The Black Student Success Summit is a one-day event where Black youth learn how to navigate the education-to-career pathways for various industries, through interactive workshops, affinity group caucuses, motivational speeches, and structured networking activities. All BSSS activities are culturally specific, in that they are created and implemented by Black professionals representing both public and private sectors acting in concert with Black educators.
The Black youth in Oregon are in urgent need of assistance. Despite the notable efforts of existing support programs, recently released test scores show a continually widening achievement gap between Black students and their peers. This is of great consequence, as level of educational attainment has been shown to be inextricably linked to labor market outcomes, social status, physical and mental health, marriage and fertility, civic participation, and social attitudes. With respect to health
Education to Career Attainment. Each component involves engaging Black community members in training and advocacy that improves the context in which Black students learn. Moreover, all project activities are led by Black professionals who have expertise in their focus areas and are employed by culturally specific organizations with a minimum of five years of success serving Black students and community members.
This event will affect 800 students and their parents. Our vision is for educators, parents, and most importantly, students to feel genuine enthusiasm towards their schoolwork. By improving engagement with parents and knowledge of students' personal interests, educators will find it easier to communicate high expectations, reshape curriculum to include multicultural content, and employ active teaching methods where the educator can be a facilitator rather than lecturer.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
