The group gives young black males from Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy in Detroit an opportunity for social intervention on MSU’s campus.
The students range between sixth and 10th grade.
The voluntary group, which holds roughly seven sessions per semester, makes social connections with the students. The group also creates an environment for students different from their inner-city Detroit school.
RCAH senior and My Brother’s Keeper coordinator Nicole DiMichele said the program helps instill continued learning for the students.
“The point of My Brother’s Keeper is to serve as a social intervention, so the idea (is) that when they leave the school, they’re still learning,” DiMichele said.
“ The idea is that we work on things like writing and literacy and critical thinking and what not, but in mediums that are more fun,” she said.
RCAH senior Janelle Moulding said My Brother’s Keeper encourages the students to believe they can accomplish what they want, thus breaking preexisting stereotypes as to the future success of black males.
“So many young black males are taught that the only way they are going to be successful is by being a basketball player or being a rapper. Or th ey’re going to be famous for being on the news, and that’s it,” Moulding said.
“Before this program, they have not thought about the idea that it’s a realistic prospect they can come to college,” Moulding said. “They get to come here and they see us and hear our stories, it breaks stereotypes.”
Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy student Corbin Robinson, 15, said the program is a goo d way for students to learn in a fun and safe environment.
“It keeps kids out of trouble (by) giving them something positive to do,” Robinson said. “Because, back home, I won’t say it’s not safe, but it’s not always a good environment for us to be in.”
Robinson also said the group has taught him to always think positively and to always help others.
This semester they are using the inspiration behind The Freedom Writer’s Diary, a book compiled by an English teacher in California showing her students’ diary entries.
By following suit, the group hopes to help provide more details into the stories that each one of the students has gone through.
The next My Brother’s Keeper session scheduled for April 12.
