Northeast State Community College’s Office of Inclusive Excellence and Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing (RCAM) developed a multi-pronged Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 2023 program aimed at providing a platform to connect currently enrolled students to engagement and persistence strategies; showcase the plethora of education and workforce readiness resources and opportunities available at the College to our service area students and communities; and provide a platform for candid ideation – through the Barber shop program – on how to adequately and gainfully serve need-to-reach populations in our region
The College will host three events during the week of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day to commemorate the life of the prominent Civil Rights activist that contribute to discussions and strategies to address lowered enrollment and retention rates. A leadership program is scheduled for currently enrolled Northeast State students, and high school students and community members will be exposed to the many educational opportunities available at the College.
The first of the three events include a student leadership and development program designed to cultivate student engagement as students enter the Spring semester. Dr. Vincent Windrow — one of the leading champions in student success and engagement strategies — will spearhead the event at the College’s Kingsport Center for Higher Education located at 300 W. Market St. on Jan. 19 at 4:00 p.m. All Northeast State students are welcome to attend.
Following the leadership program, students can participate in what the Office of Inclusive Excellence dubbed “The Barber Shop: Cuts and Conversation.” The open-discussion event will feature Micah Taylor, the owner of Taylor Made Barber Shop. Students, staff, faculty, and community members can listen and participate in the conversation as Taylor styles the hair of a group of panelists, and students will be encouraged to add to the discussion with their own experiences.
“What inspired this event was a similar experience hosted by the Tennessee Board of Regents,” said Office of Inclusive Excellence Coordinator Tongai Maodzwa. “A few months ago, the Board, at the We All Rise Conference, hosted a session on the Barber Shop where participants had the opportunity to learn from Higher Education practitioners, captains of industries and participating community members about the different experiences of Black males in our communities, especially as it pertains to higher education and career opportunities. The goal is to use the rich data from the conversations to develop better-informed strategies to meet students, workforce and communities’ needs.”
Barber shops play an influential role in Black history, and the event aims to recreate the type of environment in which many Black men and boys found a sense of community and were connected to opportunities such as education and skills development opportunities.
“When we think of the barber shop — especially within the Black community — it’s not just about cutting hair,” Maodzwa said. “It is a place where opportunities are shared. Just in thinking of that and in thinking of our mission as a college, we saw that there are parallels that we can draw by creating this program while also tapping into our community and learning.”
Reports from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission in 2021 showed an alarming decline in student enrollment and retention — particularly Black male students. The decline is indicative of a much broader trend that our State and nation are experiencing in declining student enrollment, retention, and completion, especially for many critical student subpopulations. These programs are designed to contribute to the College’s overall ecosystem of strategies to serve currently enrolled students, need-to-reach populations, and broadly the needs of different stakeholders in our service area communities.
“The barber shop was one of a few places where Black men could go and be perceived and respected as men,” said Linda Calvert, the College’s Vice President for Administration and Grant Development and Chief Diversity Officer. “In many instances, they could be 60 years old, and someone in their 20s could call them a boy. In the barber shop, everyone was respected, and they could not only ask questions, but their opinions were sought out. These experiences contributed to the growth and development of many successful leaders. Going to the barber shop could be described as a rite of passage.”
Maodzwa said that while the event places emphasis on Black men, the Barber Shop welcomes all, and is broadly aimed at being a framework to identify different strategies to reach out and serve many critical need-to-reach populations who can benefit gainfully from what the college has to offer.
“We are not only looking for ethnically and experientially similar individuals to sit on the panel,” Maodzwa said. “We are looking at replicating the true sense of the barber shop. Community colleges are losing [and struggling to bring in] many need-to-reach subpopulations — in addition to young Black male students — at an alarming rate. These trends also present a rife opportunity to execute our true mission as an institution. We want to hear those conversations from our community to help identify what is leading to the loss and disconnection as well as share the gainful resources and opportunities the college has to offer.”
The Barber Shop and student leadership events are just two aspects of the Office of Inclusive Excellence’s strategy to reach students of all backgrounds. On Jan. 20 from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., the Office of Inclusive Excellence in collaboration with the College’s Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing (RCAM) will host its second annual MLK Youth Summit, which offers opportunities for 10th – 12th grade students in our region to experience social, intellectual, and technical skills through presentations and hands-on experiences with RCAM staff and instructors, and local industry representatives.
The day-long event at Northeast State’s Regional Center for Advanced Manufacturing will feature immersive virtual reality and hands-on activities to give students a look into different careers. Lunch and snacks will be provided.
“We think this series of programs provide a great opportunity to focus on the need for strong role models in our community as we address enrollment and persistence of all students and build on the infrastructure to showcase the gainful opportunities at the college our service region communities can access,” said Calvert.