Empowerment, mentorship, and brotherhood were the three areas of focus at Long Beach City College’s Male Summit, an event that has been occurring for the past four years, bringing young men of color from the community together with distinguished leaders in an uplifting spirit toward student success.
The summit took place on May 25 at LAC, connecting young men of color from Long Beach Unified School District’s Male Academy, as well as middle and high school students from Long Beach, representatives from California State University Long Beach’s Male Success Initiative, LBCC’s students, distinguished leaders, and alumni.
Every table was set up with Male Summit 2019 backpacks, notepads, and pens for students to keep, as high schoolers and middle schoolers from all walks of life trickled in off each bus, and prepared themselves for the day ahead.
The summit was a collaborative effort on behalf of all partners for a day of workshops, in-depth discussion, connecting and learning with each other, and above all, to inspire young men of color to pursue their dreams and persevere.
Vice president of Student Services at LBCC Mike Munoz, explained the direct goal of the summit and what the event aimed to achieve.
“It’s recognizing that some of our young men of color – African-American, Latino, and Asian, Pacific-Islander students, are not succeeding at the rate that we want them to succeed at,” Munoz said.
“Often times, students aspire to what they know, so when we can expose them to other role models, that helps provide that pathway before them, to see themselves as a college student or as a professional.”
Keynote motivational speaker Ramsey Jay Jr. compelled the students with a passionate opening speech, as a way to get every young man’s attention, and gave them an exercise to start the day, asking that every young man turn to his neighbor and link arms and repeat “United-binded! United-binded!,” as that is what they became at the end of the summit, gathered together to unite in brotherhood.
“You guys are the most precious asset to this community; We are here to invest in you,” Jay said.
“You represent young people that face challenges that sometimes make you feel like it’s tough to continue; We understand that.”
After Jay gave his concluding statements, the young men were prompted to work together at their tables with chaperones on a series of guided questions that analyze societal ideologies about masculinity and the shared experiences of young men of color.
All exercises conducted throughout the summit, like a panel discussion with leaders and collegiate athletes, breathing exercises, workshops and lots of teamwork, were incorporated to bring awareness to the young men and help with their perspectives, about themselves, their community, and their education.
Freshman student from Long Beach Polytechnic High Sailus Hirk, was inspired by everything he had heard.
“Today I’ve taken… work harder and be more determined … put more time and effort into what I do, like football, and have positivity uplift me and my teammates,” Hirk said.
The initial idea for a College Promise Male Summit at LBCC was from operations manager Cheryl Williams in 2015.
This year the event was coordinated by LBCC matriculation coordinator Elijah Sims, he emphasized the help he received from his coordinating team of partners from LBCC, CSULB, and LBUSD.
“It was a lot of collaboration and a lot of working with institutions. My role was to help coordinate the three different partners (LBCC, CSULB, and LBUSD) to ensure that we all provided different things for the students,” Sims said.
“So the event would be seamless, empowering, and fun for them.”
LBCC’s College Promise Male Summit grows more every year, capturing the attention of the community and its distinguished leaders that wish to be involved.