Ep. 96 - Learn About the Office of Black Student Success

What is the Office of Black Student Success? In Ep. 96 of the CSUSB Advising Podcast, ASUA academic advisors' Matt Markin and Tracee McCreary chat with the Director of the Office of Black Student Success, Dr. Brandon E. Gamble and Program Coordinator Ebenezer Ezenwa about how their office is a resource to you as a CSUSB student!

Instagram: @obss_csusb
Website: https://www.csusb.edu/office-black-student-success 

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Transcript

Matt Markin  
Hi. This is Matt Markin, an academic advisor in the ASUA academic advising office. And welcome to another episode of the CSUSB Advising Podcast. This is episode 96 and on today's episode, I'm joined by an amazing, talented fellow academic advisor, Tracy McCreary. Tracy, welcome.

Tracee McCreary  
Thank you. Hi, Matt. As Matt mentioned, I'm Tracy McCreary. I'm excited about today's podcast, and I can't wait for you all to meet our guest. 

Matt Markin  
And so on today's episode, we're going to learn a lot today and learn more about the Office of Black Student Success here at Cal State. San Bernardino. So, Tracy, do you want to do the honors and introduce our special guest today?

Tracee McCreary  
Sure today. Dr. Brandon Gamble and Ebenezer Ezenwa, welcome.

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
Thank you. Good to be with you. 

Matt Markin  
Great to have you both here, and we'll go ahead and get things started with our first question. So before we start talking about the amazing resource that you offer, we'd like to know a little bit more about the both of you. Can you share a little bit about your path and journey into higher ed?

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
Ebenezer, go ahead. 

Ebenezer Ezenwa  
I've been a student most of my life. I've been a mentee most of my life, my academic journey started off with, you know, I'm from the area. I'm from Riverside, California, Corona, to be more specific, I went to Centennial High School, and then I didn't do to a centennial. I ended up going to Norco College. Norco College is where I started off, and that's when I really grew my love for education. I joined the Umoja program. I had a black center curriculum. That's why I learned about the greats, Malcolm, X, Martin Luther King, stuff like that. And my GPA reflected because I was more so interested in what I was learning about, I turned it around. I was also an EOPS. I was in SSS, I was in just about every club that they had academically. And I really reap those benefits from there. I transferred to UCR. I was African American Studies major. And now I also joined the fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity Incorporated, and then from there, I went on. Took a year or two off because of pandemic that ended my senior year college. From there I went to hop back on the horse. I went to San Diego, state 2022 I enrolled in the CBB program, which is community based block multicultural counseling with the emphasis in social justice education. I just recently graduated from that program around June 2024 and moved back home, and I've been lucky to find opportunity out here. So that's most of my journey.

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
I would say luck has nothing to do with it. Ebenezer, you, you really distinguish yourself. Did a good job at SDSU, and that's, that's where I met Ebenezer. I was working at San Diego State. I could tell you a little bit about my background. I grew up in Oceanside California. Went to Palomar Community College. I was really not planning doing other than anything, more than surfing and teaching PE. One of my PE teachers is really cool. That's what he did. That's all I ever wanted to do. But when I got into community college, I started doing gymnastics and a few other things, which I'd done in high school, and I just liked the learning process, and so psychology seemed more interesting to me, and I actually got an A the first Psych class I took. So I said, Well, that's rare, so let's continue with that. I went to a small, Historically Black College, Oakwood University, in Huntsville, Alabama, and did well there, well enough where I was one of the top students, top five students in the psychology exit exam. And so my department chair, she was really very enthusiastic about my applying to graduate school, but also encouraged me to earn my doctorate. And no one in my family had done that before, and I thought that was ridiculous, but he was so enthusiastic about it. She took the top five of us who had scored well on that exam to a the Alabama Psychological Association meeting, and she said, I really just want you to see that there are people just like you who you know just stayed in school, stay at it, and that's what she encouraged me to do. So I ended up at San Diego State, and they paid for everything when I went to school there for my master's degree in School Psychology after finishing there as a school psychologist for about 10 years, and I applied to University of Southern California. Fortunately, was able to get. And because I applied a few other places, but USC seemed to be the best fit. I really planned on only being a school psychologist, but I saw many different things about access and equity and support for students, but particularly for black students, which turned into my research agenda and asking parents what it took to get their child into college, that developed into articles and other things that I've been working on, but it's kind of led me to being the advisor for the Black Student Union when I was working at Cal State Long Beach, and then eventually going to Oakwood, back to Oakwood as the dean of student success, doing similar kind of work where we're helping first generation college students navigate the college and university setting, helping them with the orientation class, helping them have access to disability and support services that was even supervising the advisors who were there, so we can help students select the right courses that they needed. Then San Diego State came calling in the pandemic and a lot of lot of change around the country, as it were, but SDSU had always been on my radar because I'm an alum from the master's program. But Dr. Luke Wood was doing some interesting work with the black resource center there, and I applied, and I knew a colleague there, Dr. Tanika Green, who we had worked together on a program for graduate students called the African American mentoring program that she had developed, and that graduate student program had me connecting with graduate students across the CSU and some other historically black colleges, like Howard University, Hampton University, and so that connection there led me back home, really, to San Diego, being at San Diego State and their Black Resource Center is actually doing very well. They got a huge grant, about $5 million to support their work. So it's an endowment, so it's paying for their staff, and they have a lot of student staff. It's paying for their facilities and other things. I felt like, man, Cal State San Bernardino, yeah, they got it going on over there. They got all the same things that we have. And there's building out some of the things that I'd like to see us build out. And that is the mentoring program that we've really started in earnest this semester, and we're developing, and Ebenezer has been a big part of putting together that mentoring program where we have about 12 student assistants here So, and this is movement across the CSU. So I'm just excited to be here at Cal State San Bernardino, where I think the Inland Empire has, and I know for a fact for a while they've had the top students in the state, particularly high school black students, and also community college students who are doing really well, and I know we could take it to the next level.

Tracee McCreary  
Thank you. Can you tell us what the Office of Black Student Success is like, and include like the history and evolution of your office?

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
There is definitely an evolution, right? And it's continued to evolve based upon the needs that the students have. I mean, every I'm going to take it way back, but bring it up real, real close. But every Black organization on a university campus, particularly a government related campus, particularly a CSU, owes its growth and development to people like Dr. Nathan Hare who started the Black studies program at San Francisco State University. So you know, back in the 1960s there was a lot of student protests. And similarly, here at Cal State San Bernardino, there were requests for greater student support so to keep the graduation rates up. So we've had a Pan African Collegiate Scholars Program, right? We've also had a Black Scholars Program, and that was the latest iteration that Black Scholars Program had some aspects of mentoring to it, but it's developed now into an office where we're running several different programs, but the first one that we're developing is our mentoring program, where we have student assistants who are providing peer mentoring, and we're looking and we're just on the cusp of having faculty and staff mentoring those student assistants. So we're expanding our programming, but we really want to make sure that we're supporting student graduation rates, student retention, and then that thing called progression, where sometimes you may have a freshman who's been here two or three years, and we want them to move from freshman to sophomore to junior to senior, that type of thing. So we're excited about our group of students who we've hired. Thus far, we have about 10 to 12 students who are working with us and who have been tabling, letting people know about our office, and we really are an office where. And to differentiate from some other supports on campus, the Pan African Student Success Center, which is in the San Manuel Student Union, they are supported by student fees and supporting student growth and development. We're also a part of supporting that, but we're doing it somewhat from an academic side, advising referrals and as I like to call it, to quote the late Malcolm X, by any means necessary, to make sure that students have what they need. So sometimes that's connecting with financial aid advisors. That's making sure that they've applied for whatever scholarship that they need, working with our basic needs office, making referrals to Counseling and Psychological Services, and I've been so excited those folks have partnered with us and come and train our student assistants on the broad aspects of what we do. And shout out to Ms. Terri McCoy, who is our program support, administrative program support, and she provides the connections that we need to get things done. So yeah, I hope that answered your question. That was a big question, but I want to make sure I did it justice.

Matt Markin  
I know definitely you did. We, yeah, we definitely appreciate it. And I guess you know to kind of segue into this, and you've kind of answered some of it already in terms like the academic advising, working with financial aid referrals. You know, can you talk more about, like, the resources available to students, whether it's directly through your office or departments that you collaborate with?

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
Sure, so far, we've really tried to look out for students who may have financial holds or academic holds, and help them navigate that system. And all we want to do is just partner with them to help guide them through that system. Sometimes you get overwhelmed. You already got enough with classes. And many of our students also work one, sometimes two jobs, maybe more in there. They get this notice. They're like, I don't even know what to do with it. I just want to make it to the make it to campus and take care of what I need to take care of. So right now, we're just doing a lot of outreach and connecting tabling and what I mean by taking because that's a new, new term for me, faculty. I never heard that term before. I get to the Student Affairs side. It's a regular term, but we sit down at an event and we just want to talk with people, let them know about who we are and what we do, what I find, and this is for those who table with me, what I encourage our student assistants, our professional staff, to do is sometimes you got to go and get them and say hello, because sometimes folks that isn't their most like salient or most out front identity is, I'm a black person here. No, their first identity is, I'm a student here. And then we just need to let them know that, hey, we got your back in a cultural specific way. And if I use the business term, a market segmented way, where we can go ahead and provide you an avenue to connect with several other people who understand your experience, whether it's on campus or even off campus.

Tracee McCreary  
Thank you. Along with that mentioning off campus, are there education abroad, opportunities and or scholarships for students through your office?

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
Yes, we are working on some supports for travel. We're working on supports for travel with our students, and the first one is actually more domestic travel to our African black coalition conference. But a lot of our fundraising right now is going towards travel, but we still want to make that referral to connect students with things that the CSU has to offer when it comes to travel, particularly to areas when what we call the African diaspora, whether it's the Caribbean, whether it's the African continent itself, or even like these other conferences, black conferences. So we want to support students in that travel. Another big way that we're trying to do that is partner with Associated Students, as well as our Pan African Student Success Center, and if students are in their respective student groups, whether it's the Black Student Union or, let's say it's a new group like the Nigerian Student Association or the Pan African stem society, and they're helping them go to an academic conference that may be abroad or maybe here domestically. We want to help them navigate that process.

Matt Markin  
All right, very cool. Thank you so much. And you know this is being recorded in November of 2024 a few weeks before finals of the fall semester. But whether a student, you know, whether a student is listening to this interview before finals. Maybe they listen to this and they find this episode a little bit later, at the beginning or middle of a semester. What tips to both of you? Can you share with students on being successful and doing well at CSUSB?

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
I've been running my mouth. I'll let Ebenezer get in on that one. 

Ebenezer Ezenwa  
So in terms of like resources for students, I would say that a lot of a lot of what students have and are on access, you know, because of a lack of concise information, it seems like they're, they're having trouble finding the resources. But I think that's created such a unique opportunities for the students that are involved, the students that are involved easily, easily, they can get connected with four or five offices immediately. And it's not from what I've seen. A lot of clubs aren't necessarily impacted yet. So the resources are out there for the students, and I would just say, to make yourself known, make yourself available. I don't know if it's just the Office of Black Student Success thing, but our mentors love immediately, people want to know who our students are. People want to come and talk to our students. People want to uplift our students and even shout them out in whatever way they can. So if, if that even is a smidgen of like what the rest of the student population has, then I would say that they're well supported here. So just, just keep making yourself known, would be my tips to students. Keep showing up and be approached. Will be, be hungry for knowledge and resources, whatever you need to accomplish. Let that be known. Close mouth. Don't get fed that kind of thing.

Tracee McCreary  
So thank you for that. Did you want to add something, Dr. Gamble?

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
I would just say, let the main thing be the main thing you're here to go to school, so all other things are interesting and important, but make sure you go to class, and then after that, I think the next thing is join some type of student organization that helps you with on your career path. So whether it's an academic org or it's a social org that will help you network for your career, but connect along those lines.

Tracee McCreary  
Thank you both. You've mentioned tabling and making yourself known on campus at these events. How can students connect with your office for those like those that don't commute, that are like online students and don't come on campus. How can we have students connect with their office, like contact, like info for social media and other outlets, so that students can connect with you?

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
Sure? Obss_csusb and that's on Instagram. And I'll say that again. Obss underscore, C, S, USB, so you can look for us on Instagram. Office of Black Student Success and we provide a live stream. Now I'm excited, because my live stream is the old man version of live stream, and we actually going to take that to Facebook, really for parents, staff, other folks, but our students are taking that over in the spring, and I'm excited about that you've seen it. It's for older people. Glad you were able to get that going and hold space for us. But our students will be taking that over so you can still follow us different events, activities. We've actually made it in October and November out to the Palm Desert campus. So which we consider, you know, definitely an extension of us, but we are looking forward to an event during Black History Month. So folks really want to keep up with what we're doing from week to week, or things that we consider are pretty interesting as well. They can check us out on Instagram, or if you don't have social media, because I run into this quite a bit, because students want to say, I want to focus in on my academics. Follow our webpage at the office of black student success, and we have our newsletters. And then I posted a few of our black history moments that we do on our Instagram, and so you can learn more about us in that way too. So we're constantly trying to come up with ways to make those connections, but we believe in this semester, we've really been focusing in on and I have it written on my board here. I'm looking at it relationships and resources, making sure that we're making better relationships, because all the professional staff in our office, we're new to the university, so we just really need to get to know people and let them know us. But when students come to us, we want to make sure that they have all the resources they need, and sometimes they don't know what they don't know. So we'll even just kind of go through a checklist of, are your finances okay? How are you doing outside the classroom? How your class is doing? Let's go ahead and take a look. Let's have this conversation about, are you having fun even? Are you involved with any clubs or organizations, or did you get a chance to go to an event at least a couple times this month where you really. Felt connected to the university, and if not, let's let's work on that, because you shouldn't feel alienated from your own university, especially if you're going to be paying money now or later. You should really feel connected to the university. So we want to make sure that students not only feel connected, but actually have tangible opportunities to be connected with the university.

Speaker 2  
I would go even further to say, you know, and at the risk of my inbox getting impacted After saying this, but my email is at needs or.is n y CSUSB, dot, use your potential mentee interest, we'll get an interest form email to you. 

Matt Markin  
Awesome. Sounds good. Dr. Gamble?

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
I would just even say, you know, my favorite one is people pop by. They come by our office at San Manuel Student Union South, Rm 223, and they just say, I just heard about y'all. I just want to say hi. And we exchange contact info. We bring them in, kind of into the loop with our newsletter or other things, and we just make those connections. That's, that's my favorite part about working here.

Matt Markin  
Awesome. No, that sounds great. And we appreciate Tracy and I appreciate you both being on the podcast. I think Dr. Gamble, especially talking about, you know, relationships and resources, and Ebenezer, when you were talking about a closed mouth doesn't get fed. Great, great advice from both you wonderful tips and Yeah, anything we can do to help promote. Tracy, I'll leave it to you to end this episode. 

Tracee McCreary  
I'll just piggyback off what Matt just said. We appreciate you both being here and speaking to what the office of black student success is and the resources you offer and the opportunities that you have to help our students here at CSUSB again. Thank you both so much for the information and for being here with us today.

Dr. Brandon Gamble  
Glad to do it. Just wanted to thank a few folks, our Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Paz Olivérez, our direct supervisor, Associate Vice President, Dr. Molly Springer, but also the Black Faculty Staff Student Association and the Pan African Student Success Center, these are all strong partners in helping us get our work done. So just wanted to shout out them. Ebenezer, any last thoughts, homie? 

Ebenezer Ezenwa  
I just want to say, thank you for having us honestly.