For the fourth and final Black History Month edition of “Speak On It,” The University Star interviewed the Golden Elites President Kam’ryn Scott to hear her perspective on the experiences of Black Students at Texas State.
Scott, a psychology junior, joined the Golden Elites since her freshman year and has been president of the organization since spring 2024. She said she originally wanted to be part of the Strutters organization but is grateful to have discovered the Golden Elites.
“I did not know about my dance team until I got here,” Scott said. “I wanted to be a part of [the Strutters] but I found out you can’t have tattoos and piercings, so I kind of lost my dream there. I found out about the Golden Elites and said ‘Here’s my opportunity to be a part of something.’”
The Golden Elites are the only majorette team on campus. According to Scott, majorette is an HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) style of dance incorporating hip-hop, ballet, jazz, rhythmic and interpretive dance.
Scott said leading the Golden Elites has been an incredibly rewarding accomplishment. She said it’s important for Black students to have a dance outlet on campus.
“While the Strutters are diverse, they still are lacking a lot of diversity so that draws away a lot of Black students that would love to dance,” Scott said. “We give them a platform to try out and show off their skills in an environment that makes them feel at home.”
Scott said getting the team involved in Black History Month events has great meaning. She said Black History Month is a beautiful reminder of the growth of the Black community.
“This month became super busy for us because we got a lot more performances than we normally do,” Scott said. “We get to highlight ourselves where we normally don’t get highlighted.”
Scott said it’s difficult to get the name of the Golden Elites out on campus. She said while the team is well known within the Black community, many students assume the only Texas State dance team is the Strutters.
While the team does receive praise from the administration, Scott said it would be nice to have more structured support.
“We’d like to be able to perform within the football stadium and also during basketball season. We get asked during Black History Month but it’s our goal to perform consecutively during those seasons,” Scott said.
Scott said one of the main reasons this hasn’t happened yet is because Texas State is currently structured solely around the Strutters.
“It’s part of the way things are structured already. [With] the way our [marching band] performs, we were told we would have to change a few things about… our dance style to fit into it. We’d have to conform a little bit,” Scott said.
Scott said in the future, she hopes to see Texas State showcasing the success of Black organizations on campus. She said incoming and current students should know these organizations are thriving.
“More Black students would want to come to Texas State [if] they knew that when they get here, there are many organizations and many communities here for them,” Scott said. “While it’s great that we get a month of recognition, having that year-round would be really great.”
