Throughout the last week of February, the Tolton Society hosted Xperience Week at St. Thomas – a school-wide, weeklong Black History Month celebration. The group, named after the first Black American priest Father Augustus Tolton, planned and executed a series of activities and events for students, faculty, and staff to participate in and learn more about Black culture.

“Tolton Society marked this year as ‘The Resurgence,’” faculty co-sponsor of the club, Jamar Keaton said. “At the beginning of the year, we established an intention to make ourselves a highly recognized and active organization not just on campus but also in the greater Catholic schools community and in the city Houston. The Tolton Society Culture Xperience Week brought together students, families, and the entire STH community for a week of celebrating black cultural trailblazers, spotlighting alumni, and highlighting the accomplishments of our current Tolton students.”

The celebrations began with a kickoff event on Monday, February 23rd where members of the Tolton Society hosted a party in the school’s courtyard with games and music.

On Tuesday, alumni Ethan Wheeler (‘24), Jonathon Brown (’19), and Ian Wheeler (’19) talked with current students about their experiences at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in a panel discussion. Each of the alumni spoke about the sense of community they found at their HBCUs and how these institutions guided them to form lifelong friendships and cultivate a deeper sense of self-worth.

“Being able to be at an HBCU and learn about myself and be unapologetically myself, that was what let me to realize that Howard was the best choice for me,” Ian shared.

Ian is a graduate of Howard University where he earned a B.S. in Psychology in 2023. After deferring his admission to Morehouse University’s medical school, he now plays professional football as a running back for the Chicago Bears. Jonathon, who attended Texas Southern University, is currently a teaching assistant and is pursuing a Master’s degree in Sociology there. Also at Texas Southern, Ethan is studying Business, with a concentration in Marketing. Each of these Eagle alumni brought different perspectives and life experiences to their advice given on the panel, offering each current student in attendance the opportunity to relate and connect with these alums.

To culminate Xperience Week, students learned about and tasted a wide array of cuisines on Wednesday at the Taste of Tolton event–a vibrant celebration of Black culture through food. Students, faculty, and community members gathered in Cemo Auditorium to enjoy foods representing the culinary tastes of Jamaica, Trinidad, and Nigeria and traditional Creole and Southern dishes.

Looking ahead to the future, the Tolton Society hopes to continue their legacy of learning on campus and provide even more opportunities for the school community to connect, grow, and appreciate Black culture.

“My favorite part of Xperience Week was the Taste of Tolton because I got to see lots of different cultures,” club Board Member Jackson Pierce said. “The Tolton Society has allowed me to find people that look like me that I can relate to.”