By Brandon Brown
News Editor
Cal State Dominguez Hills hosted its African American College and Career Summit, or “Super Saturday,” Oct. 8 in the Loker Student Union.
The event was packed with middle, high school and community college students eagerly looking forward to a possible future at Dominguez Hills.
“Super Saturday gives us a unique opportunity to showcase the university to the community while strategically marketing for the African-American community,” said Khaleah Bradshaw, assistant director of external and community relations.
University President Willie J. Hagan gave the opening address and started the event, which featured several breakout workshops focusing on different topics participants could attend based on their interests.
The African-American Male Experience workshop was facilitated by Student Affairs Vice President William Franklin and CSUDH Education Partnerships Director Matthew Smith. The presentation was designed to specifically reach out to African-American male students.
It focused on the struggles young African-American men face in school, in society at large and echoed the sentiments of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“What discourages growth in our community is a silent stigma,” Smith said. “There’s a stigma that since we have to be cool, we can’t be smart. Society says, if you’re black, school isn’t for you. We have to change this … Don’t let your friends dictate your future.”
Another workshop, which was designed for African-American female students, was organized into a panel discussion of four women, including Bradshaw.
“What most people fail to realize is that by senior year of high school, it’s too late to start preparing for college,” Bradshaw said. “I get a lot of calls from parents and students who think they’re coming in, but I have to tell them no because while in [the] LAUSD, a D is considered passing, a D isn’t transferable.”
The workshop had its light-hearted moments.
“You guys better be taking notes — there may be a test later,” Tiffany Gilmore, a CSUDH alumnus, now an assistant principal at Palm Middle School in Moreno Valley, told her students in the workshop.
She, along with one of her teachers, spent her free time Saturday at the event with female students from her Riverside County school in tow.
The trip was part of the school’s AVID, or Advancement via Individual Determination, program, which is a new addition to their curriculum and consists of all girls.
Gilmore, who helps run the AVID program at Palm Middle, received rare assistance from her district providing transportation for her and the students.
“It’s important that these girls get the tools they need to succeed,” Gilmore said.
The panel also discussed college preparation and stressed that the journey toward college begins before students start high school.
The event also hosted several other workshops, including one focused on digital media arts and science, technology, engineering and math, and another on filling out FAFSA and CSU applications.
There was a Toro Talk session for potential transfer students featuring current CSUDH students telling their real-life stories, a resource fair featuring several on-campus clubs and organizations and campus tours.
