The Colorado State University Bookstore is selling a limited-edition, student-designed hat in honor of February’s Black History Month.

A portion of the sales are being returned to the Black/African American Cultural Center  to provide funding for programming. As of this week, only about 30 of the 120 hats remained for sale.

Varehya “V” Pratt is a freshman, first-generation student studying product development in the College of Health and Human Sciences. Pratt was approached by Duan Ruff, the assistant director of B/AACC, to create a hat design that represented the CSU African American population. The hat features an outline of Africa with a Ram head in the center and the use of kente print on the hat bill and the image of Africa.

‘United as Rams’

“I put the CSU logo in the middle of the design to symbolize the African American culture and us being united as Rams and as one,” Pratt said.

Colors of different kente prints represent different concepts within the culture. Pratt incorporated the print into her design as a way to signify the history of where the African culture has evolved from.

She wanted the print and patterns to empower students on campus and ignite a passion for the traditional aspects that the hat embodies. Pratt said that being able to combine both art and business is something that excited her about the project.

The hat idea began in mid-November and is based on a similar concept the University of Utah developed, in which a product was created and sold with the intention of returning a portion of the funds to a Native American tribe.

John Parry, Colorado State University Bookstore director, discussed how the project became a reality. He wanted to work with one of the diversity centers on campus to bring in a product that was unique to CSU.

“Duan and I ride the bus together and we started talking about the idea,” Parry said. “He pitched it to V.”

Parry, Ruff and Pratt then collaborated on ways to incorporate meaning into the hat.

Pricing

The hats are priced at $25.99 plus tax, with $10 of every sale returning to the B/AACC office.

The B/AACC office works to connect CSU students who identify with the culture or ideas with resources, events and activities on campus.

During Black History Month, B/AACC is hosting several events for students to participate in, like a series of talks, music through the decades, a hair fashion show, and guest speaker Melissa Harris-Perry.

“This is my first semester being able to celebrate Black History Month on a college campus, and that’s so exciting,” Pratt said.

When talking about the office’s impact on students, Ruff said, “Watching V have so much energy and pride for something, that’s what we’re here for.”

Parry said he was hopeful that other cultural centers on campus would get involved with the bookstore in a similar way. Ruff added that he would be interested in doing something like this every February. Pratt is brainstorming her plans and ways in which she can potentially incorporate the project into her major.

“Who knows what this will open up,” Ruff said, “so long as student success is at the center of it all.”

The full list of events happening during Black History Month is on the B/AACC’s website at http://www.baacc.colostate.edu/.