Brotherhood in a Zoom Room

Even during a pandemic, a UW program connected young men of color

By Shamaar Thomas

ON MY FIRST DAY of college at the UW, I woke up excited to attend my first class of the Brotherhood Initiative. The program seeks to increase the graduation rate of men of color by building strong bonds and fostering a tight-knit group of students. I was a part of Cohort 4. Since we started at the UW in 2020 in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to experience our freshman year remotely.

Throwing on a white polo, I hopped on the Zoom call and scrolled through to see my new peers. At first, the 35 other students were strangers, but as I got to know each of them over the quarter, I felt comforted. Though I only saw their faces onscreen, I felt a sense of belonging.

Each year since 2016, the program, also known as the BI, has brought together first-year students to form a learning community and create a family that lasts beyond their first two years of college and hopefully long after graduation. My group, the one formed during the pandemic, missed out on key elements of the BI experience. Instead of meeting for pizza and pickup basketball, we had Netflix watch parties and virtual gaming. Instead of study halls, we interacted through online workshops and breakout rooms. And now, as many of us are graduating, we can’t help but wonder what might have been.

Joe Lott, an associate professor in the College of Education, launched the Brotherhood Initiative in 2016 to tackle racial disparities at the UW and to study and translate the experience of a program serving men of color to a national audience. Time has shown that the initiative works. BI students graduate at a higher rate than the general population of UW students. In addition, my cohort finished 2022 with a higher average GPA than men of color who were not in the program.

Although this is cause to celebrate, I wish the same could be said for higher education across the country. Recent reports from McKinsey & Company showed that marginalized racial and ethnic populations were significantly underrepresented in higher education, and those who did attend college completed their degrees at a lower rate than the overall student population. At the UW, the BI exists to change those numbers. Cohorts like mine are part of this vision. I’m proud to be a part of that.

But because of the pandemic, we didn’t get a traditional freshman experience of meeting friends and exploring campus. And we felt like our first two years flew by, stealing opportunities to meaningfully engage with one another at times when we needed it most. “My first year at UW was probably the most mentally draining year ever,” says Ethan Blanco, a member of Cohort 4 who is pursuing a degree in public health. “I can’t tell what happened during fall, winter or spring quarter because of how many things just all blended into each other.”

Still, the BI helped ease Ethan’s anxieties as a college freshman through in-class discussions. It was not until his sophomore and junior years that he started building relationships within the BI that would inspire him to study abroad in London and eventually become part of the BI’s new peer mentorship program.

Daniel Garcia, who is double-majoring in education and mathematics, also volunteered to be a peer mentor this year. “While I enjoy all of the advice that the BI staff provides us, it is also nice to hear from someone currently going through the experience,” he says.

Because of the BI’s success, a growing number of participants and a new Sisterhood Initiative, the program recently moved to a new home in the Brooklyn Trail Building near campus. Now the BI and the SI have spaces for workshops and for hanging out between classes. Students can also come in for advice, encouragement or just a shoulder to lean on. “The BI having its own building has increased my sense of belonging to the campus and BI family,” Garcia says. “I know I have a place I can stop by and recharge whenever I have some downtime.”

The new site is a place for growth without judgment, says Ella Harris, the BI’s new student success coordinator. “I really want to use my presence and influence to push the envelope around what a man is in the BI,” she adds. “There’s a lot of different ways to be male, there’s a lot of different ways to be a man of color, and they are all OK. They are all good. We are challenging our guys to think about the things society has taught them and how they’re showing up in the world.”

As I leave campus, I realize my cohort missed out on incredible aspects that the BI could only offer in person. However, I can’t help but smile knowing that I belonged to not only the UW but to the Brotherhood Initiative. With the support of my cohort and the program, I graduated early at the age of 21. I am the first in my family to graduate college. And I’m a little sad to leave it behind. I remember once saying to Assistant Director Paul Metellus that I wanted to visit the BI after my cohort’s time was over. Turning from his computer, he raised an eyebrow and wondered when I thought that would be. I thought I would move on after graduation, but now I find myself writing this article so I can use my skills to give something back.

Paul Metellus, assistant director for student success in the Brotherhood Initiative, visits with writer Shamaar �homas, ’22, in the BI’s new offices on Brooklyn Ave. �homas graduated in the fall of 2022 with a journalism major and a minor in diversity. He is now pursuing a fulltime writing position.