“It's meant to be another community space that will facilitate student success, especially for students who might feel like there are less places available to them,” said Jumari Callaway, a Berkeley High School African American (AfAm) History teacher and Arts and Humanities Academy (AHA) history teacher. Apart from her role as a teacher at BHS, Callaway is a proctor for the Black Scholar Center. The Black Scholar Center, located in C-220, is an afterschool resource for BHS students, particularly students of color, to get help with studying, their schoolwork, homework, or learning in general. The center is open Monday through Thursday from 3:30 until 5:00 p.m. Callaway explained, “The Black Scholar Center is a space especially for Black students and students of color, but it is welcoming to all students to be another space ... to get work done.”
Jenell Marshall, an AfAm Literature teacher and an AP Patterns in Black Literature teacher, is the other proctor for the Black Scholar Center. Her classroom is the space used for the Black Scholar Center. “The center was created in part to empower black students in spaces where they don't normally feel safe and comfortable to get tutoring. So we hire student tutors that are strong in all content areas, like math, science, English, history and they are peer tutors to the students coming in,” she said.
The center is an afterschool tutorial space similar to the College and Career Center (CCC) on campus, however, unlike the CCC, the Black Scholar Center is more calm and quiet for students to get work done. “I know other spaces are kind of overcrowded, ours is not. So if you want a more quiet space to study and do homework, then this is the place to go,” Marshall said.
John’Nae Murray, a BHS junior, is a regular attendee at the Black Scholar Center. She explained her experience there, saying, “I'm able to come to my peers and get help from student to student, instead of teacher to student.” Murray elaborated on the purpose of the center, stating that it is meant “for us colored kids to get support and feel comfortable in our own space … it's somewhere that everyone can come together.”
One of the main aspects of the center is its student-to-student tutorial model. Marshall said, “We interview (and) hire student tutors that we think will be able to actually help other students, our tutors are really good, and they can break down concepts really easily.”
Callaway described how it’s more than just a place for tutoring, “It is kind of a community building space. Sometimes it's a way to meet other needs. Like, there's snacks here available for students on an ‘as needed basis.’ So a lot of support, and hopefully also feeling seen and known at (BHS).” Students can also clear tardies by going to the Black Scholar Center due to its function and educational environment.
“The mission and the purpose is to help support our African American students on campus, but also other students as well, because it's not strictly for Black students. Everyone is welcome,” Kanissia Davis, a Universal Ninth Grade (U9) English teacher, said. Davis worked at the Black Scholar Center in the past school year. Marshall echoed this sentiment by saying, “You don't have to be Black to come to the Black Scholar Center, but we encourage our Black and brown students to come so they can have a place that they feel safe and comfortable.”
Callaway and other teachers have witnessed a profound impact on students' academic work and grades. She said, “I have a student who in their sophomore year really turned their grades around because they started showing up here almost consistently … They usually got help from the tutors, but it was a huge part of them going from failing to passing.” Davis also mentioned the non-academic benefits she’s witnessed students gaining from going to the center, “I've seen my students when I used to work in the Black Scholar Center improve in their grades, get the one on one support with tutors that are upperclassmen that they weren't able to get. I've seen students find community there as well and form friendships.”
“I work at the Black Scholar Center because it gives me a sense of purpose. I like seeing students get happy when they start understanding content, I like to see them enjoy coming to the center because of how much it has helped them,” Najuna Kiggundu, a BHS senior and a tutor at the center, said. Kiggundu explained that the center is available to help bridge the achievement gap but is open to everyone, “I would recommend the center to any student who needs any kind of support in school, not just Black students, because we are there to help out anyone and everyone.”