Service Learning Project

For our service learning project we chose to focus on a program called Men of Distinction at Austin Community College, implementing what we have been learning about Black men and the barriers they face in society.  My particular interest in this project stemmed from the seemingly limited resources available to Black men.  We chose to survey the young men in the Men of Distinction program to learn more about their background such as basic general information (age, family educational attainment level, current place of residence, etc) and then further questions to gauge their feelings about the availability of resources on campus, how they view manhood, the Black family, parenting, the affect of stereotypes, significant role models in their lives, and even how they view the President of the United States.  We were able to have 15 young men complete the survey and we plan to analyze their responses and compare it to the issues affecting Black men that we discussed in class, such as Black men becoming more economically disadvantaged in society (Eckholm), limited welfare assistance to Black men/fathers (Hill), the state of the Black family (Franklin), ideas of Black men in society (Offner), and lastly what they personally understood on what it meant to be an African American male and what they found important (Hammond).  Many of these young men expressed sentiments resounding with the issues of the deterioration of the Black family as well as differences/difficulties between Black men and women.    Also many stated that their positive roles models were family members and not celebrity figures in society.

Our group will be meeting up to discuss these results and prepare a presentation for the class.  We will also submit our findings to the Men of Distinction program to help aid them in their endeavors to assist young Black men on college campuses.

In looking back at our survey questions, I wish we would have asked how they young men felt about interracial dating.  I think it would have been interesting to see their thoughts on that since they are closer to our peer group.