Black Female Development Circle a celebration of womanhood

Jayda Hall // Sports Director

Black Female Development Circle wants to be a space of empowerment for any student who needs support, despite their name.

The national student organization was founded to support black women, and brought to the campus after seeing a need on campus.

“We became an organization here on FIU’s campus in 2011, and we’ve been flourishing ever since,” Vice President Peta-Gay Taylor said to FIUSM. “We became an organization at FIU because we saw a lack of the black community for black women, and we wanted to extend the circle here as we are a national organization with chapters at other schools including the University of Miami.”

BFDC is a national organization, which was founded in 1994 as an independent, black womanhood preparation and actualization program; the organization embraces sisters from all walks of life. Taylor said, “the circle was established to facilitate the evolution of black women into a true and full womanhood.”

The organization became an incorporation on Sept. 19, 2002, and the 14th anniversary of the organization being incorporated was recently celebrated.

“Our mission is to educate, explore enhance and celebrate womanhood,” Taylor said. “We’re really focused on our members, and we want to transform their lives when they come to the organization.”

Taylor has been a part of organization for two years. She said she saw flyers on Instagram and said, “I’m going to go [to the meeting].’”

After attending the first meeting, she realized “it was just a bunch of females, altogether happy in one place.”

“Once you keep going, it’s more of an intimate meeting, and the circle of sisterhood can’t be broken,” Taylor said. “You get freedom but you also get a family. At all the meetings we want people to take something from it and learn from it.”

BFDC uses tabling in GC, FIU events and freshman convocation to recruit members and spread to everyone what the organization stands for. Most members are invited by a friend, and to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to be a part, the organization is open to all genders and races.

“I went to a meeting, started attending events, getting to know the other girls, and that’s what made me stay,” Junior membership chair Lisa Lormejuste said.

Lormejuste said that her favorite memory was attending a Kappa’s barbeque.

“Once I started conversing with people, that’s when I knew that I belonged,” she said.

Taylor said at the chapter retreat in Fort Myers Beach, she felt safe and let her guards down after “people opened up about their deepest darkest fears.”

“I can tell you about the organization, but you have to come to the meeting and see for yourself,” Taylor said. “I can try to describe it, but once you get there and feel the atmosphere, that’s the deciding moment on whether you want to stay. Everyone’s welcomed.”

The first meeting will be held in GC 343 in October. After that the meeting will take place every other Thursday in GC 316 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The organization will also hold study sessions on Sundays, and host an event called “Tribute to a Man” on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m.

Additional reporting by Cayla Bush