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For my assignment for my internship, I had to reflect on my understanding of one the elements of ASP. The Academic Supports Program (ASP) is a student-initiated organization on campus that promotes the uplifting of students of Black/African descent. ASP was created in 1988 as an extension of the even broader organization called the African Student Union, which addressed the problem of retaining members of the black community on campus (Burley, Randi). ASP’s main goal is to help facilitate success in their students’ college experiences through numerous ways. The office has its own cubicle located in the Students Activities Center on the second floor, where ASP counselors and mentors gather daily to meet up with their counselees or perform their daily tasks depending on their job title. The program wishes to build up these students in hopes that they will return after getting established in their career/field of work and increases the participation of black families and the community in the education experience at UCLA.The availability of internship with the ASP staff members establishes community through educating and interacting with one another and other aspects of student involvement on campus. The Kujichagulia internship is offered every quarter to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students who are willing to learn more in depth about the operations and tasks involved with putting on events and upholding a leadership position on campus. The internship accepts application during 8th week prior the start of Winter or Spring Quarter here at UCLA (Burley, Randi). This is to help empower and enlighten the next generation leaders to understand how far we as the race/ethnicity have come, where we are at now, and how to advocate for ourselves to seek change. Hopefully through the quarter, interns are inspired to become leaders in other Harambee Council Organizations on campus like Afrikan Student Union, Afrikan Education Project AEP, and Students Heightening Academic Performance Through Education (SHAPE) .The ten interns are responsible for several different tasks: attending project specific classes, attending study hall, receiving ASP counseling, be a mentor/mentee, volunteering for community service projects, complete reflection journals, and utilize the student retention center and campus resources and encourage others to as well. The tasks/requirements of the interns are revolved around five major principles: self-advocacy through attending office hours, peer organizing by actively participating and engaging in the Harambee Council, community service twice or more per quarter, and retention/graduation by increasing their GPAs and understanding the relevance between education and impacting the world. The experiences and basis for the Kujichagulia internship is very similar to what the movement houses were to African-Americans during the Turbulent 1960s. Halfway Movement Houses, as recalled from The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement, were established groups or organizations that were only partially accepted into larger society because its participants are actively involved to bring about change in society (Morris, Aldon D). Many leaders within the movement felt that movement houses were significant so that blacks would know what it means to be a citizen with equal and deserving rights, but also to carry out these tasks. These were not just facilitated by blacks, but also whites and other abolitionists who wanted to support the end to slavery. Many trained key leaders like Rosa Parks were pupils from Highlander Folk School where blacks learned the importance of voting and advocating for their positions in city, state, and national elections (Morris, Aldon D). Like the leaders in the halfway movement houses, ASP trains the next generation of leaders to have regular interaction with people within the black population on campus.
