To prepare Black students for the transition from postsecondary education to the workforce, San Diego State University (SDSU) created the Hal Brown Career Learning and Understanding Biases (HB CLUB) program.
In 1998, philanthropists Malin Burnham and Bob Payne, working alongside San Diego civil rights leader Harold K. Brown, formed a group called “Community Leaders Undoing Biases” (CLUB), with the intent of holding conversations around race.
Because there was a limited number of new members joining or showing interest, the group eventually dissolved.
As an ode to CLUB and intrigued by SDSU’s diversity and inclusion efforts, Burnham and Payne donated $500,000 to help kick start a program on campus to support Black students.
Dr. J. Luke Wood, associate vice president for faculty diversity and inclusion at SDSU, said the donors “ensured that people are having differential outcomes that are positive in the labor market.”
“There are so many people who after the murder of George Floyd felt compelled to really do something for the African American community,” he said. “A lot of people attended different seminars to learn about challenges. They ordered a bunch of books. But what this group did, which is different, is they went beyond talk to actual action.”
Last year, the program was originally piloted under a different name. Now, however, the HB CLUB program, in honor of Brown, has since been enhanced to connect students to local industry leaders, focus on career preparation and discuss other topics not typically taught in the classroom like financial literacy.
