Black History Month ended on an upbeat Wednesday at the University of the Virgin Islands, as several dozen students took part in a trivia contest and Soul Train music challenge on the St. Croix campus.
The event was sponsored by the UVI Student Affairs Office and took place in the cafeteria.
The trivia contest, in the form of quiz show "Jeopardy!", has been going on for 17 years. David Capriola, coordinator of the school’s freshman development seminar, started it as a way to help his students review for material that would be on an upcoming test.
It proved so popular that it’s now held twice a year – once during Red Ribbon Week and once during Black History month.
Wednesday’s contest pitted teams representing the freshman development seminar against a team representing student government, in what turned out to be an exciting, hotly contested match. Some categories of questions had a black history theme – famous black authors, famous Crucians and Caribbean islands.
Others were more general knowledge geared towards a college audience, including English, science, math, music, movies.
The student government leaders won 190 to 140.
Capriola said he puts the trivia event together, deciding categories, collecting questions and finding teams. Sometimes it’s class against class. Some years it’s been men versus women. But it’s always fun, he said.
"As far as the class goes, it’s the social highlight of the season."
Following the trivia contest, the students took part in a game to test their musical knowledge, done to a "Soul Train" motif to commemorate Don Cornelius, the creator and host of that iconic TV program. Local DJ and emcee Rashidi kept the action moving, having students listen to samples of songs from the 1970s to the present and identify them.
The contests drew a large crowd to the cafeteria, an audience that included UVI President David Hall and Provost Karl Wright.
