To address the low retention and graduation rates of male African American and Hispanic students at the University of Central Florida (UCF), Wayne Jackson developed the Brother to Brother (B2B) program.
Since its establishment in 2008, B2B has provided academic and on-campus support to male students of color through workshops and events.
“[B2B] brings guys together to help them understand the importance of education but also to begin to help them realize the opportunities that were out there for them so that they could be successful,” says Jackson, director of Multicultural Academic and Support Services (MASS) at UCF.
Within the last three years at UCF, first and second-year retention rates for African American males have stayed relatively consistent from 91.4% in 2016-17 to 87.5% in 2018-19. The rates were comparable for Hispanic males as well, with 87.1% in 2016-17 to 89.8% in 2018-19, according to Jackson.
At predominantly White institutions, Jackson says that minority students should know there are support systems as well as a place for them on campus.
“One of the things that we believe about our program is that in order to be successful, students really have to have a sense of belonging on campus so our job was to help them understand that they have a place that they could come to,” he adds.
At the start of the program, B2B hosted speakers on campus, and students were given the opportunity to attend conferences including the National Black Student Leadership Development Conference in Washington, D.C.
