The Project MALES IMPACT (Instructing Males through Peer Advising College Tracks) course is a service learning course taught by Project MALES for course credit and to further expand the knowledge of our mentors and interested students.
Background
Instructing Males through Peer Advising College Tracks was launched in the Fall of 2014 as a course designed to enhance college student engagement and academic achievement by offering active and experiential learning opportunities through near peer advising and service learning. Service-learning courses involve reflection as well as action and combines community work with classroom instruction and course requirements (Schutz & Gere, 1998), and to that end IMPACT engages and connects undergraduate students who attend the University of Texas at Austin to Latino and African American male youth at the middle school and high school levels in the Central Texas community through near peer advising and mentoring (Schmidt & Moust, 1995).
IMPACT provides students with first-hand experiences working within local schools in the Austin Independent School District, Del Valle Independent School District, East Austin College Prep, and Texans CAN Academy Austin to advise and mentor young middle school and high school males about college pathways (e.g., tracks), and the importance of learning the necessary soft-skills that will make them successful students whether they are transitioning from middle school to high school, or high school to a higher education institution. Students also engage in leadership training with emerging and established community leaders. Overall, this service-learning course focuses on leadership development, mentoring theories, research presentations and discussions about males of color in education.
Spring 2023 Syllabus | Fall 2022 Syllabus
Select Literature from the Reading List:
Castillo, J. (2014). Tolerance in schools for latino students: Dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline. Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, 26, 43-58
Garcia-Louis, C. (2018). Ni Latino, Ni Negro: The (in)visibility of Afrolatino Males in Higher Education Research. Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity, 97-119.
Harper, S. R., & Davis III, C. H. (2012). They ( Don’t) Care about Education: A Counternarrative on Black Male Students’ Responses to Inequitable Schooling. Educational Foundations, 26, 103-120.
Perez, W., Crotes, R., Ramos, K., & Coronado, H. (2010). Cursed and Blessed Examining the Socioemotional and Academic Experiences of Undocumented Latina and Latino College Students. New Directions for Student Services, 2010(131)35-51.
Reyes, K. B., & Curry Rodríguez, J. E. (2012). Testimonio: Origins, terms, and resources. Equity & Excellence in Education, 45(3), 525-538.
Saenz, V. B., & Ponjuan, L. (2009). The vanishing Latino male in higher education. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 8(1), 54–89.
Salinas C, J., Lozano, A. (2017). Mapping and recontextualizing the evolution of the term Latinx: An environmental scanning in higher education, Journal of Latinos and Education.
Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race ethnicity and education, 8(1), 69-91.
Additional Literature
Hall, H. R. (2006). Embracing Young Males of Color in the School Domain in “Mentoring Young Men of Color: Meeting the Needs of African American and Latino Students.” Rowman & Littlefield Education. 15200 NBN Way, PO Box 191, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214-0191.
Hall, H. R. (2006). Creating a Space For Boys in “Mentoring Young Men of Color: Meeting the Needs of African American and Latino Students.” Rowman & Littlefield Education. 15200 NBN Way, PO Box 191, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214-0191.
Sáenz, V.B., Ponjuan, L., Segovia Jr., J., Del Real Viramontes, J. (2015). Developing a Latino mentoring program: Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success). In C. Turner (Ed.), New Directions for Higher Education, Mentoring as Transformative Practice: Supporting Student and Faculty Diversity. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.
“The Value of Mentoring,” Mentoring.org, published by the National Mentoring Partnership, covers issues on youth mentoring.
Wiley, T., and Schineller, K. (n.d.) About Youth Today in “The Wisdom of Age: A Handbook for Mentors” adapted from www.mentoring.org.
Schmidt, H. G., & Moust, J. H. C. (1995). What makes a tutor effective? A structural-equations modeling approach to learning in problem-based curricula. Academic Medicine, 70(8), 708–714. doi:10.1097/00001888-199508000-00015
Schutz, A., & Gere, A. (1998). Service Learning and English Studies: Rethinking “Public” Service. College English, 60(2), 129-149. doi:10.2307/378323
