About / May 11 / brooks gives lecture on high achieving black students

May 10, 2011
For immediate release

Dr. Candice Elaine brooks presents the free public lecture "Retrospective Understandings: An Exploration of Individual-Collective Influences on High Achieving Black Students at a Predominantly White Institution of Higher Education" on Tuesday, May 17

Dr. Candice Elaine brooks will present the free public lecture "Retrospective Understandings: An Exploration of Individual-Collective Influences on High Achieving Black Students at a Predominantly White Institution of Higher Education" on Tuesday, May 17 from 3:30 – 5:30 pm in the Loma Pelona Center, Manzanita Village on the UC Santa Barbara campus. Attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable foods, toiletries, and grocery bags to donate to the Associated Students Food Bank.

This session presents a dissertation research study that addressed an on-going research problem where Black students represent the highest percentage of college students with non-competitive academic grade point averages per class level and at the time of graduation. This study served as a response to this problem and a call in the literature to learn more about the experiences of high achieving Black college students who were actively involved in their communities. Using W. E. B. Du Bois' (1909/1989) concept of double consciousness, family systems theory, and a salutogenic model as conceptual frameworks, this study examined the influences of individual and collective sociocultural identities on the academic achievements and community involvements of ten Black alumni who attended a predominantly White institution between the years of 1985 and 2008. This interactive lecture should particularly benefit those who are interested in using different conceptual lenses to understand the experiences of high achieving Black students and who also seek academic success strategies grounded in the stories of high achieving Black alumni to complement current outreach, retention, graduation, and career placement practices of these students. The majority of this presentation will focus on the findings concluded from the study.

Dr. brooks has served the UCSB campus community for three years as the Complex Coordinator for Graduate Apartments in Housing & Residential Services. She also served as a Counselor and Coordinator of the African diasporic Cultural Resource Center for the Educational Opportunity Program for five years. She recently earned her Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership at UCSB. Prior to her professional work and academic studies in California, she earned a Master's of Education from the Program in Student Affairs with an emphasis in Higher Education Administration and Leadership at The Pennsylvania State University where she worked with the Office of Admissions and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia. As a postmodern ethnographic researcher, her research interests focus on applying interdisciplinary theories to conceptually understand the sociocultural factors that influence high academically achieving Black college students who are civically engaged participants in their cultural communities. The contexts of her research focus on underrepresented and marginalized student populations in higher education. In prior research and community presentations she has focused on college student access, affordability, retention, social justice, and equity issues. She is a member of the National Association Student Personnel Administrators.

This free event is sponsored by the Black Student Union; Gevirtz Graduate School of Education Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership; Housing & Residential Services; and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.

[Candice Elaine brooks is available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]

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Dr. Candice Elaine brooks presents the free public lecture "Retrospective Understandings: An Exploration of Individual-Collective Influences on High Achieving Black Students at a Predominantly White Institution of Higher Education" on Tuesday, May 17