Alumni relay minority experiences

By Karen Schwartz

Daily Staff Reporter

When Charlie Beckham came to the University in 1965, there were 40,000 undergraduate students. Of those, 350 - less than one-tenth of 1 percent - were black.

Beckham and two other University alumni, Kamau Marable and Dalia Garcia, who graduated in 1995 and 1998 respectively, spoke yesterday in the Pendleton Room of the Michigan Union about their University experiences, the challenges they faced as minority students and how a degree from the University has benefited them. The program, in its second year, was titled, "A Focus on Outcomes."

A degree from the University opens doors, Beckham said, and the struggle to give more people of color access to quality education must continue.

"Focus" is a recruitment program tied in with the Martin Luther King Jr. symposium and presented by the University's Ambassador Program, a volunteer student organization that works to recruit students of color. The program was open to the public but also geared towards minority students, said Feodies Shipp III, who started the program last year. Shipp is also senior admissions counselor for the University.

"I really want them to see those paths and know that people have walked the road before them and that there are others they can look to for guidance and support," Shipp said.

"Bringing students in to talk to alums lets them see how a degree helps propel them towards the future, and shows the full circle of University life," he said.

Featured guest Garcia addressed the subjects of confidence and stereotypes, urging students to be examples for those around them and live up to their goals.

"Don't get up in the morning and say, 'This is what people say about me so this is what I must be,'" she said.

Instead, Garcia said, students need to take charge of their own lives, accepting the challenges life offers and finding their own answers.

"You are what you make of yourself and by starting here you're sending the message that 'yeah, I can do this, I'm gonna do this'" she said.

Prospective University student Erik Saenz attended the program to hear about alumni experiences before he makes his college decision.

"They gave me a feeling of what responsibilities I'd have here and a picture of where I'd be with a degree from U of M," Saenz said.