Hundreds of male high school students from across the city attended the third annual Male Empowerment Event at Monroe College in the Bronx last week. The morning gathering brought together at risk male students with professionals in an effort to begin a conversation about college.
Monroe College started the annual event in 2009 in response to the growing number of Black and Latino men who drop out of high school and don’t attend college.
Over 300 young men from high schools across the city came out for the event and broke off in groups of 10 to meet with professional men from various fields, including business, politics, clergy, education and the law.
“This is our way of making an impact on the young males in the community and helping them see the vision of going on to college,” said Garvin Reid, a Monroe College recruiter who helped put the event together. “The No. 1 goal is to see to it that students have a firmer knowledge about going to college. We want college to be their destiny.”
Students and mentors participated in roundtable discussions about paths to success, male influences, ways to decrease the number of high school dropouts and which college the students wanted to attend.
“What this really is, is speaking about preparing for the future by people who have gone through what they are going through. We also talk about planning for the future and money,” said Monroe College President Stephen Jerome.
Guest speakers at the event included Monroe College professor and motivational speaker Sherman Browne and Eagle Academy President and CEO David C. Banks.