Antonio Banks was eager to join a robust community of black students as an undergraduate at the State, San Bernardino University of California. He was thrilled to be surrounded by other black men "who were enthusiastic about education" as if he were. But when he returned to the campus as a sophomore, many of these students were missing. He heard they stopped for different reasons: some were stuck in remedial courses and placed on academic probation after struggling to complete, while others felt alienated and isolated on campus.
"I will never forget that feeling of seeing them all eliminated in the first year, and it was not for lack of intelligence or lack of capacity," the banks said.
Those memories stayed with him, and now, over a decade later. Banks, 34, is the first director of successful male black and color Compton College. The role of him, which began in late November, explicitly created to ensure that black men were kept registered have academic success and graduate.
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experience have many classmates leave college without graduating "really sparked my interest in trying to make viable educational paths for black men," he said.
Higher experts The say the higher level Positions, such as banks dedicated specifically to the needs of black men, are rare, despite longstanding disparities and amazing academic results and career for Black Male College students. President and CEO of Compton College, Keith Curry, believes the roles focused on black men will become a trend in universities and colleges, and community colleges like their own, which enroll high numbers of black students, they will be "at the forefront".
"You have to have someone responsible for this work," Curry said. "I think this is the model. I am committed to this financially, and I am committed to that because I know we can not do what we've done in the past. If you look at the data, the past did not work for all students." googletag.cmd.push (function () googletag.display ( "pfd-ad-article_in_article"););
Curry's passion for these problems also began early. He was so disturbed by the lack of diversity at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from which he earned a degree in American studies, who in his sophomore year founded higher education destination, a networking program for future black students students face.
"Now I'm in a Position where I can really make some changes to help support black students, and I'm keeping responsible for that," he said.
Compton College is located south of downtown Los Angeles, a city where more than 20 percent of residents have incomes that fall below the poverty line, according to the latest data from the Bureau of the Census of EE. UU. the survey report of Compton College #RealCollege, conducted by the Center of hope for college, community and justice in 2019, found that about 63 percent of students in Compton experienced housing insecurity that year and 23 percent had been homeless. In fall 2021, 46 percent of the student body received Pell grants, federal financial aid for low-income students.
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the barriers to education for black men begin long before the university campus pisen: black male students are disciplined in K-12 schools at higher rates than their white male counterparts, according to a wide range of research. Many come to college as low-income, first generation.
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