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JUDY WOODRUFF: Enrollment in
higher education suffered across
the board during the pandemic.

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Community colleges faced the
sharpest declines overall.
More than 700,000 students,

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many of them lower-income,
dropped out or delayed
school. That is a 13
percent drop from 2019.

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Black male students left
in droves, down 21 percent.
Even before the pandemic,

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there were concerns about Black
men completing their degrees.

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Stephanie Sy reports on
efforts in California
to reverse that trend.

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It's part of our latest
series on Rethinking College.

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STEPHANIE SY: Every
morning, Chris Adams is
in the zone studying for
the LSAT like his life

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depends on it. For the
34-year old recent UCLA
graduate, law school
wasn't always in the cards.

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CHRIS ADAMS, UCLA
Graduate: My parents moved
a lot when I was young,

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so I went to different
schools, and just being in
different environments where

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they probably didn't understand
where I came from or who I was.

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STEPHANIE SY: You were a child.

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CHRIS ADAMS: Yes. I was looking
for guidance, didn't really
know how the academic settings

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would be, didn't really know
what to expect, didn't have,
like, good studying habits.

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STEPHANIE SY: Adams'
school trouble led to
him being arrested at 16
and juvenile detention.

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He dropped out of high
school and became a dad. His
educational prospects dimmed.

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CHRIS ADAMS: What's more
important ,taking care of
your family, paying the
bills, or going to school?

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STEPHANIE SY: His local
community college in
Sacramento offered a
gateway back into education.

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Everything changed when
he met Edward Bush, the
president of the college.

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EDWARD BUSH, Co-Founder,
African American Male
Educational Network: Every

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student has the potential
to succeed in college, when
given the correct support

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and tools necessary
to be successful.

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So, with the situation with
Chris, he had the passion,
he had the intelligence
to be successful,

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but was struggling just because
he didn't have practical tools.

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STEPHANIE SY: Chris Adams
found a mentor in Bush.

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CHRIS ADAMS: I want to do all
these different things. And he

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listens and he just gives
me a nice little plan
on how to achieve that.

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STEPHANIE SY: He
gives you a plan?

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CHRIS ADAMS: He gives me a plan.

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Put in those hours. How
many units it says that
you are completing,

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that's how many hours
you should be spending.
If it's three units,

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spend three hours
studying. I never thought
about it like that.

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STEPHANIE SY: He graduated
with honors from Cosumnes River
College and transferred to UCLA.

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EDWARD BUSH: Black males
are not the thing that
need to be fixed. It's the

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structures in which they
interface with that needs
to be disrupted and changed.

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STEPHANIE SY: Bush
co-founded A2MEND in 2006,

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with a mission of fostering
success for Black men at
California's community colleges.

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EDWARD BUSH: We focus on not
only providing support to
the student, but I think,

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most importantly, we look
at structures that have been
barriers for our students.

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STEPHANIE SY: Students
and educators from across

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the state recently
attended A2MEND's annual
conference in Los Angeles.

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AMANUEL GEBRU, Executive
Director, African American Male
Educational Network: If this

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is your first time here, I just
want to tell you, this is a
different kind of conference.

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(LAUGHTER)

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STEPHANIE SY: It was as much
about networking and learning
as it was a celebration.

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HILL HARPER, Activist:
Oftentimes, people
want to focus on,

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oh, the U.C. or the state
system or these private
schools or this or that.

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It's about community colleges.

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(APPLAUSE)

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STEPHANIE SY: This year
was the first in-person
gathering since the pandemic,

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which took a disproportionate
toll on communities of color.

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The racial inequities
that were laid bare by the
pandemic are also at play
in education, says Bush.

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EDWARD BUSH: Many of our
students can go entire K
through 16 and not have
one Black male teacher.

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And that's not the case
for other ethnic or racial
groups. And so because there's

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a lack of connection, they don't
have the same information poured
into them over a period of

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time. And so that creates a gap
in opportunity and knowledge
necessary to be successful.

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STEPHANIE SY: Seventy
percent of Black men
in California pursuing
higher education attend a

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community college, but degree
attainment and completion
lag behind other groups.

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A recent analysis by the
Education Trust found about

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27 percent of Black men held a
college degree, compared to just
over 44 percent of white men.

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That has impacts beyond
the ivory tower of college.
Higher levels of education

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often mean higher incomes,
more spending power, and less
likelihood of incarceration.

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Bush also explains the Black
male achievement gap as rooted

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in historical discrimination
and psychological.

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EDWARD BUSH: There's a lot
of internalized negative
stereotypes about who we are.

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For example, like, you
get on the elevator and
someone is in there and
they clench their purse.

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Or you're walking
down the street,

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someone will go on
the other side. These
are daily occurrences
that sometimes we put

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in the back of our mind because
the totality and the weight
of it is difficult to carry.

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STEPHANIE SY: During the
pandemic, community college
enrollment suffered broadly. But

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Black men saw the steepest
decline, continuing
a downward trend that

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Compton College has put
resources toward fighting.

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With most classes still taught
virtually under pandemic
protocols, the campus was

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largely empty. But college
President Keith Curry is
particularly concerned

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about the absence of Black
men in enrollment figures and
in other metrics of success.

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KEITH CURRY, President,
Compton College: My data

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is showing that the Black men
are not doing well in retention

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within a particular course,
they're not doing well
in persistence, coming
back next semester.

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They're not doing well in
regards to graduation rates. We
have to do something different.

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STEPHANIE SY: Compton
College is located just south
of downtown Los Angeles.

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The area has seen
the Black population
decline in recent years.

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But Black male enrollment
at the college has fallen
even more. Enrollment of

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African-American men plummeted
from 919 in the fall of 2019
to 269 in the fall of 2021.

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KEITH CURRY: It might not affect
all of our groups on campus,

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but the -- particularly, the
Black and male of color students

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are our priority based off the
data. So, what can we do as
an organization to fix that?

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That's the key to it, is just
really being thoughtful for it.

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STEPHANIE SY: Using
pandemic relief funding,

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he created the position
of director of Black and
males of color success
at Compton College.

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ANTONIO BANKS, Director of
Black and Males of Color
Success, Compton College:

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But, for these individuals,
oftentimes, it was
just one person at the
campus saying, hey,

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I'm going to take you under
my wing and show you this
is where financial aid is,

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this is where orientation
is, this is what you need
to do to get this resource.

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STEPHANIE SY: Antonio Banks'
role is to develop a system to

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help Black male students
navigate Compton College.

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With more than half
of its students food-
and housing-insecure
and nearly a quarter

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experiencing homelessness, he
also tries to find ways to help
with stressors outside college.

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ANTONIO BANKS: One of the
biggest prohibitive factors for

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Black men and men of color
in community colleges have

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historically been food
insecurity, right,
housing insecurity and
transportation issues.

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The market that we're
in right now is only
exacerbating these issues.

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STEPHANIE SY: High
prices for everything,

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ANTONIO BANKS: High
prices for everything.

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STEPHANIE SY: Banks attended
the A2MEND conference with
Compton College students.

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Organizers hope the kind of
mentorship opportunities at
these events lead to more Black

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men in college reaching
their full potential, the
way connecting with Dr.
Bush did for Chris Adams.

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When you look at your impact
on his trajectory, what
do you feel? Is it pride?

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EDWARD BUSH: It's, I mean, he
has a 3.9 GPA, right? He is
about to have his choice of law

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school. I really take credit
for it, because it was
already inside of Chris.

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CHRIS ADAMS: It's really
somebody validating what you
have been doing and telling you,

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leading you in the
right direction.

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STEPHANIE SY: And he's now
doing that for his own 15-year
old son. Keith was recently

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accepted into a top high school
that Chris hopes will put
him on the track to college.

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For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm
Stephanie Sy in Los Angeles.