Students carry flags from different countries throughout the banquet during the Caribbean Student Association 40th Anniversary Gala in Stamp Student Union Friday.

Eleven Caribbean Students Association executive board members paraded through the crowd of alumni and current students, rustling different Caribbean nationalities’ flags to kick off the student organization’s 40th Anniversary Gala on Friday.

During a night filled with music, food and entertainment, the gala marked four decades of the CSA, which aims to celebrate Caribbean culture.

Founded in 1974, the CSA started as a few Caribbean international students “who wanted to find other students like themselves so that they all had a home at the University of Maryland,” CSA President Nandi McCammon said. 

Forty years later, the student organization continues to showcase the culture of Caribbean students to the rest of the university. 

“My vision for my first presidency was for us to become a force to be reckoned with on campus,” McCammon said. 

The two-term president emphasized that CSA continues to reach out to Caribbean students and students of other backgrounds to increase awareness of the Caribbean presence on the campus.

McCammon estimated about 1,000 first-generation Caribbean students attend this university. But she said CSA has only reached about 150 of those students.

The CSA has even more difficulty reaching international Caribbean students, who McCammon said “tend to hide.” International students who come to the university sometimes “want to get in and get out and go back home,” she said.

To draw out more Caribbean students, the CSA extends its reach beyond general body meetings by hosting events such as cultural festivals on the campus and field trips.

This year, the first field trip was to New York, where members danced in the street to celebrate the Labor Day Parade, said Kendra Browne, a CSA member from Trinidad. The event parallels Carnival festivals in Caribbean countries.

The CSA also hosted J’ouvert, a Caribbean festival and party on McKeldin Mall, in April. Members put their own spin on the festival, celebrating with paint, powder, dancing and a DJ. This year, the event will occur April 11.

Browne said these events help the CSA integrate students into the organization and bring the Caribbean culture to the university, creating “a home away from home.”

CSA members said they want the events to help separate Caribbean culture from stereotypes about Caribbean people, such as “all Caribbean people are Jamaican and all Caribbean people have dreadlocks,” McCammon said.

“If we don’t represent ourselves for what we truly are, we’re going to be stuck under that stigma,” McCammon said.

While the CSA encourages the celebration of individual nations in the Caribbean, the gala’s hostess and entertainer, Erica Jalloh, better known as Empress J, reminded the audience Friday night that the gala celebrated not just one island, but one Caribbean.

Looking forward, the CSA plans to work with the university’s admissions office to obtain the official breakdown of first-generation Caribbean students and international Caribbean students at the university to better reach out to those students.

McCammon said she hopes to partner with the university to recruit more international students from the Caribbean and establish the CSA’s brand in the region.

“I would like our org to have both perspectives in the room at all times,” McCammon said of first-generation Caribbean Americans and international Caribbean students.

Recalling what the gala’s keynote speaker, Jim Blake, a Caribbean radio broadcaster, emphasized, McCammon summed up the CSA gala’s ultimate message to attendees.

“You always take your wallet with you,” McCammon said. “You should always carry your Caribbean essence with you.”