COLUMBIA, Md. — Howard Community College in Columbia offers a program to help men of color thrive in and out of the classroom.
Howard P.R.I.D.E. was founded in 2012 to assist Black men struggling with math.
"The senior leadership felt at the time Black men were not doing well in mathematics, and they wanted to know why, and they felt they were too prideful to ask," said Shawn Lamb, Associate Director of Howard P.R.I.D.E.
P.R.I.D.E stands for Purpose, Respect, Initiative, Determination and Excellence.
The program began working with the basketball team, growing from about 20 guys to more than 230 today.
Mehki Benett is one whose benefited from the program.
"When I come in here, I feel like I'm welcomed. I feel like have somewhere where I'm comfortable and somewhere that's rooting for me to succeed," said Benett.
Other than tutoring, the group takes field trips allowing them to speak on real-life issues.
"We talk about credit score or we go on different conferences in Tampa or Alabama to really understand civil rights," said Lamb.
"I would say that we learn a lot of things that people don't speak about. Shawn teaches us the realest stuff. Things like how life is, what we should expect at the age we are," said Divine Rice, a Howard P.R.I.D.E member.
Lamb has an open door policy.
"It can be 9 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the evening, and they'll ask, can I use the lab just to study because I can't go home? And it's like, you know what, the lab is yours. And that's the gist of it, being available for the students," said Lamb.
While it's hard to measure success, Lamb is confident P.R.I.D.E. has changed lives.
"When I have parents that see me in the grocery store and be like, you're Howard P.R.I.D.E., and I'm like no, I'm Shawn Lamb, I work for Howard P.R.I.D.E., and they're like my son was in the program and all he talks about is the conversations we have and how you handle the students," said Lamb.
