I walked to Revelle College at UCSD, where I met Daniella and Gabriel to ride along towards the East African Cultural and Community Center at City Heights. When we arrived at the center, we were received by a couple of people, who where welcoming and receptive of our visit. There was another event that was happening at the same time, it was one where there was a female presenter talking about education to four youngsters. At this moment Daniella and I were able to talk to two male participants about their educational journey. It was interesting to hear one of them mention that as more education he gets, the more he is confused. He mentioned that he is not particularly interested in attending an institution of higher education. The workshop that we attended was related to identities in regards to the black experience in the United States. The facilitator of this discussion was Professor Jesse Mills of the University of San Diego (USD), who is an alumni of UCSD. He first talked about his personal navigation of such identities and then asked for the participation of the young students, which varied from elementary to the university level. His presentation was outstanding because of the many ideas, poetry, memory, and stories that his discussion sparked on the minds of the children. There was plenty of time for many of them to share their experience through various medium, some choose narratives, poetry, or drawings. During our discussion, I was able to meet a young scholar named Junayed and we spoke about his experience and sports. He was interested in football (soccer) and basketball. Then some of my classmates, James and Calvin, arrived to workshop and joined the discussion.
During this visit, I met a person that works at the center. We discussed briefly about his educational journey to SDSU and his commitment to his community at City Heights. He showed me where the bathroom was located and where there was a game room for the youth to use. The game room is for the youth to utilize, so they will not interact with any social groups that can negatively affect their lives. The game room is located on the second floor, where the young people are able to socialize with each other and spend quality time together. Here I witnessed two folks playing a Football (soccer) game, FIFA 2018. During this time I was not able to explore much to see the kitchen or basketball court, but I some other time. At the end of the event, I was able to eat some pizza and sambusas with some community members and classmates. Professor Mills was kind and respectful, so he talked to a few of us after his presentation.
