<em>Who's Got Next: SOTA's KEMET Academy as a Model to Improve the Community College to PhD Pipeline</em>

Abstract

The authors present Sisters of the Academy's (SOTA) adaptation of the KEMET Academy model, an academic and cultural enrichment program for African American students attending underresourced schools, to strengthen the pipeline for community college students from undergraduate through professional school. The KEMET model was designed by SOTA members and affiliates at a Southern land-grant institution and implemented over a five-year period as a competency-based program to increase the numbers of secondary students who chose to enter undergraduate schools. The programmatic outcomes yielded the KEMET Competencies Associated with Success for Rural Youth (CASRY). The authors believe that the CASRY framework may be applied to efforts at levels beyond the K-12 to four-year college transition. The KEMET Model components, combined with SOTA 's conceptualization of socialization, presents a comprehensive, culturally competent, value specific, model that can be used to prepare and socialize African American community college students.Keywords: community college pipeline, outreach, competencies, SOTA, Black undergraduatesIntroductionTo a great extent, much of the discussion and research related to African American youth and young adults has been restricted to their portrayal as social problems. In the very same contexts where youth struggle with poor educational opportunities among other social challenges, there are African American youth displaying high levels of competence, cognitive productivity, and aspirations toward higher education. As a result of few investigations on these healthy and resilient young people, little knowledge has been developed related to their motivation(s), life trajectory planning, and attitude or aspiration formation. Limited research exists about these youth, who despite socioeconomic challenges, experience success, feelings of hope and self-worth, resilience and competence, and academic achievement. This is also the case as it relates to Black students and their successful transition from community college to four-year colleges and beyond.Many young African Americans begin their higher education matriculation at community colleges. Of Black undergraduates in the United States, 49% are community college enrollees (Mullins & Phillippe, 2013). This figure would suggest that there might be an equivalent undergraduate enrollment and moreover similar levels of baccalaureate degree attainment. Unfortunately, anecdotal evidence suggests that students who would gain the most from accessing the benefits of postsecondary education are often directed to options other than community colleges, including newly burgeoning for-profit institutions which appear to heavily recruit among the populations upon which this article is focused. But even those who make it to community colleges, as the authors will discuss later in this article, face barriers to successfully traverse pathways between community colleges and senior colleges. This is particularly the case for marginalized Black students.The authors present Sisters of the Academy's (SOTA's) adaptation of the KEMET Academy as a model for strengthening the pipeline for community college students into undergraduate, graduate, and professional study (Davis et al., 2011). KEMET (Knowledge and Excellence in Mathematics, Equilibrium, and Technology) Academy was implemented as a competency-based program to increase the numbers of secondary students who choose to pursue undergraduate study. The programmatic outcomes yielded the development of the KEMET Competencies Associated with Success for Rural Youth (CASRY), a set of skills that benefit rural youth (and all young people) and aid in achieving goals that require adaptation and persistence. The authors contend that the KEMET model may be applied to efforts at levels beyond the K-12 to four-year college transition. This article presents the KEMET model as an organizational mechanism used for socializing African American students and is aimed at enhancing the community college and beyond pipeline. …