Student activists listen to keynote speaker Professor Shana Redmond. (Katie Chen/Neon Tommy)

Last night various student groups from the University of Southern California joined together for a think tank event discussing issues that affect university students and the surrounding community.

The USC Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, the #USChangeMovement, and Under Graduate Student Government (USG) Diversity Affairs exchanged ideas and concerns at the Think Tank: 21st Century Activism event,

The night began with an address by keynote speaker, Professor Shana Redmond who discussed not only what it meant to be a part of a social movement, but how to be active in bringing about change.

"Your hard work may not be recognized," said Redmond. "That's a hard truth of change. You have to struggle through that in order to get work done."

Attendees were then broken up into four different groups to discuss stereotypes, law and policy, wellness, and dating and relationships in the media. Discussion groups were run by student leaders from the various student organizations— from USG Diversity Committee representative James White to student leader in the #USChangeMovement, Makiah Green.

Students discuss issues pertaining to USC's laws and policies (Katie Chen/Neon Tommy)

As one of the main coordinators of the event, Green felt the event was a huge success in achieving her goals for the purpose of the think tank.

"My main mission was to get people to start thinking about not only the problems, but about the solutions, and to really challenge themselves in thinking about how they can make an impact," said Green. "[I want] to empower people with the knowledge that they have the ability to change the things that are plaguing our society."

It wasn't just students in attendance last night, however. Staff members and faculty showed up to represent their cultural organizations and share their ideas about how to reach much-needed solutions as well.

Billy Vela, Director of El Centro Chicano felt that the event was helpful in allowing students to express their opinions and solutions in a way that many of them may not have dared to otherwise.

"It's a great empowerment opportunity to give to students," said Vela. "I feel like students are leaving engaged and excited, which is really great when it comes to things like activism." 

Junior Andy Su, the community service chair for the Student Coalition for Asian Pacific Empowerment (SCAPE) agreed with Vela's statement, and felt that event coordinators were "trying to bring together a collective of students who are more interested in social justice."

"I think it's a changing culture they're trying to achieve," said Su.

The student organizations that were a part of "Think Tank" want to encourage students to continue the conversation through hashtags, #thinktank and #USChangeMovement, and the twitter handle @1changemovement.

Contact Contributor Katie Chen here. Follow her on Twitter here.