“Are you hopeful?” she interjected. “Oh yes, that’s why I’m doing this work,” he replied.
Bibanco then explained that, through his work with the local group Students United to Create a Climate of Engagement, Support and Safety (or S.U.C.C.E.S.S.), he learned that young men of color represent a disproportionate share of students who are suspended or expelled from Fresno area schools.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, African Americans comprise 10.6 percent of Fresno Unified School District’s student population, and more than 25 percent of expulsions. Latinos make up 62 percent of Fresno Unified students, and almost 58 percent of expulsions.
White students make up 12.8 percent of the district student body, and 8.9 percent of expulsions.
Bibanco has not personally experienced educational struggle. He takes Advanced Placement courses at Edison, and is also deeply involved in the community, through his work with The kNOw Youth Media and The California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative in Fresno.
He is not sure why he has succeeded, when other young men of color have not. But he knows that becoming a youth leader has provided him with unique opportunities.
“I really don’t know what has helped me succeed because I haven’t failed, so I don’t know what saved me,” he said. “If I wasn’t involved, I don’t know where I would be. I don’t know if would I still be succeeding, or would I be in prison or something?”
He is interested in pursuing higher education, but jokes around to distract from a financial reality: College tuition does not fit within his family’s budget. His mother and his brother are working in the fields this summer.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s where I’m headed… unless something super amazing happens, like I win the lottery, and I become the world’s richest man, and then I could just buy a college,” he said in his easy-going, tounge-in-cheek manner.
“Unless I get so rich that I don’t have to work again, I’m probably going to go to college.”
In 2006, over 25 youth began participating in weekly after-school writing workshops where they congregated in the hallway of a two-story building in West Fresno and learned the essentials of creating media and telling their stories. The group evolved over the next five years and is now proudly recognized as The kNOw Youth Media.
Through our program, we create opportunities for our youth participants, who in turn create long-term positive change in their communities. Our approach weaves youth development and youth media innovation to produce our biannual youth publication, multimedia projects, and community forums.
The kNOw began as a project of New America Media, which was the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. In 2018 The kNOw became a project of Youth Leadership Institute.
