The student-run iGUIDE Leadership Team held a dedication ceremony for the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial on Wednesday night.

The goal of the ceremony was to spread the message that students can have the same impact Dr. King had. It included several speakers and a virtual tour of the Washington, D.C., monument.

Sophomore iGUIDE leadership development chair Thomas Stovall opened the ceremony at 6 p.m. in Chambers Auditorium with an address. Stovall said students should pursue their passion to create a platform to perform all that is within them, despite not having a position of power.

“This is a ceremony that honors the movement but focuses on the monument,” Stovall said in his speech. “If you become the movement now, the monument can be built in your honor later.”

Symonne Sparks sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” by brothers James and John Johnson, before keynote-speaker Charles Sampson, associate professor in the Harry S. Truman School of Public Service, took the podium. In his speech, Sampson spoke about Dr. King’s impact on voting rights and society in general.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to Martin Luther King Jr. and that generation, but we’d be fooling ourselves if we think the struggle is complete,” Sampson said in his speech. “While the trail has been blazed, the end of the need for diligence is not in sight.”

iGUIDE founder and program director Kalyan Holloway gave the closing address, linking his organization’s ideals to King’s legacy.

“Leadership is a word tossed around so much that the meaning has become forgotten,” Holloway said. “Leadership is not just a title; it is a way of life, a 24-hour commitment. At iGUIDE we stress that leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.”

Holloway said the most important thing students can take away from the ceremony is that students have the same influence that Martin Luther King Jr. had.

“This is important because there’s still work to be done,” he said.

Holloway said he founded the entirely student-run and led organization in 2009 because he came from an inner-city, single-parent household in a failing school district and knew what similar students need to adapt to college.

“I had a friend who went to speak to a counselor,” Holloway said. “He was from a violent background, and he said that she did not understand him because she did not share that background.”

The iGUIDE Leadership Team participates in community service, holds peer-to-peer counseling and offers leadership development for its members. The organization is focused on increasing university retention rates, which it did for its members last year.

“Your demography does not determine your destiny,” Holloway said to students.

He then quoted Dr. King.

“’Take that first step even when you can’t see the stairway,’” he said.

Sophomore attendee Simoné McGautha, said she joined iGUIDE after being inspired by Holloway. McGautha said the ceremony was very moving and the speakers impacted the listeners in a very positive way.

Both Stovall and Sampson said the fact that Dr. King’s monument stands among those of elected officials is proof he led a remarkable life.

“Here’s a preacher’s kid among presidents,” Sampson said. “Dr. King is the only one who came from a marginalized class to have a monument built after him. This shows things have changed and gives hope that things will change even more.”