Southwestern College employees established a dedicated support group to address the challenges of many African American students face in preparing for college. The Black Education Community Collaborative stems from the understanding that there are many African American students who miss critical educational milestones in K-12, negatively impacting their college readiness.
Part of the BECC, School of Counseling & Student Support Programs Dean Steven Baissa said the BECC is starting listening tours in February to look at what is needed to build an education pathway for people of African descent and Black people in South Bay.
Baissa said the group took a trip to Ghana in west Africa, a program the college sponsored for staff and students to go every two years.
“This trip is many colleges and universities who are focused on African American education to learn from the Ghanian education system, to look at establishing an exchange program between the students in our schools and over there. To look at how we can help students of African descent thrive and do better in our education system, African descendent practices,” he said. “It had to do a lot with racial trauma. It is about creating a space around healing from racial trauma for many of our educators.”
Baissa said one of the most powerful experiences on the trip was going to the slave dungeons.
“For a couple of days, we experienced what it was like to be a slave at that time, and the conditions on how slaves were treated. There is this rite of passage kind of thing that is truly inhumane and just awful conditions that you get to see how humans treated other human beings, and what that has done over multiple generations,” he said. “There is a lot of unpacking of that type of conversation through the conversation with the University of Ghana, with the faculty and the educators there, around sort of what they do. It was like a bootcamp for African-centered education.”
Baissa said on this trip there were around 49 universities and colleges that participated, with about 350-plus people participating between U.S. and Ghanian representatives.
Baissa said what they are trying to do with the upcoming listening tour is to listen to students and families. So, they are inviting students, families from the Sweetwater Union High School District and the Chula Vista Elementary School District to participate to help the BECC understand their experiences in the education system in the area.
“What would be needed for them to have a better experience and better outcomes in terms of where we are,” he said. “At Southwestern, … the learning communities are programs that are under my purview as the dean of counseling, and the faculty coordinates those programs. There is a program called Umoja, for example which is really about creating a holistic support for students of African descent. From an Umoja principle, which Umoja is basically a Swahili word meaning unity. The idea behind it is how do we create this cohort based experience of students who when they see that they are not usually the only black person in the classroom, or they are just not two or three of Black folks who are inside the classroom. When you create a more of a majority classroom experience, it creates a sense of belonging, it creates a sense of community, to have faculty who are trained around a bunch of principles around African-centered education, and how do they use those student experiences as assets. The idea is to kind of create the space of support so students are able to thrive and do better, which they do at Southwestern when they go through the Umoja program.”
Baissa said what they are trying to learn now is the experience in elementary and high school education, and that is why they are doing this project through the BECC.
Baissa said what they were looking for is how to help students thrive, and what that would look like. Whether it is better training for its teachers in elementary, middle school, and high school, and how they better equip the administrators at those schools.
“How do we have conversations around bullying from a racialized lens? What does that look like in terms of equipping students how to communicate their needs in a better way. It could be a whole host of things, but we do not want to make assumptions. The idea is to actually listen first. That is why we are calling them a listening tour, and we have four of them scheduled,” he said.
BECC has planned listening tours every Tuesday of February beginning on Feb. 4. Held at a different SWC campus each Tuesday 6-7:30 p.m., parents and students can come and share their experiences, desires and suggestions related towards how to better serve African American children within the South County community. To RSVP, visit https://bit.ly/BEC2LT.
Southwestern College South Bay Black Family Listening Tour dates:
Feb. 4 at SWC Chula Vista in Rm. 64-238 (Library)
Feb. 11 at SWC HEC San Ysidro in Rm. 5104
Feb. 18 at SWC HEC National City in Rm. 7130
Feb. 25 at SWC Chula Vista in Rm. 64-238 (Library)
Clarification: This story was altered from its previous version to better reflect Southwestern College Dean Steven Baissa’s remarks regarding the Black Education Community Collaborative, its educational and outreach efforts.
