I think everything has to be perfect in order to learn; you learn and grow don’t from good and bad. I had to decide to cut my work schedule so that I could achieve better grades. I feel like everything good or bad, helped me out to better me for college. Reflecting on his pathway to academic success, Nate shared: thought I do “I didn’t enough to prepare for college; I expect to succeed. I regained focus and got very didn’t focused. I do everything I am supposed to Eric offered his being a do.” thoughts; “Just Black man, I know Black people the most privileged usually, and they struggle a aren’t lot, so just being a Black student, I see myself as having to work harder than most people.” James remarked on his change of mindset: This is me. my time. If I want to do it, I can do it. no point in It’s There’s get it. how my mindset changed from high school to waiting; let’s go; let’s That’s college, and now, on me! it’s Consistently, it was inspiring to hear these young men discuss their realizations of how important they were as individuals in contributing to their own success. Each of them expressed their confidence that they could and would be successful. Each had in mind a plan for moving to the next level of their educational journey and each claimed personal responsibility for ensuring that their plan was moving them forward. After examining this group of Black male students, at varying points in their matriculation, it appears that students who seem, to possess high levels of confidence and intrinsic motivation begs the question, how and why are these young men assumed to be at risk of being unsuccessful? How does the educational institution support these students? Given the qualities presented by these students during the individual and focus group interviews, I began to wonder, why their path to success be expected? shouldn’t
I don’t think everything has to be perfect in order to learn; you learn and grow from good and bad. I had to decide to cut my work schedule so that I could achieve better grades. I feel like everything good or bad, helped me out to better me for college. Reflecting on his pathway to academic success, Nate shared: “I thought I didn’t do enough to prepare for college; I didn’t expect to succeed. I regained focus and got very focused. I do everything I am supposed to do.” Eric offered his thoughts; “Just being a Black man, I know Black people aren’t the most privileged usually, and they struggle a lot, so just being a Black student, I see myself as having to work harder than most people.” James remarked on his change of mindset: This is me. It’s my time. If I want to do it, I can do it. There’s no point in waiting; let’s go; let’s get it. That’s how my mindset changed from high school to college, and now, it’s on me! Consistently, it was inspiring to hear these young men discuss their realizations of how important they were as individuals in contributing to their own success. Each of them expressed their confidence that they could and would be successful. Each had in mind a plan for moving to the next level of their educational journey and each claimed personal responsibility for ensuring that their plan was moving them forward. After examining this group of Black male students, at varying points in their matriculation, it appears that students who seem, to possess high levels of confidence and intrinsic motivation begs the question, how and why are these young men assumed to be at risk of being unsuccessful? How does the educational institution support these students? Given the qualities presented by these students during the individual and focus group interviews, I began to wonder, why shouldn’t their path to success be expected?