Calvin Louis-Juste ’09 was a Haitian immigrant from Brooklyn, N.Y., who volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, participated in multicultural campus organizations and was a leader on the SUNY Cortland campus.
Calvin had earned a master’s degree in business when he was shot and killed in May 2011, a few doors down from where he lived with his grandmother in Brooklyn, N.Y., in an apparent act of random violence that was never solved.
“He was always looking to go above and beyond to help someone out,” said former classmate Joseph Mannion ’09. “His altruistic nature and bright smile made everyone feel at ease and he motivated anyone that had the pleasure to meet him to strive for greatness.”
His brief but very significant legacy will continue to inspire others at SUNY Cortland through both a new student award and a plaque dedicated to his memory.
The plaque will be unveiled during Alumni Reunion 2019 during the grand reopening of the newly renovated Corey Union Voice Office, a space dedicated to student organizations for students whose ethnic background, religion, gender identity or different ability puts them in the campus minority. The event will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 13.
The new Calvin Louis-Juste Memorial Award recognizes a student from a multicultural background who with at least a 3.0 grade point average who is committed to community service, campus leadership, continuing personal improvement and advocacy for equity and inclusion on campus.
The inaugural honoree, Valarie Moise, a graduating senior, was named at the College’s April 6 Kente Ceremony. In the future, the name of each year’s winner will be inscribed on the Calvin Louis-Juste plaque.
Reunion participants who are among the friends of the Kente/Voice Office alumni are encouraged to attend the Voice Office ceremony, said Jonah Reardon ’13, assistant director of alumni engagement and the event’s organizer.
The new diversity-focused alumni group targets graduates who participated in the Kente Ceremony as students, or participated in a club housed in Corey Union’s Voice Office.
The Voice Office affinity groups includes not only alumni with African, Latino, Caribbean or other minority ethnic or religious backgrounds involved with clubs and organizations, but those with differing abilities or who identify with the LBGTQIAP community.
The Kente Ceremony is a tradition founded in 1994 by Seth Asumah, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Political Science and chair of the Africana Studies Department. The traditional, woven multicolored kente cloth of Ghana, orginally worn by royalty, has become an important symbol for many African-Americans to highlight their connection to the African continent.
For 25 years, a steadily growing number of alumni from a variety of ethnic backgrounds have worn brilliant red, yellow, green and black kente stoles over their regalia at Commencement after participating in the earlier Kente Ceremony. This is a large group, with at least 800 alumni having participated in the ceremony since 2004.
This year, a record 105 students received the stole during the annual Kente Ceremony. His friends say that would have made Louis-Juste proud.
“There was never a dull moment around Calvin,” recalls Lima Stafford ’12, who met Louis-Juste in 2008 when she arrived on campus. “He was motivational, ambitious and a positive role model.”
Louis-Juste introduced Stafford to the Voice Office organizations and encouraged her to get involved with the Caribbean Student Association (CSA) and Men of Value and Excellence (MOVE).
“He was very helpful and made sure that I transitioned to Cortland well,” said Stafford, who today serves as assistant director for SUNY Cortland’s Multicultural Life and Diversity Office.
“He is gone but not forgotten, and I am excited that my office will be honoring his name,” Stafford said. “He exemplifies what it truly means to be a Man of Value and Excellence.”
Mannion, who participated in the College’s multicultural Kente Ceremony beside his good friend and Glass Tower roommate not long before graduation, described Louis-Juste as an “open and caring person.”
“We keep Calvin’s memories close to heart and strive to live each day to make ourselves and the world a better place in his honor,” Mannion said.
Reardon noted that the feature of Kente/Voice Office alumni was developed by the SUNY Cortland Alumni Association through collaboration with the Multicultural Life and Diversity and the Institutional Equity and Inclusion offices.
This year, in addition to the ceremony in memory of Louis-Juste, the alumni association also will be hosting a ‘Late, But Not Too Late, Night’ event on Friday, July 12 to attract the returning alumni of diversity.
For more information, contact Reardon or visit the Alumni Reunion 2019 web page.