Tag Archives: African American Student Success Task Force

May 2017 Newsletter: Spartans Meet Civil Rights Icon on Spring Break

Photo: Michael Cheers San Jose State Spartans meet with Congressman and Civil Rights icon John Lewis during an alternative spring break trip in March.

Photo: Michael Cheers
San Jose State Spartans meet with Congressman and Civil Rights icon John Lewis during an alternative spring break trip in March.

By David Goll

When they first heard in the fall semester about a trip to the East Coast planned for spring break week in March coordinated by the African American Student Success Task Force, Chelby Gill and Adesuwa Obaizamomwan were intrigued by the academic and professional possibilities.

Now that they have completed their first trip to New York and Washington D.C., both students view it as a life-changing experience. They were among a group of 16 students who took part in an Alternative Education Spring Break trip. The students were accompanied by Dr. Michael Cheers, co-chair of the task force, associate professor of photojournalism, and photojournalism coordinator; Jahmal Williams, the interim assistant director of the Peer Connections Tutorial Program and Student Development; Felicia McKee, administrative assistant to the AVP for Strategic Communications and Public Affairs; and alumna Wanda Hendrix, ’77 Sociology, ’94 MPA, a member of SJSU’s Tower Foundation board of directors. Hendrix and College of Social Sciences Dean Walt Jacobs provided scholarships to cover part of the cost for students within that college to participate in the trip.

Gill and Obaizamomwan said they viewed a visit to The Studio Museum of Harlem in New York City — one of the nation’s foremost showcases of the works of art by people of African descent — as one of the trip’s highlights. Obaizamomwan, a senior majoring in psychology, said she also loved seeing such famed Big Apple sites as Central Park, Times Square and seeing a production of “The Lion King” at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre. Nearing graduation and because of her interest in attending graduate school to pursue politics and public policy, she was also excited to tour the American University campus in Washington.

But spending time in the nation’s capital with John Lewis — the 77-year-old Civil Rights icon who suffered a fractured skull while participating in the famed 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Alabama and has served as a member of the House of Representatives from Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District for the past 30 years — was a once-in-a-lifetime honor, both said.

“It honestly felt surreal to meet Rep. John Lewis,” said Gill, a sophomore majoring in political science. “The feeling was much different than just meeting some celebrity. The moment had so much more meaning because this man is a Civil Rights icon. I loved hearing him talk about his experiences in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and working with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Obaizamomwan said Lewis talked a lot about his activist past, connecting it to the students of today.

“He talked to us about activism in the past and today,” she said. “He said how important it was for us to be active as leaders in student government and in social issues. And also how to stay mentally healthy while doing that. He talked about how he is still fighting today. And he said if you don’t think things have gotten better, take a walk in his shoes.”

Along with being a living legend, the Congressman is also very much of the current day. After all, he attended the annual Comic-Con International convention, the pop-culture entertainment and comic gathering in San Diego, two years ago to promote his Civil Rights trilogy and illustrated memoir “March: Book Two” released in 2014.

“He took selfies with us,” Obaizamomwan said of the meeting with Lewis in Washington.

That longer-than-expected meeting between the SJSU students and Rep. Lewis was months in the making, Cheers said, of coordinating the meeting. After getting no response to his initial round of emails to Washington D.C., Cheers took a different tack.

“I called his office in Georgia,” he said. “We were able to arrange for a visit to his Washington office, but were told it would probably only be for a few minutes.”

The meeting ended up lasting far longer, even as Lewis’ staff reminded him of other appointments in his busy schedule.

“He really got into it and became so engaged with the students,” Cheers said. “He personally signed copies of his book for every single student.”

The trip to Washington was a bit of a homecoming for Cheers, who attended graduate school at Howard University. Howard “rolled out the red carpet” for the SJSU students when they visited the historically-Black university campus during an hour-long presentation of its graduate programs. He said he hoped it would spark an interest among students to look into graduate programs at historically-Black colleges and universities, located in the East and South.

The visit also allowed students to connect with successful Spartan alumni. They met with Robert R. Rigsby, a 1983 SJSU graduate who is now an associate judge on the District of Columbia Superior Court, and Bayo Junyor, a 2012 SJSU graduate who went on to earn a master’s degree from New York University, and is now a science teacher at Ascend Middle School, a charter school in Brooklyn.

Cheers said he feels it’s important to get SJSU students out of their “Bay Area bubble” and into the larger world.

“I want to empower them and give them exposure to a wider world,” he said. “I think that in order to close the achievement gap (for African-American students), you have to expand the opportunities.”

April Newsletter: ‘Essence of Blackness’ Event Builds Community at SJSU

By Lauren Hernandez, ’15 Journalism

The pounding of conga drums married with the seductive blare of the trumpet filled the Student Union Ballroom as part of the second annual Essence of Blackness event.

The African American Student Success Task Force hosted the event along with its Harambee Committee to explore just one influence of African culture on the world by focusing on jazz music and its rich, diverse history in the United States and beyond.

“Harambee, the arm of the task force that sponsors these kinds of events, brings together not only the African American students, faculty and staff but also reaches out to the larger campus to participate in cultural events,” said Michelle Randle, director of the CASA Student Success Center and chair of the Harambee committee. “And [also it is important] for the African American students to see the support that they actually have on campus beyond themselves.”

The Essence of Blackness theme was born last year following conversations with African American students regarding the type of educational programming they felt was necessary to share with the campus community.

“I do think young people now are not exposed to jazz and do not always understand that its origins do come from Africa and this country,” Randle said.

Charlie Channel, of the Charlie Channel Quartet, lectured attendees on the history of jazz before delving into a traditional jazz performance.

Channel read Langston Hughes’ poem titled “Drums,” which represents the origin of jazz by chronicling the movement of slaves from Africa while describing the survival and re-emergence of the drums into new lands.

“When you think about slavery and tribes of people who were thrown together, who didn’t know each other, the oppression, the brutality, there was just one thing they had in common — it was the drum,” Channel said. “Ultimately, it resulted in this new form of music that had never been heard before on the planet called ‘jazz’.”

The genre’s diversity was introduced to attendees by Brian Andres, the drum set and leader of the Brian Andres & the Afro-Cuban Jazz Cartel. He discussed how the music evolved in the United States with the help of Mario Bauza, a Cuban clarinetist who played a role in launching the Afro-Cuban jazz movement during the Harlem Renaissance.

Some attendees leaped to their feet and danced as Andres and his band’s upbeat conga drumming and lively trumpeting reverberated throughout the ballroom. Others indulged in Walia Ethiopian, Caribbean and American soul-food cuisine.

This year’s event included the Harambee Awards and commemorative clocks were given to individuals in the campus community who have served and shown commitment to the success of African American students.

Six members of the administration, four students and two community members were awarded recognition and two students were given special recognition for their “Strength in the Face of Adversity.”

Gary Daniels, a Harambee awardee, said although he is thankful for the recognition, he is not a student activist to gain accolades.

“Young people should use their talents and energy to make the world a better place regardless of whether they get awarded or recognized,” Daniels said.

Jerusalem Bekele, ’17 Kinesiology and fellow Harambee awardee, said events such as Essence of Blackness are essential to educating the campus community about various cultures and the origin of traditions, but also to building a sense of community.

“Our perspective is kind of limited to what’s in front of us, and not necessarily outside so events like this kind of reach outside of America,” Bekele said. “I think it introduces a lot of culture and tradition to the SJSU community as well.”

Donntay Moore-Thomas, ’17 Communications Studies, said although it was nice to see familiar faces that comprise the three percent African American population at SJSU, she was thrilled to see people from other cultural backgrounds attend as well.

“If we can share a meal together, I feel that we can come together for a greater cause,” Moore-Thomas said.

Photo by Lauren Hernandez Guests dance to a jazz band at the Essence of Blackness event hosted by the African American Student Success Task Force Harambee Committee in April.

Photo by Lauren Hernandez
Guests dance to a jazz band at the Essence of Blackness event hosted by the African American Student Success Task Force Harambee Committee in April.

October newsletter: New deans and AVPs learn Spartan culture

New deans and administrators in the Academic Affairs Division have been participating in an on-boarding program developed to provide them with information about San Jose State and the surrounding area, gain familiarity with campus units and resources, and introduce them to the culture of the university.

Lynda Heiden, former chair of the Academic Senate, helped create topics and led each session to which the new managers were invited, along with the new vice presidents for Student Affairs and University Advancement.

The administrators met weekly starting in July, then bi-weekly once Fall classes began. In early sessions, the group learned about the often-confusing acronyms used on campus, the physical layout of the campus and downtown San Jose, and enjoyed a campus tour led by Annette Nellen on the history of the university. Over the course of the semester, representatives from a range of divisions and units across campus met with the group to share information about their work and its interface with Academic Affairs, such as the Academic Senate, the African American and Chicano/Latino Student Success Task Forces, Student Affairs, and Campus Police/Safety, among others.

“The on-boarding process was very helpful in providing opportunities to meet a diverse group of members from the SJSU community,” said Mary Schutten, the dean of the College of Applied Sciences and Arts. “The meetings provided information about the many departments that work together to make SJSU what it is today.”

Schutten, who joined SJSU in July, said the sessions so far have provided a perspective of the campus, information on who to contact for various needs, and information about the culture of the university. She said she found presentations by UPD, the Behavioral Intervention Team, finance and athletics especially helpful in her role as dean.

“My experience with onboarding has been great and made me feel very welcome,” said Sandeep Muju, the executive director of the Research Foundation. “(It) has been a great experience and an efficient way to get acclimated to SJSU.”