Tylesha Younger
When Tylesha Younger arrived at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Lubar School of Business from Minnesota, she was hoping to make friends with other young African Americans at UWM. With the help of adviser Ramona Sledge, Younger soon connected with the Black Student Union. Now a junior majoring in Human Resources Management, Younger works with the university’s Black Cultural Center, established in 2008 and headed by Interim Director Ray Anthony Fikes.
The university’s Multicultural Student Service Center, the African American Academic Services and now the Black Cultural Center have all helped him in “becoming grounded academically and connected with others through various leadership roles throughout the university,” says James Stewart, a School of Education senior majoring in Community Education. Stewart, now a student worker in the African American Student Academic Services Office, was chosen, for example to do a presentation at the American Multicultural Student Leadership Conference at UW-Stevens Point in the fall of 2009. When his university day is over, he serves all of the youth of Glenbrook Apartments as an AmericCorps youth education specialist.
Over the past 40 years, more than 8,000 students of Hispanic background have found resources, support, academic and cultural opportunities through what is now the Roberto Hernández Center, according to Enrique Figueroa, director of the center and assistant to the provost for Latino Affairs. The center began as the Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute in 1970. In 1996 it was renamed to honor Roberto Hernández, a Latino leader at UWM and in the community in the 1960s and 1970s.
Many UWM students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds receive support, resources and cultural opportunities from these centers, which helps them thrive academically and socially at the university. The Roberto Hernández and Black Cultural centers and African American Student Academic Services work most closely with students from UWM’s African American and rapidly growing Latino/a communities. Often, the centers’ staffs collaborate with other multicultural centers and student offices at the university.
The centers play key roles in supporting students academically, organizing events and programs to celebrate history and culture and providing input on research and teaching. The centers also work together in outreach to high school students and recruiting students to the university.
African American Student Academic Services provides advisers to help students achieve their academic goals and negotiate university processes. The Roberto Hernández Center organizes the annual Hispanic Heritage Month, a Cinco de Mayo celebration and other events. The Black Cultural Center organizes a Black Film Series and Black Writers Forum, a Pre-Kwanzaa celebration and a luncheon in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The centers also host special graduation celebrations for Latino/a and African-American students.
While there is great diversity within the African American and Latino/a communities, many of these students face similar challenges, say both Fikes and Figueroa. They may be the first in their families to go to college and/or face economic difficulties. A recent survey showed that 63 percent of the Latino/a students on campus were working at least 30 hours a week, Figueroa notes. Fikes estimates that 80 percent of the African-American students on campus are juggling jobs and/ or families with their academic work.
“We see many students who are working, raising families and taking classes,” says Fikes. The centers help students work with the financial aid process, but also provide special aid when needed. The Hernández Center, for example, offers small emergency loans. The Black Cultural Center, working in conjunction with other UWM multicultural centers, participates in a textbook loan program to help students who can’t buy their textbooks.
Just being able to network with others from similar cultural or linguistic backgrounds can be helpful. Fikes notes that study groups gather in the Black Cultural Center’s lounge. “I’ll see them studying for finals and assisting one another.” He also serves as adviser to several student groups, including the Black Student Union and Kappa Alpha Psi.
Another key goal of both centers is developing and maintaining close connections with communities beyond campus through programs and outreach. The Black Cultural Center, for example, has close relationships with a number of local high schools, working to encourage to students to finish high school, choose college, and bringing them to campus for information fairs.
The Roberto Hernández Center just graduated the sixth class from its Latino Nonprofit Leadership Program, a nine-month leadership development program for bilingual professionals involved with or interested in Latino-serving nonprofits in southeastern Wisconsin.
The centers offer African America and Latino/a students places where they can develop leadership and cultural identity. Says Figueroa: “In college students can explore who they are. As they feel stronger and more secure in their own identity, they are able to interact in a much easier way with the broader community.”