for the truth, forcing society to confront the realities of racial inequity. Unsung and determined White Allies asserted the truth at great personal costs. Leadership requires an honest and courageous exploration of the sociopolitical realities our society faces, which are its “truths.”
Convention of Intention
This Alpha Chi convention has the potential of being a life-changing, watershed moment for each member, advisor, and guest who attends. There will be sponsored events that challenge the understanding of history and its relationship to the present. Attendees will increase the depth of their understanding of the present social justice challenges both domestically and globally. We hope that everyone will consider questions like:
What makes a leader, and how do they know what to do?
Why should one become a leader? How does one become a leader?
How can we use the truths and facts that we learn about the world to better the world for all?
When does the “comfortable truth” serve to hide the actual truth and at what costs?
What are the costs of the denial of truth for society at large?
What is a convincing justification for social justice when a loss of privilege may be involved?
These questions will serve as the basis of the self-reflection for all attendees and are questions that should occur throughout the convention experience. These questions will provide a basis for many creative collaborative projects as well as a prism to challenge realities we thought we knew. To prepare for this place and this convention all participants are encouraged to read Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days by T. K. Thorne who will be our keynote speaker in Birmingham.
On Friday afternoon when we break for lunch, convention delegates will be encouraged to spend a few hours visiting nearby historical sites such as the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the 16th Street Baptist Church, and the Kelly-Ingram Park & Civil Rights Trail. Afterward, we will gather for a discussion and “debriefing,” if you will, so that our student delegates especially may process their experiences together.
Convention participants will consider the potential and necessity of leadership in the wide variety of areas related to our diverse society in such areas as immigration, disparate health care, the disparate impact of the criminal justice system, and environmental disparities. The primary point of consideration for the convention and the theme for the convention is: How does one lead in times as tumultuous as these?
It is our hope and plan that Alpha Chi’s aspiring student leaders who attend the convention will be inspired and more capable of answering that question.
For complete information on the upcoming convention, click here!
