Running head: YOUNG MEN OF COLOR

Young Men of Color: Filipino-Black Male

Susan Alejandre
San Diego State University

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The student I met with at Morse High is a senior who has plans of attending college. For
reasons of confidentiality I have changed the students name to Jacob. As I was doing senior
credit checks, I picked out a few students that had a GPAs of a 2.5 and above to talk to them
about applying to Cal State University since the deadline for applying is November 30th. Jacob
was one of the students that I called in to talk about his future plans and career choice.
Students Aspirations, Opportunities, and Challenges
Jacob identifies as half Black and half Filipino. His mom is Filipino and his dad is Black.
He mentioned that his mom is a manager of a hotel and his dad is a military veteran. At a young
age he was pushed by his dad to go to college and get an education since they werent able to
have the same opportunities as him. When asking him about what his parents meant by not
having the same opportunities he answered that both his parents lived in poverty and were forced
to get jobs in order to survive, instead of going off to college. Jacob has the opportunity to
attend college. He has taken his A-G requirement, has a GPA of a 3.4, has parents that motivate
him, and has been very involved in playing basketball and track.
Jacob shared with me that he wants to major in Business Management and manage wellknown companies such as Nike and Jordan. He is looking at applying to CSUSM, SDSU, CSU
Sacramento and CSU Long Beach. Some of the challenges that Jacob is experiencing are that
his parents didnt attend college so they dont know how to guide him through the CSU
application. They also arent able to guide him through what to expect from the college
experience, what classes to take and what career opportunity would benefit him. One of the
opportunities that he does have is that he is able to use his dads GI bill to pay for college so he
doesnt have to worry about financial aid.

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College Preparation Process

Jacob has been searching up colleges on CSU mentor search engine and looking at the
requirements and majors that they offer. He took his SAT and ACT during the spring. When
looking at his transcript he has completed the A-G requirements and retook chemistry during the
summer because he had failed it his second semester of his junior year. He has started his CSU
application for CSU Long Beach but hasnt finished completing it. Hes been really
overwhelmed with homework and finds it hard trying to find extra time to work on his
applications.
Data Representing Demographics
Although Jacob considers himself mixed, he does choose to identify as Black/African
American when it comes to filling out paperwork that doesnt allow him to pick two races.
According to Jennifer A. Dunn, only 26% of African American males hold an associates degree
or higher and 45% of them who are ages 15-24 are unemployed, incarcerated or dead (2012). I
did not feel comfortable talking about these statistics with Jacob because of the low percentages
of African American students that attend a higher education and the high percent that are
incarcerated, unemployed, or dead. I was scared that it would no motivate him and lead to him
thinking that I dont believe in him. I had a high school teacher tell me that Latina girls don't
pass the AP Statistics test. I sat in my seat ready to cry because I perceived it as him not
believing I could do it and telling me that I was going to fail. I did not want Jacob to have the
same experience as I did. I think that he already knows that people in his community are doing
drugs, in gangs, in jail, and not doing positive things in their life. I would rather just motivate
him and not bring up the negative statistics that might affect him in a negative way.

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Recommendations for College Career Readiness

Recommendations for Jacob are that he explores private universities outside of
California. He just wanted to just apply to CSUs because his grades werent at the level that UCs
would like their applicants to be. I have recommended that he look at the Common Application
search engine and search up private universities that will take his GPA and that fit the profile that
he wants. I also recommend that he search up information on the different companies that he
would like to do his internship at in college to see what they require for him to be able to intern
there.
I had Jacob come to the Student Success Room and log onto a computer and work on his
CSU applications. It has been taking him some time to finish his application because he will
sometimes not see his parents and ask them for the information he needs, such as his social
security number and yearly income. Next session I will continue to work on his college
applications until he finishes them. If needed I can call his parents and talk to them about the
CSU application and how important it is that they provide him with that information so that he
completes all his applications. I would like him to search up colleges on the Common
Application after he is done with the CSU applications.
My Perception
During our first meeting Jacob was very engaged in the session, he was asking me a lot of
questions about how to apply to the CSUs and asking me questions about his major and what
type of opportunities are available if he majors in Business Administration. He seemed really
enjoy our counseling session and asked when I could talk and help him again.
Student Interaction

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During our activity Jacob was filling out his CSU applications with me. He was
struggling with a few questions because he didnt know what they meant. He would ask me and
would pay close attention to what I was saying and even would paraphrase the information I was
explaining! I feel that the student feels comfortable around me considering that I am of a
different ethnic background as him. When working with Jacob I would try to mirror his body
language and personality, for example he has an outgoing personality and is very upbeat so that
meant that I would have to tune up my personality to match his.
Thoughts and Reflection
I didnt like this activity because it felt like it was a requirement to look for a male that is
of a different race of my own. The majority of the students at Morse High are of a different race
than my own so I meet with students of different backgrounds every day. I did not feel
comfortable sharing the statistics with the student because students of color dont need numbers
to know how many people of the same background as them are graduating from high school,
going to college, dropping out, incarcerated, and dead. They already know this because its
happening in their homes and in their community. The last thing I would want to do is have a
student misinterpret what I am doing and perceive it as me reaffirming a false belief that they
arent going to be successful.
What I learned
What I learned about myself during this process is that I am different. I sometimes think
that because I am a minority that I can connect to students easily. This is defiantly not true. Being
at Morse has made me realize that students from different ethnic backgrounds than mine are
sometimes not doing to trust me or feel comfortable around me. I am going to have several
students that are going to need my help and wont seek for help because of language barriers as

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well. I need to work on providing a safe place for all students and being okay if a student doesnt
want to work with me because of transference issues.
References
Dunn, J. A. (2012).Transforming the Educational Experience of Young Men of Color. In
CollegeBoard.