BLU Educational Foundation recently had the amazing opportunity to attend the A²MEND Annual Summit. A²MEND’s mission is to work to ensure the interest and success of African American students, faculty, staff and administrators at California’s community colleges. A²MEND educators utilize their scholarly and professional expertise to foster institutional change within the community college system to increase success of African American male students.Â
At the Summit there was an abundance of highly intentional, positive, and trailblazing humans who dedicate their time and energy daily to be a resource and support system in serving African American males. This was apparent from a number of phenomenal workshops and presentations on Culturally Responsive Instruction, The Black Wall Street history for aspiring entrepreneurs, and diving deep into conversations of manhood and emotional intelligence- just to name a few.
Between the breakout sessions, keynotes, networking, and FUN, it was clear to our team that this was time well spent and very much so aligned to BLU’s own mission and programming.
The vision of A²MEND as an organization includes:
building, supporting and sustaining institutional capacity that effectively addresses the needs of African American males at community colleges
supporting African American men in their career development, advancement and achievement in community colleges
serving as a network for African American educators
At BLU we aim to achieve similar outcomes through our College & Career Access programing. Whether it be our flagship College Exodus Project, our College Exodus to Health Professions program, or the Black Educator Pipeline, BLU seeks to provide support to under-resourced students in the Inland Empire–including African American students. Attending the A²MEND Summit provided information and resources on how we can better serve these populations, and we are grateful for the opportunity to gain this knowledge.