From serving our country to serving our community, ex military armorer Elijah Harris is Umoja’s newly appointed club president who wants to give back through basic needs and social awareness.
“Basically the name. It means family. They always treated me like family ever since I came in. That’s why I want to help out the community because you know, it’s family. I joined last semester and I became president this semester,” Harris said.
As a student of Long Beach City College, Harris wants to strive toward helping people in the school, the city and neighboring communities.
Feeding and giving shoes to the homeless, food drives, beach and street cleanups and Meals on Wheels are on the schedule. Umoja has volunteers to help pack and deliver food for the elderly alongside checking for any signs of elder abuse.
Long Beach City College will collaborate with the Umoja club in Cerritos College, partaking in an upcoming forum in November.
“It’s a social awareness forum. It’s an event where we teach high school students and the people of the community, you know, they need to know their rights. We’re going to teach them about the Census 2020, social issues and the church. We’re going to have a class on human trafficking, police and community relations. How to talk to the police because we don’t want nobody to become a hashtag,” said Harris.
Harris joined various clubs before sticking with Umoja at the of end last semester. Working with his co-members, Harris strives to fulfill his position as Umoja president.
“At first I wasn’t feeling it. At first I was in other clubs, I can’t really name them because I don’t want to give a bad rep. But it just wasn’t what I wanted. They didn’t have the same values as I do. Umoja, it did last semester but we didn’t have the people. Luckily, this semester, we got more people. We got Clyde who’s good in the financial area. Then we got Isaiah, who’s our vice president. We got more and more people coming in each day so it’s different,” said Harris.
Umoja club Vice President Isaiah Dedrick and Umoja club Treasurer Clyde Jackson were present and expressed how they felt to hear Harris’s words.
“I’m just glad to be working with Elijah. I think that he has a really good vision and we have the same vision too. I have never really run into somebody that has the same vision as me so to finally find somebody who has the same ways of doing things and just wants to take action rather than just wanting to talk about things, that’s what I like about him. That’s why I have no problem being his vice president,” said Dedrick.
“Very appreciative, very humble. I feel what he was feeling, you know coming to school, well college in general. I had lost motivation because I just didn’t get used to the program, well not just not the program but how school is ran in college. I like the freedom of it but having that freedom kind of makes me get off course,” said Jackson.
From the time he started elementary school, all the way up to college, Harris did not see his future going anywhere if he only continued to study. Over time, school became less significant to Harris and he saw no future with education at the time.
Being in school since his primary years, Harris did not feel the need to stay in college. Schooling became insignificant to him at that point. Instead of hitting the books, Harris spent his time partying. At 18 years old, he decided to enlist in to the military.
“When I was 18, I started a semester but I didn’t do that good. Like I didn’t go to college and I didn’t take it that seriously. I went to the military, I got a view that education is important. Education is how you get respected. If you want to be a high ranking officer, you gotta have a degree and they’re the most respected in the military. So for me, it was like, you know, I want to go back to school so I can get my education and get respected.”
Harris served the military for three and a half years and worked as a unit specialist, an armorer and drove trucks. He was discharged a year ago and has returned as a college student. When it came to the topic of his choice to join the military, it was not positively viewed upon from his family.
“We didn’t want him to go to the army in the beginning. Nobody was with that. It was his own decision. We favored that he go to school in the beginning. We are just happy he came back safe,” said Russell Waters, uncle of Harris.
“Nah they weren’t, they weren’t with it but they are proud of it right now. They’re happy with it. Because of how I came out, I came out more mature,” said Harris.
Coming home from the military brought joy to his family as they were able to welcome home a refreshed and changed Harris.
With the decision to go back to school, Harris chose Long Beach City as his choice to get things started for his academic path. Although, as a Long Beach native, he chose LBCC for a special reason.
Aside from being a Long Beach resident, Harris’s uncle came to LBCC back in the 1960’s.
Harris’s uncle, Johnny Calloway, passed away last year in June. Harris stated that his uncle has done a lot for Long Beach and is inspired to follow his footsteps.
“I didn’t talk to him a lot about LBCC but I heard a lot about him. Like he was big in Long Beach and I think he has a section in a museum for him. That’s what my grandma said. Some museum in Long Beach, a history museum,” said Harris.
History extends into Harris’s life as he is a nephew of a deceased LBCC alumni and wishes to teach history in the future.
“Love history. Love reading about history. Love reading about Marcus Garvey and Malcom X, ancient civilizations, everything,” said Harris.
“I want to be a history teacher. Most likely middle school or high school.”
Harris already planned out which schools he wishes to transfer to after community college to help him reach his goal.
“I’m trying to transfer to University of California Santa Barbara, University of California San Diego, San Diego State University, Morehouse College, or the University of the Virgin Islands,” the Umoja club president proclaimed.