SSN working groups and coalitions are spaces for monthly member and community-driven conversations, resource coordination, enacting immediate interventions, contributing to the field's growing knowledge base, and advocating for longer-term social improvements to city-wide issues impacting NYC youth.
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Critical Consciousness in College Access & Success
Critical Consciousness in College Access & Success
Overview
Overview
This group raises awareness about the racialized experiences and roadblocks marginalized students face on the way to, and throughout college. It centers critical consciousness to unpack the historical context and limitations of traditional college-readiness and success approaches, and aims to offer a model for maximizing supportive connections between school counselors, young adults, CBOs, and colleges, to affirm students’ humanity and foster psychological safety and belonging.
As an initial step, Network college access and success practitioners participated in a series of six conversations (January-May 2021) to understand the ways racism impacts college access and success and build interpersonal skills to structure their advising practices with a race-conscious and anti-oppressive lens. Most importantly, members felt that the space allowed for vulnerability and critical reflection in sharing their lived experiences within a peer community, which otherwise might not be afforded. The key highlights which emerged from each conversation are documented below.
The next phase of this work will establish a broader coalition of those closest to the issue, to pilot a collaborative approach to creating and implementing student-centered and culturally responsive pathways.
1 | Properly contextualizing college access and success for racially minoritized students
1 | Properly contextualizing college access and success for racially minoritized students
This discussion explored the connections between white institutional spaces (i.e., colleges), racism as it is perpetuated in college access and processes, and emotional labor for students of color. This was necessary to ground the conversation with an understanding of how racism functions in society and as a precursor to unpacking the lived experiences of students and identifying a role for CBOs.
Key Highlights
⭐️ It's important to take seriously the impact of racialized experiences on the well-being and college persistence among Black and other students of color. These understandings are crucial even if youth follow a post-secondary plan that does not lead to college — racism and racist interactions will be a part of these paths because racism forms the structure of our society
⭐️ Testimonies from students reveal that experiences of racism are happening all over campus — in dorms, with professors, on sports teams, in dining halls, in classrooms, etc.
⭐️ Practitioners have a role in fostering safe spaces for students to share and have their experiences validated by trusted adults in the pre-college process
⭐️ Practitioners typically learn about students' negative encounters through one-on-one conversations
⭐️ CBOs are suited to partner with colleges to ensure students have familiar, community-based and race-conscious support while navigating racially hostile environments
⭐️ Co-learning (deeply about oneself and the youth we're engaging) is a critical and transformative practice
Closing Thought Questions:
What connections do you make between racism and the college access process?
What are some of the practices and resources you implement that help young people prepare to navigate historically and predominantly White institutions?
What support do you need from the Network and/or your organization to implement race conscious programming for your college access and success students?
What questions remain for you about the relationship between racism and college campus experiences?
Key Resources
📚 White Space(s) and the Reproduction of White Supremacy
📚 The Mechanisms of White Space(s) Impossible Burdens: White Institutions,Emotional Labor, and Micro-Resistance
📚 The Impact of Racist Encounters: Racial Microaggressions @University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
📚 The Psychological and Academic Costs of School-Based Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions
📚 Georgetown Law professor terminated after ‘reprehensible’ comments about Black students
📚 Students are using Instagram to reveal racism on campus
📚 Students Sick of 'Lip Service' From Universities Over Racism
📚 The Role of Critical Race Theory in Higher Education
📚 Sociologist Wendy Leo Moore offers a framework for unpacking the relationship between U.S. racial social structure (White Supremacy) and individual organizational (colleges) social culture. Read the abstract here.
2 | The intersections of identity, race, trauma, and socio-political context in college essay writing
2 | The intersections of identity, race, trauma, and socio-political context in college essay writing
Practitioners discussed their conceptions about the traditional purposes of college essays, as well as their current advising approaches, and the centrality of race and identity in essays.
Key Highlights
⭐️ Essays are a part of student identity development and self-exploration
⭐️ For BIPOC students, race and ethnicity are often the focus of their admissions essays
⭐️ After revisiting student essays together with critical consciousness, it seemed BIPOC students' inclination to focus on poverty and resilience despite barriers might be in response to perceived norms that exploit poverty as an experience to be fixed. As a result, Network practitioners are reflecting on and considering the following:
How can essay writing processes create space for relationship development with students?
How can the process foster increased understanding of how students see themselves and their communities?
How can advising practices empower students in their authentic identity story-telling without fetishizing marginalized students for their resilience, grit, strength, and surviving against or surpassing all odds?
How can advising practices support students not to focus on disconnecting themselves from their communities and racial stereotypes for acceptance by admissions?
⭐️ Overall, practitioners appreciated the opportunity to discuss what comes up in essays with peers and are hoping to gain ideas for approaching future conversations with students
3 | Where are we sending black and brown students? Exploring the landscape of college choices and origins of college lists
3 | Where are we sending black and brown students? Exploring the landscape of college choices and origins of college lists
This discussion centered explicit focus on equity in college access and success highlighted the social and historical context within which colleges and college lists are created with an.
Key Highlights
⭐️ Centering equity in college access requires an explicit focus on context, history and environmental norms to be able to consider the full picture of where inequity lies, and inform subsequent interventions
⭐️ Among all 3,700 post-secondary institutions across the country, only 550 identify as serving marginalized populations (e.g., HBCUs, TCUs, etc.). The vast majority of college options represent historically white institutions (HWIs).
HWI foundational values and beliefs reflect whiteness and the protection of whiteness, which is in direct opposition and suppression of black, brown and marginalized people
Key values, beliefs and actions that have established institutions as HWIs include, land theft from indigenous nations, racial segregation based in beliefs of white superiority or black intellectual inferiority, and social and biological research from scholars within HWIs to justify racial hierarchies and deny entrance to people of color.
Even as these institutions make cultural shifts (e.g., inclusivity of other people and cultures), inclusivity exists as long as it doesn’t threaten or overtake the fundamental values of whiteness
⭐️ Practitioners identified four of the most common factors that are used to determine a student’s fit (ranked in order of their importance below) and agreed that the matching process should focus more on navigating the fixed elements of the process with an explicit treatment of these features as structural inequities and not indicative of individual efforts or overall self-worth
Financial affordability
Academics
Campus social climate (traditionally limited to aspects such as, student racial makeup and campus social activities because demographic- specific information (e.g., student feedback disaggregated by race) isn't available
Geographic location
⭐️ The matching process can be an opportunity for additional relationship-building and help students align their choices with their authentic identities and interests
Closing Thought Questions:
How can we have conversations about fit and defining safety with students?
How can we have conversations with youth to help them envision or see themselves on a campus?
Are there colleges that you regularly recommend or caution students against specifically with campus climate in mind? Please indicate why or why not.
4 | Uplifting students’ identities in the college application process and demystifying the SATs
4 | Uplifting students’ identities in the college application process and demystifying the SATs
This conversation surfaced the debate over whether SAT scores, as well as other fixed elements of the college application process, are reliable indicators for predicting how well prepared a student is for college.
Key Highlights
⭐️ After discussing students' identity-crushing experiences with the SAT (The Campus Tour Has Been Cancelled-Act One Podcast), the group began exploring the facts and myths surrounding college selection criteria, key reflections include:
Similar to the young woman in the podcast, many of the Network’s students have questioned their fitness for college and overall intelligence when they receive lower than ideal SAT scores. As opposed to being a step in the process that gets checked off of the list, this can be an opportunity for advisors to validate and help students process how the SAT is making them feel, while also situating the test within the broader context of societal conditions (e.g., racism and inequity) which more strongly impact student scores
Data consistently shows that students from more privileged backgrounds do better in college applications given their access to standardized test preparation resources; not because they’re smarter or more prepared for college
Many of our students are helping their families with caretaking responsibilities and working while trying to meet academic expectations and navigate typical adolescent stressors
High school grades and study methods while in college are better indicators of college persistence and performance
⭐️ Member tips for contextualizing the exam before and after students sit for the test:
What does this test measure, what doesn’t it measure?
Sharing that questions are written to be deliberately tricky for those without rigorous preparation that is specific to the test
⭐️ This discussion also raised the idea that the metrics used to define readiness are white-washed and discriminatory as skills like juggling personal and professional responsibilities are necessary to thrive in college and in life
⭐️ The group questioned the extent to which adult fears and resistance to change are roadblocks to permanently removing SAT scores from admissions and acknowledging positive outcomes which result from times when scores were not required (e.g., increased diversity in college application pools)
Closing Thought Questions:
What are the opportunities for practitioners to leverage their experiences and relationships with students to bridge gaps as students transition?
How can practitioners conduct the art of advising while advocating for systemic changes (i.e., fitness as measured by the range of accomplishments and skills that young people possess)
How can practitioners center what young people want for themselves (self-actualization) over what others want for them?
5 | Unpacking college transition workshops/advising
5 | Unpacking college transition workshops/advising
This conversation unpacked key aspects of the college transition process and how practitioners typically guide students in preparing for what comes next.
Key Highlights
⭐️ Practitioners acknowledged that they often hold assumptions about what students can handle as it relates to discussions about racism and injustice in the college-going process. In reality, students are experiencing life as it is so advising should respond to their lived experiences. Marginalized students already dealing with racism but may not have the language to define or call experiences out
⭐️ We explored how social supports that connect prospective students to recent alumni, and culturally competent transition curricula can: (1) help students set accurate expectations, and (2) navigate racism, which is inextricably linked to the college experience. Some examples include:
Peer mentorship through structures like Wish I Had Known panels
Summer bridge programs like East Harlem Tutorial Program’s College Success Institute, which address identity, racism, and college success (syllabus and outline)
⭐️ We’re asking the following questions as we continue to consider the ways in which racism influences students’ postsecondary experiences:
What’s needed to help practitioners feel equipped to have honest and uncomfortable conversations about race with students?
How can access and success program curricula incorporate intentional space for discussion about racial identity and representative cultural norms among school options?
How can we strengthen feedback loops/connections between practitioners and current college students (recent program alumni) to maximize their connections to trusted support?
6 | Practitioner and student identities in 1to1 advising: the similarities, the differences, the assumptions
6 | Practitioner and student identities in 1to1 advising: the similarities, the differences, the assumptions
In the final working group meeting, the group examined the relationship between practitioners’ perceived identities and student-practitioner counseling experiences.
Key Highlights
⭐️ Social identity defines us as members of groups. It groups identity characteristics that mark individuals for experiences of discrimination or advantage in society and shapes how individuals experience their personal identities. It is the story that society tells about an individual (e.g., race-ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.).
It is important not to conflate social identity with personal identity because social identity is about power and America’s hierarchical social system that perpetuates white supremacy. It also explains the social experiences young people have in college.
⭐️ The social identity mapping exercise built our capacity to notice manifestations of injustice, oppression, and discrimination daily (in our language, our behaviors, thoughts and overall interactions).
This exercise illuminates the role of awareness as an action towards the systemic changes that we want to make, and can occur alongside our work with young people. Adults co-learning with youth, as they navigate aspects of their social identity and prepare for postsecondary transitions, is a key ingredient for Transformative SEL.
“...[n]one of us are fully cooked. We’re all growing, shifting and learning and we can be open to our own growth even as we are supporting young people...” --Dr. Davis
Awareness is one of four pillars of consciousness in Dr. Barbara J. Love’s Developing a Liberatory Consciousness work. A brief excerpt is included here.
⭐️ In reflecting on how the identity mapping exercise made us feel, and practitioner-student identities that influence advising interactions, members shared the following:
Social identities are imposed (e.g., race, gender, etc.)
Sometimes, the visible parts of our identity make other parts less visible
Religion and spirituality can be identities where I feel social power---allows me to transcend others where I feel a bit less power
It can be challenging to choose one because of the intersectionality of identities
Are we limiting understandings of racism to interaction-level experiences?
I'm learning that it helps for us to set the tone to be a space of vulnerability, so youth have a space to come to when they are ready to share
How do we understand and define power?
Closing Thought Questions:
What experiences do we think that young people have and have not had?
What assumptions are we making?
What are we asking them about those experiences (e.g., overt racism vs. less obvious racially-motivated experiences)?
How can practitioners feel equipped to empower students when these conversations arise...what resources and language can we use to facilitate their understanding and contextualization...for action beyond awareness?
Supporting Nontraditional Postsecondary Pathways
Supporting Nontraditional Postsecondary Pathways
Overview
Overview
This group connects practitioners to nontraditional and culturally relevant postsecondary pathways resources to address staggering rates of disconnected youth in NYC. In this space, members are sharing insights and information, and troubleshooting common challenges together. As progressive pathways topic-specific sessions are held, key insights are documented below.
The next phase of this work will establish a broader coalition of those closest to the issue, to create and document promising practices based on the lived experiences of members and youth.
1 | Young Entrepreneurs: An Extraordinary, Under-tapped Resource
1 | Young Entrepreneurs: An Extraordinary, Under-tapped Resource
This was the first where CBO practitioners and young adults from WeThrive, The Knowledge House, and Brownsville Community Justice Center shared their experiences with entrepreneurship as an ideal pathway for fostering youth agency through authentic and identity affirming career exploration.
Key Highlights
⭐️ A common theme shared by all speakers was the importance of adults following the interests of youth to truly honor their ideas and let them lead in making key decisions along their journey
⭐️ Entrepreneurship creates space for exploration, creativity and non-traditional change-making
⭐️ Entrepreneurship cultivates self-determination, independent thinking, and endless pathways to success.
⭐️ Each of our featured organizations follow the interests of youth, offer real-world practice exposure, and guide young people in connecting their entrepreneurial ideas to social impact opportunities in their community.
⭐️ When we move away from the mentality that “students are too young...” we begin to honor their ideas and opinions and co-create spaces that foster mutual trust and support their goals and plans.
⭐️ Our Network can be a vehicle for fostering life-long social connections that help advance young people’s upward mobility.
Key Resources
WeThrive:
WeThrive Company social media platforms:
Business model canvas: https://hbr.org/2013/05/a-better-way-to-think-about-yo
Local incubators:
https://www.communitasamerica.org/, and they're also opening a space for entrepreneurs in the South Bronx
https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/zahn - one person on the team has to be part of the City College community, or team up (student, alum, staff)
2 | Building Career Exploration in Programming and Education Experiences
2 | Building Career Exploration in Programming and Education Experiences
This discussion focused on the intersections of career exploration and social identity.
Key Highlights
⭐ Kinyanna Evans, Curriculum Writer at Youth Communication, for leading a thought-provoking and youth-centered storytelling exercise
Youth Communication provides powerful, teen-written stories and professional development to help educators and youth workers connect with the teens they serve and build their social and emotional learning skills
⭐ Key barriers to culturally responsive career exploration:
Social, cultural and economic norms that prioritize earning income and pressuring young people to “have it all figured out” quickly over authentic and identity-affirming exploration
Generational trauma and caretaking responsibilities
Limited awareness and exposure for students and families to the universe of options
⭐️ Approaches members find useful to support culturally responsive career exploration:
No longer partnering with local shops and businesses that have historically proven to be culturally insensitive to interns
In-house internship programming for OST HS youth to appropriately reflect 21st century skills
Having community-centered events, connecting students to affinity groups, and creating student-led projects
Encouraging young people to lean into their life experiences for guidance because a school major doesn't equate to a career! Interests can change as you grow
Peer-to-peer structures that help students explore majors and careers in a nuanced and realistic way
Advising that de-centers the idea that students need to figure out the rest of their lives before graduating from high school
Advising that disrupts feelings of self-doubt
Advising that allows students to put their mental health first - follow your interests and money will follow
Embedding financial literacy in advising to help students balance their current responsibilities while pursuing their dream careers
⭐️ What youth want:
Young adults want concrete and simplified info about next steps.
Demystifying the process of cover letters and the process of "marketing themselves" during the job search and interview processes
A strong focus on resume development with various opportunities (volunteering, internships, viable jobs) that link to their career goals
Key Resources & Emerging Questions
⭐️ Roadtrip Nation -career exploration tool that connects ideas with interests and real opportunities.
⭐️ O-NET is a great tool for incoming college freshmen who aren’t sure about their future
⭐️ Career One Stop uses the same info as O-Net but is a bit more youth-friendly
⭐️ What Can I Do With This Major is a great resource
⭐️ Job Corps and Year Up are progressive pathway opportunities for non-matriculated groups
⭐️ Closing Thought Questions:
How can CBOs engage families and caretakers to unpack myths, cultural and white-dominant norms that prioritize earning income and a false sense of security over social and emotional wellbeing and personal fit?
Where do you see excitement or possibility to increase career exploration?
How do you leave possibilities open for exploration without discounting immediate financial needs?
How can the network be leveraged to remove programming gaps to support career exploration in a culturally responsive way?
What tips can you offer for creating structures for students to explore their interests and build career awareness at an early age?
What are the ways we can collect more feedback from youth?
As we continue to collaborate with each other, we are populating this Resource Library with updates and resources and invite you to subscribe to our newsletters to stay in the loop.
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