The Black Student Union (BSU) is celebrating 40 years on the campus of Illinois State University with the Black Heritage Ball at 7 p.m. Sunday, February 28, in the Brown Ballroom of the Bone Student Center. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets are on sale at the Braden Box Office in the Bone Student Center for $7 each. Ticket sales ends at 2 p.m. Saturday February 27.

This year’s theme for the ball is “A Glimpse of Black Greatness: The Promising Years,” featuring speaker Scott Steward, a prominent Chicago Public Schools educator. The evening will also include performances of dance, music, and acting as well as a dinner buffet.

image of Scott Steward

Scott Steward

Steward is a 16-time award-winning teacher of entrepreneurship, and a contributing writer for Chicago’s N’DIGO Magapaper. Providing tips on entrepreneurial ventures and suggestions for emerging entrepreneurs, Steward authored a business plan that is featured in the book Make $1,000 in 35 days.

Known as the “force” behind a student’s limitless future, Steward empowers students to become CEOs of their own businesses and lives, and to create wealth on their own terms. A business owner, educator, entrepreneurial expert, husband, and father of three, he knows firsthand the enjoyable, and not so enjoyable, aspects of entrepreneurship.

Steward earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Columbia College Chicago and a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from Roosevelt University. At Roosevelt, he developed “Young Entrepreneurs,” a series of education programs that linked youth with entrepreneurship possibilities.

Now CEO of the multimedia production company and marketing consulting firm Break Bread Marketing & Media, Steward is also a master certified teacher of entrepreneurship by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

For additional information on the Black Heritage Ball, contact BSU President Joshua White at jjwhite@ilstu.edu or BSU Special Event Coordinator Taaliah Maxey at ttmaxey@ilstu.edu.