[Music]
good evening everybody so tonight I come
here this evening with a very simple
premise that each one of you as
community college students are an answer
to one of our biggest problems and that
is that we need to have all your voices
be visible and that we have to create a
diverse and well-trained workforce in
all our fields your voices are currently
missing and what can we do in order to
be able to make sure that you are part
of that narrative so why you why
community college students well one is
that here in California we know that
over 75% of our underrepresented
students actually begin their college
career in a community college you
actually are the most diverse population
of higher education students in this
state and of the country and so we need
to make sure that your voices are being
heard and so I this is a challenge that
I I want each of you to consider that
you need to be part of that path and of
that narrative we need you in every
field and so what I said was a very
simple premise isn’t that simple anymore
right and so I’d like to share a couple
of stanzas of a poem so it’s going to be
something else you’re going to be
hearing about tonight two roads diverged
in a yellow wood and sorry I could not
travel both and be one traveler long I
stood and looked down one as far as I
could and to where it bent in the
undergrowth I should I shall be telling
this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages
hence two roads diverged in a wood and I
I took the one less traveled by and that
has made all the difference and so first
I want to thank my English teacher from
high school I grew up in the city of
Lawrence where Robert Frost who wrote
that
came from who was born and she everyday
tried to instill in us some creativity
some beauty some writing because she
knew that our backgrounds didn’t have a
lot of beauty they didn’t have a lot of
like nice words to talk about what we
were going through but she wanted to
make sure that we knew that language and
that it was part of us and those last
two those last two lines of the poem and
I took the one less traveled by and that
has made all the difference
our lines that I come back to pretty
regularly when I worked with my
community college students and even when
I’m thinking about what I’m about to do
I’ve taken the road less traveled by and
that has made all the difference and so
when I asked you what image do you think
about when you hear those words or when
you’ve heard the first two stanzas of
the poem many of you were probably
thinking a road like this a beautiful
tranquil New England landscape in the
fall with the roads diverging yet for
many of us the reality of when we when
we come to that divergent Road is that
the roads actually look a lot more like
that and so one of the things that we
need to do is what what happens when you
come to that point where the roads are
diverging are you paralyzed by the risk
that you may want to take or do you
embrace that risk and move forward and
so tonight every good journey starts
with a choice and with that first step
so what I’d like to do with you this
evening is make those choices and take
those first steps with you so where do
you go right there’s many places where
you can be heading to as you know
wouldn’t it be great you know with the
technology that we currently have that
you take your phone out and you GPS I
want to be a doctor you put doctor in
your phone and all of a sudden all the
directions
it’s how you get there everything is
laid out for you but it’s not that easy
right so first you have to be aware and
accept that doctor is the destination
that you actually want to walk towards
and become in 1994 I came to one of
those crossroads one of those diverging
paths in my life I was working in
hiv/aids at the time and I was working
with a lot of amazing people a lot of
incredible people both in my home state
of Massachusetts but also nationally and
internationally and at the same time I
was also watching unfortunately a lot of
my colleagues a lot of my friends a lot
of my neighbors died from this horrible
epidemic that was really just bringing
so many beautiful and wonderful people
down so I had to ask myself what am I
going to do in this path that’s in front
of me do I continue working on this
really important field of HIV research
HIV prevention or do I do something else
and for me one of the questions that
that was a very important question
because in that moment I made the
decision that there had there was
another path and where I could still be
doing this really important work and
that was to work with young people
because I was also seeing that there
were a lot of young people who were not
making the best decisions who are not
educated and who were dying and I really
wanted to make sure that they were part
of our future and that their voices were
part of our collective narrative so what
did I do
I did all this research I read a lot
about youth development adolescent
development and really started to think
about okay this is what I want to do I
had to commit to that and I had to make
that really part of me and embrace it as
part of my life and so I I wrote down
this I actually wrote this in 1994
it’s it’s actually signed and I still
have this and so these were all the
ideas of other research and this became
my personal philosophy on how I work in
how I approach working with young people
and to this day this philosophy is still
part of who I am what I believe then is
still part of what I do today and if I
ever questioned some of the work that
I’m doing on how I work with young
people I come back to this document and
to me it’s still incredibly alive and
relevant you know the youth empowerment
and developing youth leadership is
critical to the health and success of a
society working for positive change in
social justice in the context of
community is critical education must be
personalized and students must be active
participants in their learning and
education should enable young people to
do meaningful work and to participate as
full members of society all these
elements to me are still very real and
still very much part of my narrative and
so the other half of this work beyond
commitment is that you have to be
incredibly accepting of who you are and
this is the other part that also can be
very difficult right it’s like who are
you right if you get that question asked
so many times what are you doing with
your life and so that by itself is its
own journey and that sense of
self-acceptance is just as important as
that moment where you have commitment to
the work that you’re doing and so at
this moment I want to make sure to
remind all of you that right now as
students as young people you’re all
perfect in this moment and right here
and right now you can accept who you are
and you can move forward with whatever
it is
that you have a bit of achieving and so
that cannot be denied and so when I work
with students there’s always you know
that tends to be the hardest work I can
work with you and put together your
applications I can help you with your
personal statements I can help you with
your applications to medical school I
can help you with all that work getting
an internship I can even help you with
your resumes right and so that’s another
place where I just like to take a minute
to stop with that word resumes that’s
sort of that one document that all of
you at some point have to write and it’s
the one document that all of you at some
point have to put in front of somebody
else to showcase who you are and what
I’ve seen it’s so much of the work that
I’ve been able to do with young people
and with community college students is
that that document to meet demonstrates
this lack of commitment and lack of
self-awareness because what I see so
many times is that you actually minimize
who you are in that document and that
you self edit your accomplishments and
so you definitely at this point you know
a piece of advice is that those are two
behaviors that you need to change you
know self editing and also self
minimizing you need to find the language
that really embraces and describes
everything that you are doing and are
capable of doing and plan to accomplish
and you also need to find the people who
will be working with you to find that
language and challenge you challenging
you as you move forward so that’s where
we’re stopping right is you know I just
had to do a little bit of construction
with you but definitely that this is the
place that you know as you’re moving
forward that you really want to take the
time to be thinking about who you are
how you accept who you
what you are embrace and what is the
path that you’re moving forward on and
hopefully that you’re always feeling
that this is the direction that you’re
moving in and that they’re always going
to be some challenges right so there’s
all kinds of things that will always be
in your grade and so you may be clear
that you’re moving in the northward
direction in the forward direction but
all these different things are happening
as well there’s always going to be
naysayers there’s going to be doubters
there’s going to be people who are going
to say you’re not capable of doing that
and so part of my message this evening
is that again you’re all greater than
all of this and that you’re also going
to face some of the other issues that
we’re facing as a society gender bias
racism homophobia and other forms of
oppression that we’re dealing with and
again you are greater than all of these
and part of this is building a sense of
who you are and self-efficacy or as
illness so I want to share a story with
you when I was working on my Master’s I
was living in Boston I was working on my
master’s in public health and so I was
working two jobs right and then I would
take the subway and then get on a bus
and then I would go to class they would
do the bus but dropped me off about four
blocks away from class and I would walk
to class so I would do this in the
winter as well and so most of you if
you’re from Southern California you have
young masters and this could be two
three almost four months of our lives
and so one night I got off the bus I was
heading to my final I had to like walk
over one of those snow banks get on the
sidewalk and walk to class and so as I’m
walking literally the sidewalk caves in
underneath me and I fall through the
sidewalk and so in that moment you
really really question like what is
going on what is the universe asking me
to memorize the Testaments right yeah
and so I looked I said you know I’m
gonna get up out of this hole
and one way or the other I’m gonna make
it to that class and I did I walked into
class my pants were all ripped I had
blood dripping down one of my legs I
and so took my test finished walked in
gave it back and then get on the bus got
on the subway and pedicle and in that
class by the way I got it me
and so I share this story because to
highlight three thing largely two things
is that you know this is sort of a story
around for this concept of self-efficacy
that one is that you always have to get
up and master the challenges that are in
front of you and that you learn from
your failures and your successes that’s
sort of the research and social science
of Albert at Europe and then the second
is that you find the people who can also
help you succeed and move forward and
that that is a critical part of that
work I did a lot of this work I was able
to do my Master’s because there were
other people who believed in me and when
I was in that hole I said you know there
are a lot of people who believe in there
right now it’s not just me it’s a lot of
other people that are with my community
and my family and then the third part
which actually another social scientist
psychologists actually brought into the
mix James Maddox is this idea of
imaginal experiences so just take like
three seconds close your eyes and think
of those two words imaginal experiences
and the idea behind that is pretty
simple is that you each have to also as
you’re on your path visualize where
you’re heading to and that that
visualization process is actually
incredibly critical because that’s how
you create your own social identity
that’s how you create that place that
you’re heading towards and you make it
real and so those three elements are
incredibly important when we’re talking
about self-efficacy so you’ve done a lot
of work take a little like 30 seconds to
rest but guess what at this moment you
you’re probably starting to feel this
way I definitely have right and your
body may start not feeling quite right
and so there are all these things going
on and this is where I just want to take
a minute to really talk about mental
health because this is really the place
where when you’re doing all the work
there can be lots of strenuous issues
that are happening that can bring
depression anxiety stress and that you
really need to address and talk to
people about those issues so that you
can succeed on their goals it’s
something at Community College’s at all
college campuses that we all have to be
looking at over at least 60% of students
who need mental health services are not
accessing them and we know that at least
80% of the majority of mental health
diagnosis ‘is actually happened before
the age of 24 so you as a group of young
people this is something that we have to
talk about and it’s something we need to
address but we can do it together and so
that if you’re ever in this base to
definitely go and find the help that you
need and talk to the people who can help
you when they work with you so one more
poll and so Langston Hughes wrote what
happens to a dream deferred does it dry
up like A Raisin in the Sun or fester
like a sore and then run does it stink
like rotten meat or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet maybe it just sags
like a heavy load or does it explode and
so I shared this poem because this is
another one I come back to quite a bit
when I work with my students many times
when I’m working with young people I
talk about this concept of my deferred
dreamers the the young people who have
all these dreams and aspirations of
being the CEO being the doctor you know
aspiring to be all these amazing jobs if
there are all these other people have
been telling them no you really can’t do
that why don’t you think about something
else and so they put this these dreams
in a box and so what I’m telling what I
tell my students and I’m telling you
this evening is that that dream needs to
live outside of the box it needs to be
visible and you need to share that and
then the next question I get is how how
can I do this and where do where do I
start
and so my last image here I Drive by the
sign every morning on the way to work
and it’s sort of like my talisman right
it’s like begin I begin my day here with
this sign and so that’s what I’m telling
each of you to do begin begin taking
care of yourselves begin creating your
experiences begin developing your work
your this is going to be a lot of
difficult work but each of you has more
than just a simple poem inside of you
you each have an epic poem waiting to be
written read and share it with the world
go write it live it and change the world start begin and
good evening everybody so tonight I come
here this evening with a very simple
premise that each one of you as
community college students are an answer
to one of our biggest problems and that
is that we need to have all your voices
be visible and that we have to create a
diverse and well-trained workforce in
all our fields your voices are currently
missing and what can we do in order to
be able to make sure that you are part
of that narrative so why you why
community college students well one is
that here in California we know that
over 75% of our underrepresented
students actually begin their college
career in a community college you
actually are the most diverse population
of higher education students in this
state and of the country and so we need
to make sure that your voices are being
heard and so I this is a challenge that
I I want each of you to consider that
you need to be part of that path and of
that narrative we need you in every
field and so what I said was a very
simple premise isn’t that simple anymore
right and so I’d like to share a couple
of stanzas of a poem so it’s going to be
something else you’re going to be
hearing about tonight two roads diverged
in a yellow wood and sorry I could not
travel both and be one traveler long I
stood and looked down one as far as I
could and to where it bent in the
undergrowth I should I shall be telling
this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages
hence two roads diverged in a wood and I
I took the one less traveled by and that
has made all the difference and so first
I want to thank my English teacher from
high school I grew up in the city of
Lawrence where Robert Frost who wrote
that
came from who was born and she everyday
tried to instill in us some creativity
some beauty some writing because she
knew that our backgrounds didn’t have a
lot of beauty they didn’t have a lot of
like nice words to talk about what we
were going through but she wanted to
make sure that we knew that language and
that it was part of us and those last
two those last two lines of the poem and
I took the one less traveled by and that
has made all the difference
our lines that I come back to pretty
regularly when I worked with my
community college students and even when
I’m thinking about what I’m about to do
I’ve taken the road less traveled by and
that has made all the difference and so
when I asked you what image do you think
about when you hear those words or when
you’ve heard the first two stanzas of
the poem many of you were probably
thinking a road like this a beautiful
tranquil New England landscape in the
fall with the roads diverging yet for
many of us the reality of when we when
we come to that divergent Road is that
the roads actually look a lot more like
that and so one of the things that we
need to do is what what happens when you
come to that point where the roads are
diverging are you paralyzed by the risk
that you may want to take or do you
embrace that risk and move forward and
so tonight every good journey starts
with a choice and with that first step
so what I’d like to do with you this
evening is make those choices and take
those first steps with you so where do
you go right there’s many places where
you can be heading to as you know
wouldn’t it be great you know with the
technology that we currently have that
you take your phone out and you GPS I
want to be a doctor you put doctor in
your phone and all of a sudden all the
directions
it’s how you get there everything is
laid out for you but it’s not that easy
right so first you have to be aware and
accept that doctor is the destination
that you actually want to walk towards
and become in 1994 I came to one of
those crossroads one of those diverging
paths in my life I was working in
hiv/aids at the time and I was working
with a lot of amazing people a lot of
incredible people both in my home state
of Massachusetts but also nationally and
internationally and at the same time I
was also watching unfortunately a lot of
my colleagues a lot of my friends a lot
of my neighbors died from this horrible
epidemic that was really just bringing
so many beautiful and wonderful people
down so I had to ask myself what am I
going to do in this path that’s in front
of me do I continue working on this
really important field of HIV research
HIV prevention or do I do something else
and for me one of the questions that
that was a very important question
because in that moment I made the
decision that there had there was
another path and where I could still be
doing this really important work and
that was to work with young people
because I was also seeing that there
were a lot of young people who were not
making the best decisions who are not
educated and who were dying and I really
wanted to make sure that they were part
of our future and that their voices were
part of our collective narrative so what
did I do
I did all this research I read a lot
about youth development adolescent
development and really started to think
about okay this is what I want to do I
had to commit to that and I had to make
that really part of me and embrace it as
part of my life and so I I wrote down
this I actually wrote this in 1994
it’s it’s actually signed and I still
have this and so these were all the
ideas of other research and this became
my personal philosophy on how I work in
how I approach working with young people
and to this day this philosophy is still
part of who I am what I believe then is
still part of what I do today and if I
ever questioned some of the work that
I’m doing on how I work with young
people I come back to this document and
to me it’s still incredibly alive and
relevant you know the youth empowerment
and developing youth leadership is
critical to the health and success of a
society working for positive change in
social justice in the context of
community is critical education must be
personalized and students must be active
participants in their learning and
education should enable young people to
do meaningful work and to participate as
full members of society all these
elements to me are still very real and
still very much part of my narrative and
so the other half of this work beyond
commitment is that you have to be
incredibly accepting of who you are and
this is the other part that also can be
very difficult right it’s like who are
you right if you get that question asked
so many times what are you doing with
your life and so that by itself is its
own journey and that sense of
self-acceptance is just as important as
that moment where you have commitment to
the work that you’re doing and so at
this moment I want to make sure to
remind all of you that right now as
students as young people you’re all
perfect in this moment and right here
and right now you can accept who you are
and you can move forward with whatever
it is
that you have a bit of achieving and so
that cannot be denied and so when I work
with students there’s always you know
that tends to be the hardest work I can
work with you and put together your
applications I can help you with your
personal statements I can help you with
your applications to medical school I
can help you with all that work getting
an internship I can even help you with
your resumes right and so that’s another
place where I just like to take a minute
to stop with that word resumes that’s
sort of that one document that all of
you at some point have to write and it’s
the one document that all of you at some
point have to put in front of somebody
else to showcase who you are and what
I’ve seen it’s so much of the work that
I’ve been able to do with young people
and with community college students is
that that document to meet demonstrates
this lack of commitment and lack of
self-awareness because what I see so
many times is that you actually minimize
who you are in that document and that
you self edit your accomplishments and
so you definitely at this point you know
a piece of advice is that those are two
behaviors that you need to change you
know self editing and also self
minimizing you need to find the language
that really embraces and describes
everything that you are doing and are
capable of doing and plan to accomplish
and you also need to find the people who
will be working with you to find that
language and challenge you challenging
you as you move forward so that’s where
we’re stopping right is you know I just
had to do a little bit of construction
with you but definitely that this is the
place that you know as you’re moving
forward that you really want to take the
time to be thinking about who you are
how you accept who you
what you are embrace and what is the
path that you’re moving forward on and
hopefully that you’re always feeling
that this is the direction that you’re
moving in and that they’re always going
to be some challenges right so there’s
all kinds of things that will always be
in your grade and so you may be clear
that you’re moving in the northward
direction in the forward direction but
all these different things are happening
as well there’s always going to be
naysayers there’s going to be doubters
there’s going to be people who are going
to say you’re not capable of doing that
and so part of my message this evening
is that again you’re all greater than
all of this and that you’re also going
to face some of the other issues that
we’re facing as a society gender bias
racism homophobia and other forms of
oppression that we’re dealing with and
again you are greater than all of these
and part of this is building a sense of
who you are and self-efficacy or as
illness so I want to share a story with
you when I was working on my Master’s I
was living in Boston I was working on my
master’s in public health and so I was
working two jobs right and then I would
take the subway and then get on a bus
and then I would go to class they would
do the bus but dropped me off about four
blocks away from class and I would walk
to class so I would do this in the
winter as well and so most of you if
you’re from Southern California you have
young masters and this could be two
three almost four months of our lives
and so one night I got off the bus I was
heading to my final I had to like walk
over one of those snow banks get on the
sidewalk and walk to class and so as I’m
walking literally the sidewalk caves in
underneath me and I fall through the
sidewalk and so in that moment you
really really question like what is
going on what is the universe asking me
to memorize the Testaments right yeah
and so I looked I said you know I’m
gonna get up out of this hole
and one way or the other I’m gonna make
it to that class and I did I walked into
class my pants were all ripped I had
blood dripping down one of my legs I
and so took my test finished walked in
gave it back and then get on the bus got
on the subway and pedicle and in that
class by the way I got it me
and so I share this story because to
highlight three thing largely two things
is that you know this is sort of a story
around for this concept of self-efficacy
that one is that you always have to get
up and master the challenges that are in
front of you and that you learn from
your failures and your successes that’s
sort of the research and social science
of Albert at Europe and then the second
is that you find the people who can also
help you succeed and move forward and
that that is a critical part of that
work I did a lot of this work I was able
to do my Master’s because there were
other people who believed in me and when
I was in that hole I said you know there
are a lot of people who believe in there
right now it’s not just me it’s a lot of
other people that are with my community
and my family and then the third part
which actually another social scientist
psychologists actually brought into the
mix James Maddox is this idea of
imaginal experiences so just take like
three seconds close your eyes and think
of those two words imaginal experiences
and the idea behind that is pretty
simple is that you each have to also as
you’re on your path visualize where
you’re heading to and that that
visualization process is actually
incredibly critical because that’s how
you create your own social identity
that’s how you create that place that
you’re heading towards and you make it
real and so those three elements are
incredibly important when we’re talking
about self-efficacy so you’ve done a lot
of work take a little like 30 seconds to
rest but guess what at this moment you
you’re probably starting to feel this
way I definitely have right and your
body may start not feeling quite right
and so there are all these things going
on and this is where I just want to take
a minute to really talk about mental
health because this is really the place
where when you’re doing all the work
there can be lots of strenuous issues
that are happening that can bring
depression anxiety stress and that you
really need to address and talk to
people about those issues so that you
can succeed on their goals it’s
something at Community College’s at all
college campuses that we all have to be
looking at over at least 60% of students
who need mental health services are not
accessing them and we know that at least
80% of the majority of mental health
diagnosis ‘is actually happened before
the age of 24 so you as a group of young
people this is something that we have to
talk about and it’s something we need to
address but we can do it together and so
that if you’re ever in this base to
definitely go and find the help that you
need and talk to the people who can help
you when they work with you so one more
poll and so Langston Hughes wrote what
happens to a dream deferred does it dry
up like A Raisin in the Sun or fester
like a sore and then run does it stink
like rotten meat or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet maybe it just sags
like a heavy load or does it explode and
so I shared this poem because this is
another one I come back to quite a bit
when I work with my students many times
when I’m working with young people I
talk about this concept of my deferred
dreamers the the young people who have
all these dreams and aspirations of
being the CEO being the doctor you know
aspiring to be all these amazing jobs if
there are all these other people have
been telling them no you really can’t do
that why don’t you think about something
else and so they put this these dreams
in a box and so what I’m telling what I
tell my students and I’m telling you
this evening is that that dream needs to
live outside of the box it needs to be
visible and you need to share that and
then the next question I get is how how
can I do this and where do where do I
start
and so my last image here I Drive by the
sign every morning on the way to work
and it’s sort of like my talisman right
it’s like begin I begin my day here with
this sign and so that’s what I’m telling
each of you to do begin begin taking
care of yourselves begin creating your
experiences begin developing your work
your this is going to be a lot of
difficult work but each of you has more
than just a simple poem inside of you
you each have an epic poem waiting to be
written read and share it with the world
go write it live it and change the world start begin and
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