City College’s Umoja-SBA is not only an academic learning program. It is a community that helps African-American students achieve and grow, according to the City College website.
“There’s topics that we talk about, like social topics that come up that pertain to the African American experience,” counselor and coordinator Tony Davis says. “We try to incorporate any of the current [news] topics, and events that may be affecting the African-American population and how that may tie in. We talk about things like time management, goal setting, careers, or finding your purpose and finding motivation. So we try to use some of these various events to tie in the core elements that we use in college success.”
The California Community College website says that the statewide Umoja program is a grassroots organization of faculty and administrators within the system who are particularly involved with the success rates of students of African-American descent.
According to the program’s website, Umoja is a term in Kiswahili, an African language also known as Swahili, for “unity,” while SBA is a term from the Kemetic Orthodoxy belief system meaning “teaching, wisdom, and study,”
Ethnic studies major Marqell Richardson says he began the Umoja program when he first attended City College in the fall of 2014, and has been an active member ever since.
“I think it’s a great program,” says Richardson. “It helps students navigate through college and better connect with counselors and professors and their peers. It helps build a family and it makes college easier, because it’s not just coming in here and signing up for classes. You have a better connection with your counselor; they help guide you to your goals and where you need to be.”
Student Ambassador and history major Donovan Bradley says that the Umoja program has helped him with more than just his major, and is focused on more than just the academic lifestyle for students. Davis will be graduating from City College next year and dedicates his success mainly to the Umoja program, which he says that helped him reach his goals and become successful.
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“This Umoja program is something that is really highly important for the African American community here on campus, says Bradley. “I was part of the very first cohort and I’m extremely honored and privileged to be able to say that I’ll be the first one to be able to walk across the stage out of the Umoja program and so much of that I really have to attribute to the program. I really wouldn’t be in this position in life right now if it wasn’t for Umoja.”
Bradley says he has become a harder worker after being involved with Umoja.
“They really invested a whole lot more in me, and the amount they invested in me honestly kind of helped build my mentality and work ethic to a point where I feel like I’m unstoppable at this point in time because they tapped into my greatness that I didn’t know was there,” Bradley says, “and if I can do it that means that anyone else can do it.”
Davis says students who are interested in joining Umoja must be able to commit themselves to a full year within the program. This means they must be eligible for the Human Career Development 110 Course that can be taken in the spring, and for HCD 310 in the fall.
Students must also be enrolled in at least six units each semester, complete the Umoja-SBA Student Information Form and the Oath of Personal Responsibility, and be willing to utilize and apply multimedia and social networking applications. Once accepted and enrolled, students will learn a wide variety of courses like anthropology, history, and social science classes centered on African civilizations, African-American history and the psychology of minorities.
“In the fall we have about 40 students each semester,” Davis says. “We advise them that they have to be committed to the program for about a year. We have a series of classes for the whole academic year. We tell them it is a program, but you’re signing up to be part of a family, a commitment of a group that’s going to be together to help nurture each other. So they have to make that commitment. It’s not just coming to a class, you’re coming into a community for a year to make that commitment.”
Students who are interested in joining the Umoja-SBA program can visit http://www.scc.losrios.edu/umoja, or contact Tony Davis at (916)-558-2460 for more information.
