About the Conference

In response to the lack of educational success of African American male students in California Community Colleges, the African American Male Educational Network and Development Inc. (A²MEND) in 2008 organized the First Annual African American Male Summit, which brought together faculty, staff, students and administrators from across the country to address the administrative and instructional strategies that have an impact on the success of African American male students.  Since the initial conference in 2008 hundreds of people have had the opportunity to dialogue about the issues pertaining to the academic success of African American men in higher education.

Over the past three years the African American Summit has placed a spotlight on the institutional challenges and barriers that exists within our college’s to produce positive educational outcomes for African American men.  As we move into a new decade we still find a pervasive and persistent gap in the achievement levels of African American males in all educational indicators in comparison to other racial and gender groups.   While the A²MEND is quite proud of our past efforts we know that we have not done enough.  We must delve deeper and do more to overcome entrenched systemic barriers and the long term affect that these barriers have had on the psyche of all of us who work with African American male students, and even greater extent, the affect it has had on the students themselves.  We contend that we all simply have to do more! We must renew, revive and recommit ourselves to identify and remove the barriers that stand between our students and their educational goals. 

The members of A²MEND contend that in order to bring about the change that we all want to see each of us individually must examine ourselves and answer the difficult question:  Am I doing all that I can with the influence that I have to ensure the success of African American male students?  In short, this year’s conference will seek to make it personal by challenging all us to do more.  To underscore this idea the theme of 2011 African American Male Summit is Reaching Out and Giving Back: The Blueprint for Successfully Educating African American Men. A²MEND along with our conference partner Los Angeles Southwest College encourages all educational and community stakeholders regardless of your race or gender who wants to make personal commitment to improving the educational outcomes of African American students to attend this critical gathering.