A New Partnership In Education Springfield, MO—The national headquarters for an organization that supports young men from diverse backgrounds who seek and obtain higher education goals is moving to the Missouri State campus. The university, with support from the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, has become the home base for the Student African American Brotherhood, or SAAB. SAAB was founded in 1990 at the University of Ohio-Toledo by former college official Tyrone Bledsoe, the CEO, in response to the low percentage of black men who enrolled and completed college during the 1980s. There are more than 250 chapters including the Bridge Springfield: Brother to Brother Program, or B2B. “Our university and the city have enthusiastically embraced SAAB and our local chapter, Bridge Springfield: Brother to Brother (B2B). which was established in 2014,” said H. Wes Pratt, chief diversity officer at MSU. “As one SAAB student leader puts it. We are all about caring for each other’s success.” Its cause is threefold: • Ensure that young men of color throughout the nation have the education-to-career support they need to achieve lives of purpose and success. • Build and sustain strong bonds among young men of all backgrounds • Enable young men of color to be recognized for their talent, drive and contributions to society. According to an evaluation by Equal Measure, a firm that consults with organizations on ways
to create social change, SAAB students: • Persist from their freshman Scholarship and Loan Foundation education-to-career support to sophomore years at a rate of 80%, nearly double the rate of Black and Latino males nationally • Graduate from two-or four-year colleges at a rate of 86%. More than 80% reported that their college experience was better because of the organization MSU President Clif Smart explained to the board that as part of the two-year agreement, the university will provide 1,700
square feet at the Park Central Office Building. The pact can be expanded. As part of relocating from Toledo to Springfield, MSU will also provide SAAB with Wi-Fi, office Dr Tyrone Bledsoe furniture and parking spaces,” said Clif Smart, president of Missouri State University “We are very excited about
this, with very limited investment, we have an amazing opportunity.” Smart said. Smart said embracing SAAB fits with the public affairs mission of the university as well as goals to increase the percentage of diverse faculty and staff and improve the success rates for students from diverse backgrounds. “It will significantly raise the profile of the university as a leader for inclusive excellence in our state. I believe it will help recruit minority students and faculty,” Smart said.
Who Convinced You? by Robert T. Gibson Unite Contributing Writer
is convinced about something negative regarding themselves because it will take a miracle to Springfield, MO—As a middle retrain their minds and allow school teacher, I love working them to think they have value with young minds and seeing and worth in a specific area. As students blossom into maI began to process how ture young men or women. these students cope with Every day at Reed Acadelife, I reflect on my own. my, I run into all types of Who convinced me that students. From the outspoI was good enough and ken ones to the shy ones, I could one day influence Robert T. Gibson others? Let’s take a walk realize that they are influenced by who they know through my story. and what they see. Take the Tall, slim, and soft spoken student who says he can’t do the was my elementary school music math assignment or the student teacher, Mr. Fleming. Music was who does not want to sing. It is always the one ancillary class not because they are bad stuthat I preferred because I knew dents, but more so because they that we were going to play rehave been influenced, or as I like corders and hear a 20-25 minute to call it, convinced that they are sermon from Mr. Fleming. He alnot good enough. It is dangerways dressed in his Sunday’s finous when a student (or anyone) est, which made me proud to see
Page 8 Building Empowering Connections | Unite News
a black man dressed so “fancy.” Little did I know he convinced me that my appearance was important and everyone who came in contact with me would never forget who I was. No wonder why I can’t tell my work clothes from my Sunday attire. In high school, Ms. Bonner was (and still is) the head of the entire school. Even after retiring from over 51 years of teaching, she was more than our choir teacher, but she was the glue that held students together. I was a bit of a class clown back in the day and just when I thought I could get away with, Ms. Bonner would remind me of how “crass and ill bred” I was being. This term seemed strange coming from a black woman, but I realized she did not talk to me like a street
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