Students and mentors attend the Uplifting Black Men Conference

The Black Male Network is an organization that saw a need in which we were having major issues and concerns around black men retention. This gave an opportunity to amplify black men and their success stories and making sure that we are doing all that we can to support and help them climb the ladder of success in all their endeavors academically and socially. I've been a part of the conference since my freshman year. It was actually my first taste into leadership, I would say. Being able to co- facilitate an event for my peers, I really enjoy kind of just seeing everybody. There's a lot of faces that didn't know went to my school, so that's great to see. I'm also just seeing those that came from different areas that came from far to kind of come here to be a part of this conference. And that's really why I came to learn to listen and to network with other people. We don't have people lecturing at the presentation. It's more conversational. The workshops are more interactive, where they get to do things more hands-on. High school students get to experience projects and things that students are doing. So hopefully in that exposure they can say, hey, maybe this is something that I would want to do if I go to college or if I come to school. I didn't know students were doing these things. We often see universities trying to work with the issue of diversity, equity and inclusion for African Americans. One of the problems that we often see is there are very few African Americans in positions of research and academic leadership. The important thing about this meeting is it brings together a group of young black men, but also those like myself, who have been proven over decades in higher education in the professional world. To mentor them, to give them guidance. And also probably the most important things is to give them encouragement. So it's critical to encourage these young black men to place them in a community where they see that there are others striving for excellence just like them to give them encouragement.