Bridging the Gap

Malcolm Walker is on a mission to show Davenport high school students the multitude of opportunities a college education affords.

Walker's first look at the St. Ambrose University campus sparked a determination to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Forensic Psychology that he received on May 21.

"I felt like it was meant to be my campus," he said. "I felt like I was home."

This past year, Walker served as vice president of the Black Student Union (BSU) and was a member of the PhilanthroBees Club. He also spent much of his senior year working to give back and build pathways for Davenport Central High School students to realize the same educational experience he has enjoyed.

It started as a fall semester Forensic Psychology internship, working at Central High School with many students, some at-risk, to whom a college education could seem beyond reach.

"The goal of the internship was to be an advocate and support for at-risk students and help them choose different paths," he said. "I saw success [when] some of these Davenport Central youths were willing to open up to me. They started to be their true selves even though their peers were around.

"I told the students that I was never going to be someone who told them what to do; they had enough of that in their lives already. I told them I was here to give them the support they needed."

Personal experience adds to Walker's motivation to have a positive impact. He was raised in Shorewood, Illinois, a predominantly white suburb about an hour outside of Chicago.

"I faced a lot of moments, and still do at times, where my enunciation of words did not match my perceived identity, and that led to discrimination from a racial and social standpoint. I felt the need to invoke my own sense of change," Walker said.

These moments taught Walker to be comfortable in his skin because he's "the only one who gets to create a reality I perceive worth living." It also led to his overwhelming belief that "everyone deserves some form of support in their lives."

Walker returned for the spring semester with a plan to expand a Psychology Department-based mentoring program that might help Central students understand what college can do for them. It's something he hopes will continue after he has graduated.

With this intent, Walker spent the early portion of the spring semester recreating the St. Ambrose Bee Connected Club and connecting it with the BSU and campus-wide interest in mentoring high schoolers.

Julie Jenks Kettman, PhD, professor and chair of the Psychology Department, said experiential learning opportunities like the one Walker enjoyed last fall are critical to a St. Ambrose education. They help Psychology students work with court-involved or potentially at-risk youth and can often lead to first jobs.

Rodney Tatum, juvenile court liaison at Davenport Central and Walker's clinical supervisor in the fall, believes the Bee Connected mentoring initiative can give Central students hope for the future.

"Some of our students have never had the opportunity to visit a university campus before, even though St. Ambrose is around the corner," he said. "Now, they are being exposed, and we are bridging that gap."

–Shelley Little