Spartan Soul is the first hip hop based dance team that was founded and established as a registered student organization at Michigan State University in 1997. Five young women formed this team with one primary goal in mind – to increase representation of the diversity that truly exists in the university's student population. Still a young organization Spartan Soul continues to make strides toward the accomplishment of this goal by performing at many social and cultural functions on and off campus. Spartan Soul has seen challenges and growth and continues to evolve and thrive as an organization. A common misconception about our team is the myth that we only identify with and represent the black community. However, Spartan Soul was founded on diversity and upholds the principle in many ways, including through performances, dance styles, activities and members’ backgrounds.

Spartan Soul prides itself on being a professional organization and business. We have a very structured Executive Board that consists of a President, Vice President, Secretary, Choreographer, Fashion Coordinator, Community Service Chair, Publicity Chair, Social Chair, Campus Meeting Representative, Fundraising Chair and other branches of those chairs by committee. Every member on Spartan Soul dances and actively participates in the function and operation of the team. Besides the business aspect of the team Spartan Soul promotes frienship and sisterhood among the members. We conduct social activities that promote friendship and teamwork which we consider essential to the smooth functioning of the team, such as the annual retreat.

LaShonda Steele: Founder Biography

LaShonda Steele, senior copywriter at GlobalHue, the Detroit agency formerly known as Don Coleman Advertising, is responsible for writing, developing, directing and producing television, radio and magazine advertisements for large corporations like American Airlines, Coca-Cola and Verizon Wireless. Steele began her career as an advertising consultant for Ford Motor Co. just two months after graduating from Michigan State University in December 1999 with a bachelor’s in advertising. She began working for Don Coleman Advertising in September 2000.

While earning her degree, Steele saw a problem and sought to fix it. She noticed that the MSU community lacked activities and support for its multicultural students. She also observed that minority students – particularly the black population, which she was a part of – primarily received negative attention and were not proportionately reflected in the university’s image and spirit scene.

Therefore, Steele sought the appropriate resources and required processes to create a solution to the problem -- an action she says required no special skills other than interest, character, integrity and motivation. In 1997, she united a group of students to form Spartan Soul dance team and fulfill the purpose of providing a more positive and accurate representation of diversity and culture in the MSU population.

Steele’s initial goals for Spartan Soul included producing multicultural role models to disprove stereotypes and change the negative light that was cast on the minority population.

Steele saw much success with Spartan Soul prior to leaving MSU. The team was able to make a statement and create an image of confident, persistent, mature young women, which she believes altered the perception of minority students and empowered many in the population. Under Steele’s leadership, the team’s actions were rewarded with results like these as well as structural changes in the athletic department, most visibly demonstrated through the team’s performances at MSU men’s basketball games.

Another reward of Steele’s efforts was observing personal growth in herself and her teammates, as they built confidence and sisterhood while developing and exercising leadership skills.

Steele, who remains supportive and available for the team, credits her Spartan Soul experiences for teaching her lessons in consistency, leadership, presentation and team-building that she can still apply in her daily life as well as her career.

Sept. 12, 2002