African-American Culture is Topic of Upcoming MiraCosta College Conference

Hundreds of students from throughout Southern California are expected to attend a series of Feb. 8 workshops at MiraCosta College that will focus on African-American cultural issues.

The United Black Student Conference, dubbed Leave Your Prints on History, is part of the Oceanside Campus’s Black History Month celebrations and will include free food and entertainment. High school and college students from Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties have been invited, said Dr. Bruce Hoskins, a MiraCosta College sociology professor who is organizing the event.

Workshops will include: “Who’s Allowed to Use the N-word”; “The New Jim Crow – The War on Drugs and America’s Incarceration of Black Men”; “Writing Your Truth – Exploring Spoken Word Poetry”; and “How to Make a Million Dollars.”

The day will include video clips of historic events in recent African-American history, including the inauguration of President Barack Obama and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The San Diego Slam Team will be reciting an hour of spoken word poetry and the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. Step Team also will perform.

What’s the point?

“We want to get African-American high school students excited about coming to college,” Dr. Hoskins said. “We want to let them know about the topics we explore and what we have to offer. We want to give the students who show up a better understanding and a stronger sense of African-American history and culture.”

Registration for the conference begins at 7:30 a.m., and the workshops get underway at 8:30. Online registration is also open at miracosta.edu/studentservices/ubsc/. The first 100 people who register will receive a free t-shirt, and the first 150 who register are guaranteed of getting a free lunch.

The United Black Student Conference is the latest in a series of MiraCosta College efforts to foster an inclusive atmosphere on campus. It will be followed March 22 by the annual Hermanos Unidos/Brothers United HUBU Conference, which is aimed at providing an opportunity for young men to discuss strategies to overcome educational and personal challenges that affect men of color in higher education. The HUBU conference aims to motivate and inspire students through topics that address real life issues.

MiraCosta College also sponsors a GEAR UP program with the Oceanside Unified School District. GEAR UP is an acronym for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness. It enables MiraCosta and the Oceanside Unified School District to work with and track students at Cesar Chavez and Jefferson middle schools through their first year of college.

It pays for counselors and tutors to work closely with some 1,000 students and their families until the youths get into college. Students also will have access to various resources and will be eligible for future scholarships from the MiraCosta College Foundation.

MiraCosta College is located at 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside.

For more information on the Feb. 8 United Black Student Conference, contact Dr. Hoskins at bhoskins@miracosta.edu, call 760.795.6305, or visit miracosta.edu/studentservices/ubsc/.

For more information on the HUBU conference, contact Don Love at dlove@miracosta.edu, call 760.795.6680, or visit miracosta.edu/studentservices/hubu.