Photo courtesy of: Multicultural ProgramsDominique Aaron will serve as the keynote speaker on May 4

Ohio University's Kushinda/Ritos de Pasaje celebration will occur at 7 p.m. Friday, May 4, in Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. 

A complement to the spring Graduate and Undergraduate Commencement ceremonies, Kushinda/Ritos de Pasaje is a time for the friends and families of graduates as well as the OHIO community to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of the class of 2018.

Friday’s ceremony will feature an inspirational keynote address by Dominique Aaron, a first-generation student and two-time alumna. A dessert reception will follow in the lobby. This event is free and open to the public.

Kushinda/Ritos de Pasaje is expected to draw more than 120 soon-to-be graduates, making the group one of the largest to ever participate in the annual ceremony, according to Dr. Winsome M. Chunnu, strategic director for diversity and inclusion and multicultural programs and initiatives.

Registered participants for the celebration will have their name and photograph featured in a commemorative souvenir booklet and receive a class of 2018 photograph, a certificate and a Kente/Serape cloth to put on their graduation gown. 

On April 17, participants enjoyed a class mixer in Walter Hall Rotunda where they took a class photo, voted on senior superlatives and viewed a slideshow of photographs from their college careers.

The Kushinda/Ritos de Pasaje celebration was created in 1997 by Linda Daniels, former director of multicultural programs. It originally started out as two separate programs for African-American students and Latino students, but was combined in 2006 in order to create one unified multicultural complement to graduation.

The name is derived from several languages.

"Kushinda" comes from the east African languages of Dawida and Mwera and means "to overcome" or "to win." The second part of the name, "Ritos de Pasaje," is a Spanish phrase, which means "rites of passage."

Kushinda/Ritos de Pasaje is sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Programs.