In June I asked [What can we do to support African American students and their families?](http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/2188651-what-can-we-do-to-support-african-american-students-and-their-families-p1.html) in the Parent Cafe. I’m embarrassed to say I hadn’t noticed this forum until after the [forum index went live](http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/community-forum-issues/2190608-forum-index-is-live.html). I should have asked that question here first. (Feel free to comment there or message me directly if you’d like to add anything.)
Looking through the suggestions, it occurred to me that one step we can take is to elevate diverse stories of when people navigating the college admission process. It’s easy to look around the site and feel left out if you (or your student) doesn’t look like the majority. African American students tend to face extra obstacles, so it can be especially useful to read how those challenges have been overcome by others.
@CCadmin_Sorin has been running a Student of the Week program and we’ve been pleased to see how excited students have been to participate. Some of the volunteers are underrepresented minorities, which was wonderful to discover. We hadn’t specifically recruited most of the students. I’d love to see more of these stories which help normalize more diverse paths to college.
If you or a student you know is interested in being a Student of the Week, let @CCadmin_Sorin and I know.
One thing that @EconPop mentioned in the other thread is that sometimes students get subtly discouraging comments from other members of College Confidential. For instance, the first few questions to [this student](http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/student-here-ask-me-anything/2187623-got-into-northwestern-for-cs-with-a-low-gpa-ask-me-anything-p1.html) implies she got into Northwestern because she’s a a female URM. She responded graciously, but it still must have hurt to have people questioning her qualifications.
I’m afraid I had to have the problem pointed out to me before I noticed it. If you happen to notice this sort of thing on the site I’d appreciate if you’d let me know via private message. And, if you have a mind to do it, flagging this discouraging content can really help us take care of the problem. We all have blindspots to things that don’t directly affect us.