City College student Saturne Tchabong is an activist who wants to help raise up marginalized voices in society.
“Saturne is a natural born leader,” said Scheinfeld Center executive director Julie Samson. “She avidly seeks ownership of projects and has great follow-through to achieve measurable outcomes.”
Her first interest in activism came forth during her senior year of high school, when her English teacher asked her predominantly African-American class what Malcolm X’s most famous quote was.
“No one knew the answer,” she said. “I was embarrassed, but inspired to know the answers to these types of questions.”
The quote was “by any means necessary” and is a staple of that era of activism. Tchabong said the fact that no one knew it demonstrated the flawed system with which students are educated about black history.
“Black history is American history,” she said. “History repeats itself, and if more people knew their history then we could learn from it.”
Tchabong is Cameroonian-Italian and was born in Turin, Italy. She and her family moved to Maryland in 2000 where she grew up and graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School. While in high school she worked with political figures in her community with marketing strategies and building successful campaigns.
She recently worked on a documentary that explores unequal wealth distribution and segregation in America with her partner, Mason Foster.
“Combining strong voices with beautiful visuals, it creates a power you can’t grasp in a lot of other ways,” Tchabong said.
She is the president of the Black Student Union Club at City College and was also a part of the Global T Project in late 2015, a program that encourages interest in the global market and logistics fields for high school students and teachers.
“Knowing that I can empower young black women and girls like me is amazing.”
She is very passionate about filmmaking and hopes to be able to continue working with film in conjunction with her work in activism.
From left, Saturne Tchabong, J’Naer Bradford, and Tedenekialesh Debebe talk with a student about their club at Friendship Plaza in Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, Calif. On Sept. 6, 2017. The Black Student Union recruits currently enrolled students who are interested in Black History.
“People learn from TV and the media,” she said. “We need to make this information available to them.”
Tchabong is scheduled to speak on a panel at the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals event being held at City College on Sept. 19. Her focus will be her experience of growing up undocumented and her connection with immigrants from all over the world.
“We need to band together now more than ever,” Tchabong said. “Immigration is beyond a race thing. It’s not a them, it’s an us.”
Tchabong discussed the role of appearance in our society in her contribution in the Louis Lancaster Speech Tournament this year.
‘‘We have to decide the truths for ourselves, and no longer judge people because of their appearance,’’ she said.
She wishes to continue spreading change in the future through working with impoverished communities and as furthering her career in business and marketing.
Tchabong is an intern for the Scheinfeld Entrepreneurial Center where she engages in projects that gives her valuable skills to help with her career aspirations.
“I like that I can cultivate skills through valid experience,” she said. “Rather than just assistant work.”
Her dream is to connect her work with all of her different passions and developing her goals through the things she learns along the way.
