The Importance Of The Gospel Choir

The Black Voices, Gospel Choir, had a huge impact on the lives of students in the study. It helped African American students to create a sense of belonging on predominantly White Institution. By establishing a sense of belonging on campus, while reducing feelings of marginalization, gospel choir participation enabled African American students at a PWI to persist in college. The Black Voices afforded participants opportunities to develop ethnic pride and understanding. Despite differences in the impetus for their involvement in the gospel choir, participants identified advancing knowledge about Black culture and the Black community on campus, representing the Black race to White peers and faculty members, and learning about one’s own culture.

The lyrics of the songs that Black Voices sang provided fuel for resiliency to academia and social obstacles as they connect with “higher power” and one’s inner strength (faith, hope, intelligence, and confidence in one’s own ability) for support in college. Also they operated as an extended family where they refer each other as brothers and sisters to provide support for one another. I can reflect back to the time I took Gospel Choir during my college years; I took the course because it sounded fun and interesting but now I can recall why the professor chose certain songs. I believe that the Black Voices created a safe space for African Americans to belong and grow in a predominantly White Institution. It was able to create an unique environment for these students to connect, learn, and grow together. However, I also see danger in a group like this as students tend to hang out and be involved only in racially segregated group which may hinder involvement on other campus activities. I was involved in a campus ministry called Korean Campus Crusade for Christ during my college years. It was a place where I can belong, helped me learn more about my identity, and a provided nurturing resilience. However, I regret that I was not able to be involved on any other clubs or events on campus other than the campus ministry I had joined. I feel like this is a danger of racially segregated groups. Students become so comfortable

As a man of color, Asian American, I was able to relate to the struggles that Latino men go through during their course of time in college. I personally feel like Latino and Asian American men struggle with the similar issues that they must attend. Latino men struggles with the cultural concept of masculinity, machismo, whereas Asian men struggles with shame which both results in the issue of pride. I was able to see the seriousness of the issues and was challenged to be a leader to bring men back to school. I have seen so many men dropping out of college due to finical reasons or simply because they felt they were not smart enough. I was able to learn several strategies that authors from different articles proposed and learned practical ways to support men of color. These thoughts lead me to think about why there is no such thing as Men’s Center on many college campus. I believe having a Men’s Center (for all races) on campus can create a safe place for students to share about the conflicting messages about what masculinity means (possibly from different cultures) and support each other to grow together as a