The following is a guest post written by Antonio Morales Jr. — blogger, poet, photographer, and Summer Search Philadelphia student — for Mental Health Awareness Month.
Antonio, who currently attends Community College of Philadelphia, describes himself as “a creative, who loves to spread positivity and inspire. I aspire to change negative narratives and stereotypes of black men, while making it look good.”
Antonio Morales Jr.
Last month, we sent a team of Summer Search staff to the 2018 National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC. Our National Director of Research and Evaluation, Salem Valentino, Ph.D., shared her reflections from the conference in this guest blog post.
This is my sixth year as a researcher in the field of mentoring and also my sixth year attending the National Mentoring Summit. While that may not seem like an extensive period in anyone’s professional career, the field of mentoring has rapidly evolved during those six years.
Summer Search staff at the 2018 National Mentoring Summit. From left to right: Seth James Ellis, Antonio Brown, Stacey Thompson, and Salem Valentino.
Continue reading Observations from the Summit: The Evolution of Mentoring
Here at Summer Search, we are fortunate to have partners that generously support the work that we do, creating greater equity by increasing the number of students from low-income backgrounds who successfully enter and complete college.
Recently, Summer Search New York City received two significant public funding grants totaling $140,000 to support college access services for the young men and women in our NYC high school program. Continue reading Partnerships to Honor Our Young Men and Women
In February, we sent a team of Summer Search staff to the 2017 National Mentoring Summit. Two members of our team, Boston mentor Claire Marian and Bay Area mentor Alysa Delgado shared what they learned in this co-authored guest blog post.
This year, we (Claire Marian and Alysa Delgado) had the opportunity to represent Summer Search alongside our colleagues Salem Valentino, Stacey Thompson, Alex Bartz, Stacy Barr, and Eliza Arai Carrington at the National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC.
From left to right: Alysa Delgado, Claire Marian, Alex Bartz, Stacy Barr, Salem Valentino, and Stacey Thompson.
“I’ve decided to dedicate my life to taking positive images of Black men and creating a platform for their voices to be heard.”
Those are the determined words of Summer Search Bay Area alumnus Justin Bethune. At the start of Black History Month this year, Justin announced in a post on Medium that he was launching The Bethune Project, a photo campaign on Instagram.
Summer Search Bay Area alumnus Justin Bethune.
Continue reading Black Male Voices Inspire Bay Area Alumnus Justin Bethune
Guest post written by our own Antonio Brown, National Males of Color Initiative Coordinator.
Reblogged from the National Mentoring Resource Center Blog, originally published on September 12, 2016.
Claim excellence is a core value at Summer Search. As you walk through our offices, you see these words written on the walls as a reminder of this commitment to our communities. Continue reading Claiming Excellence: How Our Alumni Help Us Better Serve Our Black and Latino Males
Our mission is to help our students become college-educated leaders who give back to their families and communities. That means every Summer Searcher is a leader, and their leadership can take many forms.
One way they can lead is by speaking up, by lending their voices to issues that are important to them, no matter how difficult, uncomfortable or emotional.
Recently, two Philadelphia Summer Searchers had opportunities to do just that, to speak up and be vocal and visible leaders in their community. Continue reading Speaking Up in Philly
