The Umoja-ASTEP learning community brought together students and faculty to celebrate the beginning of the school year and to introduce new students to campus resources, all while enjoying some soul food and giving them the chance to converse.

On Thursday, August 21, campus student support groups such as The Promise Scholars Program, Active Minds, and the Black and Brown Scholars Program invited students to join their communities, giving them breakdowns on how their programs could benefit them. 

Skyline College’s new president, Dr. Nathan Carter, helped serve hot food and began the event by delivering a short speech about how community college helped him discover his true potential, and how similar programs such as the ones available here on campus provided that support. 

Communications professor Danielle Powell also shared her story about how student resource programs motivated her to pursue a career in communications. 

Sophomore student Leilani McAllister described the program as a resource to help African American students obtain their associate’s degree and their bachelor’s degree, while giving them access to different programs and conferences that could expose them to new ideas. 

McAllister joined Umoja-ASTEP last Spring, and said that making sure students have access to campus resources is important because the benefits from these programs have the potential to dramatically increase a student’s success through the conferences that they attend and the support they receive from one another.

“It’s important for people to know the resources available because it’s what will propel you to [succeed] the easiest way,” McAllister said. 

McAllister, who is a computer science major, said she was fortunate enough to attend RSAC for free, which is a conference discussing the new innovations in cybersecurity, through Umoja-ASTEP. She said that it’s the little things that these programs offer that will help you grow as a student and make connections. 

“Getting people that are on the same path as me and we’re doing it together, just makes me feel more able to be successful,” McAllister said. 

McAllister also mentioned that, thanks to the support she has found from her friends in the Umoja-ASTEP community, she feels even more confident in being her truest self.