Final Essay

SOCL 101

Final Reflection

 

This paper will ask you to reflect on our class and apply your understanding of sociology to your own life.  This assignment is due by the end of the scheduled final exam period for your class.  This is a firm deadline without exception.  Be sure to write in proper prose with correct grammar and spelling. Be sure to answer each part of the reflection that I outline below.  Make your writing authentic – use details and make it specific to your own life so that the essay is unique and can only be applied to your life.  Look back over our lessons on the blog to help give you ideas.  Write your paper in a separate app like Word or Google Docs and then paste it into the Google Form.

 

Part 1:

In the syllabus, I wrote,

Learning sociology can give students new insights about everyday life.  C. Wright Mills, an important sociologist, said that sociology will make the familiar, strange; sociology may make you feel uncomfortable and challenge your assumptions about the world.  Peter Berger, another notable sociologist, warned that "People who like to avoid shocking discoveries...should stay away from sociology."  Sociology can be an amazing class that changes your perspective about the world and more importantly about yourself.  These insights will hopefully increase student mindfulness about themselves as individuals, their interactions with others and their society in general.

 

• 4pts Now looking back at the class, what is something that we learned that made you think about your life differently or something that challenged your assumptions about the world?  
• 3pts What is some of the evidence we examined that contributed to your new way of thinking?  
• 3pts Use specific examples and details from your own life of how you thought before the class and how you think now – even if it is not a huge difference, explain the nuance in how you might think differently.

 

Part 2

This course is a Tier 1 foundational social science class that intends to help students “demonstrate cultural, societal and self understanding.”  As written in the syllabus, 

These courses examine how humans are shaped by their societies.  Students who successfully complete this class will demonstrate an understanding of the relationships among cultural, and social forces, and their impact on human behavior.

 

• 4pts With this in mind, think about what we learned about how people are shaped by social forces – especially nature and nurture, culture, family, school, peers, and social media.  Choose one of these and demonstrate how you have been shaped by it.  
• 3pts Explain authentic details and specifics that only apply to you in your explanation of the topic.  
• 3pts What research/readings from class adds to your understanding of how you are shaped by whichever topic you choose? Explain how the research/readings applies to your example specifically.

 

Part 3  

This course has a diversity learning outcome that seek to:

·      Recognize that human diversity is complex and variegated.

·      Distinguish the various factors that inform and impact individual identity formation.

·      Comprehend how group identities are formed in a heterogeneous society.

 

• 4pts With this in mind, choose an outgroup identity such as gender (male or female), racial (Black, Asian, or Hispanic) or social class (middle class or low-income) that you do NOT identify with.  Explain how the course informed you about about this identity and what you want to take away from the course to increase your understanding of this outgroup.  
• 3pts How is this identity more complex and varied than you (or the average American) might realize?  What challenges do people of this identity face? 
• 3pts Connect your answer to at least one reading or evidence that I assigned/cited in class.  How does this reading/evidence inform your understanding of the group?

 

Part 4

• 5pts Please write a review of the course content.  What do you want to remember from the course?  What was most interesting?  What would you like to learn more about?  Do you think SOCL101 is interesting/useful? If so, why specifically? If not, why not – what could be specifically different?

Grading

This Essay will be grade out of 40 points.

Parts 1-3 will be graded out of 10 points based on your ability to clearly and correctly answer the whole question and provide authentic/specific examples in your answer.

Part 4 will be out 5 points for a meaningful and thoughtful response.

Finally, there will be 5 points for all technical aspects including: grammar, spelling, turning it on time.

Course Evaluation and Conclusion

Final Lesson

Sociological Epilogue

 

As our course lessons end, I want to leave with some final sociological wisdom.  Much of what we learned may resonate with you over time and so I hope that you take lessons with you and find them beneficial as you go forth. That is one reason why I use this blog - it is here for you to consult even after your LUC and Sakai accounts are long gone.  

 

First, as we started the semester with a mindful meditation, be mindful of yourself.  You are your own best advocate and friend.  Keep yourself in your own thoughts and be aware of your own needs.  Make time to spend quietly with yourself.  Make time to detach from yourself and just be; listen for the silence. Recall that our lessons were meant to help you do all of that.

 

As you develop your mindfulness, remember to do this sociologically, and the message there was simple: YOU MATTER.  You matter to yourself so be aware of the ways in which you are being influenced.  Be kind to yourself knowing that you have been shaped by dynamics beyond your control and knowing that you are a work in progress.  Every moment is new and you are not static.  You are growing and changing.

 

And mindfulness leads us to the realization that you matter to others so be aware of the influence that you contribute to.  This may seem trite, but it is in fact our reality.  From quantum physics to epigenetic biology to sociology to theology, the more we learn, the more the research is clear – we all affect each other.  

We were created with a power and a need to connect with others. Whether it is our family, friends, our school, our culture, strangers sharing this planet with us or generations of people long before and long after us - we are connected to them.

 

The awareness of the social influence on others also has helped me to be more understanding and forgiving because even if I do not agree with them, I know others have been influenced by forces beyond their control.  Sociological mindfulness reminds me to be kind.  Each person is part of a multitude of groups that have been shaped by social forces, but each person has a unique identity.  It is a sociological paradox that we recognize the forces that shapes us all similarly at the same time that we recognize the individual identity uniquely held by each individual.  

And this awareness is a reminder to be kind to yourself. You have been shaped by forces beyond your control. But you also have the sociological awareness now to realize that you can have some say in who you become by choosing your  ingroups. We know that our group memberships will influence us whether we want them to or not - so choose friends that inspire you to be the person who you want to be. Join groups that challenge you to grow in ways that you want to direct your own growth.

Course Evaluations

I am constantly trying to improve the course and adjust to the changing dynamics of students and society.  So, I would really appreciate your honest feedback on two evaluations - one for me and one for LUC.  Both are anonymous.

Personal evaluation. 

Please fill out this anonymous course evaluation which helps me tweak the class to make improvements based on student feedback.  I really value your feedback and I want to continue to make sure that the course serves students the best it can.  Here is the SPRING2025 evaluation.

 

LUC evaluation

LUC also administers a course evaluation.  This is one way that the university evaluates my class and another data point for myself to continually improve my classes.  It is anonymous.  Please complete the survey when you have a chance - I believe that it is accessible in your 

Sakai or Locus.

Please login using this link:  https://www.smartevals.com/entry.aspx?s=luc

• Your username is your Loyola UVID. 
• Your password is the same that corresponds with your UVID. (If you have trouble signing in, please try using a different browser or clear your browser's cache and cookies.)

Qualitative Assessment Social Inequality

Please answer all THREE of the questions below.  For each answer, be sure to BOTH explain the sociology and cite your own unique examples using specific and authentic details from your own life.  To demonstrate mastery, be sure to fully and accurately answer all parts of two of the questions below. I highly recommend that you write your responses in a separate app that will save your work. Then when you are finished, send your document to me as a word file, pdf, google doc or pasted into an email.

A) Social Class - Explain what the median American household looks like in terms of social class; choose a few of the following components to explain what the median looks like: income, wealth, education, location, power/prestige. (6pts)  Exemplify how your own experience compares to the median. (4pts)  What are the obstacles or the opportunities that your family’s social class has on you? (4pts)

B) Race - Explain your ethnicity, nationality, heritage and why those are not "race."  (4pts) Then, explain how racism affects your racial group (be sure to refer to some of the research that we covered in class (3pts) and cite specific details from your own life that either support or refute the research. (3pts) Finally, explain how racism affects one other racial outgroup (a race you are not a part of)  in the United States. (4pts)

C) Gender - Explain the social construction of the gender binary in the U.S. (4 pts) and how that binary has pressured you to conform using a few specific examples from your own experiences in life. (4pts) Then, explain some of the gender-related risks to people of your gender and how you can use your sociological knowledge about gender to have a mindful understanding of your gender socialization to reduce these risks. (3pts)

3.13 Gender Inequality and Masculinity

Important Announcements:

After this lesson, the window will be open for midterm assessment 3.  You have until Thursday at class time to complete the assessment.

If you would like to submit a qualitative assessment for this unit, the assessment will be posted here.

This Friday will be the conclusion of our course.  Attendance will still be graded so please plan to be in class. We will have a course evaluation and I will give you an opportunity to work on your final essay and ask me questions.

Today's Lesson: Masculinity

Open the Google Form.

How does the binary affect males (and put them at risk)?

Now that you have learned how gender is socially constructed into a binary, we will examine one pole of the binary: masculinity.    Remember that the construction of the binary is just that - a social construction.  The socialization pressure pushes people to the extreme poles of the whole spectrum of ways that we can exist.  Those extreme norms put individuals in the USA who identify as masculine at risk. My hope is that if we realize that this is a dynamic affecting us then we can mitigate the risks.  So, this idea is not being anti-male; instead it is being critical of the ways that males are pushed to extremes within our culture.  It is being critical of the culture.


Getting started

Before we begin, please answer the following questions.  Answer each quickly with the first words that come to mind.  Please don't worry about foul language, just write the words that come to mind:


QUICKLY, without thinking, brainstorm, the first three words that come to mind:

1. What are three words that describe what it means to be a man?

2. What are three words that describe someone who is not a real man?

Pew Research: How Americans See Men and Masculinity (2024)

Pew Research: Acceptable and Unacceptable Behaviors for Men (2024)

CJ Pascoe's research and the construction of masculinity among peers and in high school

NOTE: CJ Pascoe is a sociology professor who is part of the LGTQIA+ community. From her website, "She has also worked with and advised various organizations such as The Born This Way Foundation, True Child, and The Gay/Straight Alliance Network to translate academic research into policy and programming for young people." This excerpt is about her research into high school students (mostly heterosexual boys) and how they construct norms around masculinity. She found widespread use of the word f*g was being used by high schoolers, especially males, to attack each other's masculinity. Her book was published in 2007 before the more recent social pressure to see the word as vulgar pejorative and remove the word from everyday use. Pascoe is not using the word lightly or offensively - she is simply explaining how masculinity is constructed. However, because I understand the offensive nature of the word, I have tried to redact it where possible. And although recently the word may be used less publicly, it is still used privately. Publicly, many other words are used in place to the same effect - wuss, sissy, girl, baby, etc... So Pascoe's research is still important to understanding the construction of masculinity. Also, Pascoe has a talk about how to support queer youth in schools here and an interview about cultures of kindness in high school here!

Read the excerpt here.  

Her 2007 ethnography is called "Dude You're a F*g."  

Pascoe wrote about her research in an essay in Contexts here.    

Here is a review from the Everyday Sociology blog.  

Here is CJ Pascoe's micro lecture on bullying and masculinity.  Please watch the video below.

3.  What does Pascoe's research show about masculinity?

4.  Do you think Pascoe's research applies to your high school?

Oh hey, that's just me and CJ hanging out at the top of the IC.

How does the binary affect males (and put them at risk)?

The Mask You Live In is a 2013 documentary about masculinity from the makers of Miss Representation.  The video is available on Kanopy and below is a trailer:

 

Males are at risk because of masculinity norms

Recall the chart below from our lesson on the gender binary.  Use the chart to assess each of the three areas below in which males are at-risk.

Males at Risk in School

• In school, boys are 30% more likely to flunk, 250% more likely to be suspended and 300% more likely to be diagnosed with learning and emotional disabilities.
• From the NIH, this article explains how boys manifest ADHD differently than girls due to the expectations of masculinity.
• Males are less likely than females to: go to college and earn a bachelor's degree, earn a master's degree or earn a PhD.

5.  What is your hypothesis about why this is so?  How can these be related to the binary?  (Use the chart above to try and explain why traditional masculine traits might  lead to these educational outcomes.)

This article examines how males choose to be less involved at school and how that affects their ability to succeed:

Males and Health Risks

Young men are much more likely to die from accidental death than women: 

Males 20-24 are 3 times more likely to to die as a result of accidents,

4 times more likely to die from suicide and

6 times more likely to be murdered than women. (Ferris and Stein pg 256)

 

6.  What is your hypothesis about why this is so?  How can these be related to the binary?  (Again - refer to the chart above.)

Researchers Sandra Nakagawa and Chloe Hart conducted a study examining how gender identity influences eating habits.  

"...in the United States, where men have higher rates of life-threatening health conditions than women — including uncontrolled high blood pressure and heart disease — changing eating habits may be important for their health."

7.  Why do you think males have difficulty changing their eating habits?

8.  Hypothesize why traditional masculine traits might lead men to eat unhealthier.

After your hypothesis, read the explanation for the study here in Contexts.  From the link,

"This study shows that masculinity does matter for how men maintain their health. Importantly, it is not masculinity itself that is the problem here, but the high standards men feel they must meet (pun intended?)— and eat."

After reading the explanation above in Contexts, assess your hypothesis.  Was it correct?

Masculinity, Jobs, and risks/inequality

Some jobs are genderized and males are limited by the sexist socialization messages about gender. 

It is ironic, but misogyny actually hurts males.  Below is evidence about how gender inequality is limiting the jobs that males will do and the feminizing whole industries.  Males don't want to take jobs that they label as feminine.  Because of this, males are passing on some of the fastest-growing industries, like home healthcare.

• Why Men Don’t Want the Jobs Done Mostly by Women (2017)
• Job Listings That Are Too ‘Feminine’ for Men (2017)
• Contexts, The Pushes and Pulls of Gendered Occupations (2018)

In Gender & Society, Latonya Trotter finds that it’s not just exclusion from men’s professions, but the inclusionary policies of women’s professions that maintain distinctly gendered fields.

•  Here is an article in Harvard Business Review written by Janette Dill, an assistant professor in the sociology department at The University of Akron in Ohio:

The Entry-Level Health Care Jobs Men Are (and Are Not) Taking (2017)

This all signals that men, and particularly white men who are able to gain additional training, may be defining some health care occupations as more technical and masculine, preserving the conventional understandings of masculinity within the health care sector. Unfortunately, this also means that women and minority men may continue to be clustered in lower-paying direct-care occupations, where the “dirty work” remains stigmatized as “women’s work.”

And supporting professor Dill's work is this research about gendered language in job postings.

 

Washington Center for Equitable Growth provides this fact sheet (2017) about occupational segregation.

The genderization of jobs includes some of the following examples (Ferris and Stein 2018, 269-71):

Many jobs still highly genderized: nurses, early education (97%), dental hygenists, secretaries (94%), paralegals, housekeepers are highly female while pilots, carpenters, mechanics (98%), and firefighters (94%) are highly male.

Besides applicants self-selecting jobs based on gender, employers also select based on gender.  This research (2019) documented in Contexts shows that employers hire applicants by gender, based on their perception of what the gender of the job should be.


The Australian Men's Health Forum breaks down the research on jobs and gender discrimination here.

10.  Do you understand how the gender binary affects the jobs that males will take?

Males and risks of violence

Males are more likely to be both the perpetrator and the victim of violence.
From Statista 2022 (below) and from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2010),

• 40% of teenage girls 14-17yrs say they know someone their age who has been hit or beaten by a boyfriend.
• 1 of 5 college females will experience some form of dating violence from their male partner.
• 1 in 3 High School students have been or will be in an abusive relationship.

These stats come from the Zacharias Foundation which is a local organization that will confidentially help individuals deal with sexual and domestic abuse.

9.  What is your hypothesis about why these stats might be connected to gender socialization?  How can these be related to the binary?

Michael Kimmel's book, Angry White Males 

Guardian Review here.

One of the headlines of the 2012 Presidential campaign was the demise of the white American male voter as a dominant force in the political landscape. On election night four years later, when Donald Trump was announced the winner, it became clear that the white American male voter is alive and well and angry as hell. Sociologist Michael Kimmel, one of the leading writers on men and masculinity in the world today, has spent hundreds of hours in the company of America's angry white men - from white supremacists to men's rights activists to young students. In Angry White Men, he presents a comprehensive diagnosis of their fears, anxieties, and rage.

Also a 2020 short film on Tubi and Apple.

Please read Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence Random School Shootings, 1982-2001.  It is a qualitative study in American Behavioral Scientist about who randomly shoots up schools and why.  Students can access it here.  Publicly it is also available here.

11.  What is Mahler (and Kimmel)'s overall claim?



Reproducing Mahler and Kimmel's Research

After understanding Mahler and Kimmel's claim and evidence,  we will attempt to replicate and update their qualitative research.   Their qualitative analysis of existing data on school shooters examined random school shootings in major print media outlets (Time, Newsweek, US News, USA Today, NY Times, LA Times). Below are two lists of school shootings to get started.

A.  First, choose at least one of the random school shooters after 2001.

• Wikipedia list of school shootings since 2000 
• MotherJones data set of all mass shootings (under the "location" column, see schools) 

12.  What shooter(s) did you research?

B.  After choosing a shooter to research, use major news outlets to gather data about some of the school shooters from 2001-present.

Try Googling the name and look for article detailing the incident in major newspapers.  Additionally, here are a few other websites to help you find info:

Ballotopedia

Edvocate

Everytown K-12 database 

Make a note of the shooter's:

• race 

13.  What was the shooter's race?

• gender 

14.  What was the shooter's gender?

• community: urban, suburban, rural

15.  What community setting did the shooting occur in?

•  state (red or blue in 2001) NRA gun law tracker might be helpful for determining the gun culture of the state or use the map below.

16.  Was the shooting in a blue state (more restrictive) or red state (more permissive) 

• other qualitative info about them such as music, video games, movies, parent status, mental illness, social status/teased, et al...

17.  What other details about the shooter were revealed?

After you have entered the data above for at least one school shooter, hypothesize whether Mahler and Kimmel's research still holds up.

18.  Do you think that since 2001, Mahler and Kimmel's claim is still true about who shoots up schools and why?

After you click submit, look at the data the other students found and think about these questions:

• Does your data correlate with what the rest of the class found?
• What do you think of the findings?
• Is this data interesting/insightful?  Why/why not?
• Can you see the connection between masculinity and violence?
• Do you think that the average American would have trouble understanding the connection?  Why?
• What questions do you still have?

EXTRA:

Try to apply the research to other random shootings besides schools.  Search the websites that you used earlier.  Again, you may want to use the IC newspaper search to find info about the shooters, or Google their names.  Here are a few other websites to help you find info:

Mother Jones Mass Shootings

Gun Violence Archive or GVA

Mass Shooting Tracker
TheTrace compiles articles and data related to shootings at thetrace.org
NRA gun law tracker

Does Mahler and Kimmel's research also apply to NON-SCHOOL random shootings?

Redefining Masculinity

American Institute For Boys and Men

Website here. 

Research:

Richard Reeves

Author of 2024 book Of Boys and Men; Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It

Jackson Katz

About Jackson Katz

MVP Strategies: Mentors in Violence Prevention

Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) is one of the longest-running and most widely influential gender violence, sexual harassment and bullying prevention programs in the world. Founded in 1993, MVP has inspired countless students and people of all ages to challenge and change social, cultural and institutional norms that support abusive behavior.

 

Tough Guise 

The documentary Tough Guise 2 from Media Ed critically examines the way masculinity has been constructed over time in a way that increasingly puts society at risk, especially males who are statistically more likely to be both the perpetrators and the victims of violence. A detailed examination of the documentary is at my post here.

 

Scott Galloway

From Vox (2024) Are men okay? Our modern masculinity problem, explained. There’s a growing body of evidence that men are falling behind. You can see it in education, in the labor market, and in the data on drug overdoses and deaths by suicide.

From No Mercy/No Malice (2023) Boys to Men

Boys start school less prepared than girls, and they’re less likely to graduate from high school and attend or graduate from college. One in seven men reports having no friends, and three of every four deaths of despair in America — suicides and drug overdoses — are men. I’ve written about this at length here, and about how it relates to declining birth rates here.

The Crisis of Masculinity from The Growth Equation (2024)

• Education: There is a ​significant gap​ in high school graduation rates and college enrollments. Women graduate college at significantly higher rates than men in every state in America.
• Mental Health: the ​suicide rate​ for men is four times that of women.
• Intimate Relationships: Nearly ​half of male teens have never dated​, almost double the rate of previous generations.
• Friendships: According to ​survey data​, thirty years ago a majority of young men had over six friends. Today, it’s half of that. Meanwhile, fifteen percent of young men report having no close friends.

We’ve got to offer a better alternative—a path forward that provides young men quality nourishment for their foundational psychological needs... And a big part of that is on us as a society. We’ve done a poor job of outlining what that path looks like.

We need a more realistic and positive view of masculinity.

Of course, we’re talking in broad generalities here. But it’s vital that we offer counter narratives for young men that are in juxtaposition to the ones peddled online by right wing grifters, but also to those that deem high-school football as being “toxic.”

Instead of talking about being an alpha, high-T lion, or whatever other pseudoscientific garbage proliferates on the internet, why not refocus our attention and create mental models for masculinity that include the following qualities:

• Being a good father, brother, friend, and husband.
• Having integrity and honor.
• Caring deeply about others.
• Showing real toughness based on equanimity and embracing challenges instead of a fake and performative machismo that avoids feelings and emotions.
• Pursuing meaningful work and showing up consistently.
• A path toward mastery and modeling a diverse array of career paths, from elementary school teacher to welder.
• Being a protector of the weak.
• Showcasing your physicality in competitive pursuits (if you are so inclined), and doing so within the rules and ethics of those competitive pursuits.

In essence, we need to model what it means to be a decent human being for half of population that, on average, is born programmed to have higher testosterone than the other half of the population. 

The Mask You Live In

From the team behind "Miss Representation," The Mask You Live In is a 2013 documentary that explores America’s narrow definition of masculinity and the harm it causes boys and men. View the trailer here.

The video is available on Kanopy.

The website is here including:

Overview

Curriculum 

Raising Boys With a Broader Definition of Masculinity from the Atlantic (2019),
A psychologist explains how a strong relationship with a parent or teacher can help boys be their true selves, even when those selves don’t fit within narrow cultural norms. 

From Scientific American (2019), How to Fight Toxic Masculinity
The code of toxic masculinity requires that men are dominant over everyone else, have no needs, show no emotion and are always #winning

there is a difference between traditional masculinity and toxic masculinity: There is nothing toxic about working hard, providing for one’s family, winning at sports, or being loyal to friends. Most importantly, there’s nothing toxic about wanting to be respected. All humans want to feel respected—we all want to know we are valued, recognized, and affirmed.

How to Raise a Boy; I’m not sure what to think about what my dad tried to teach me. So what should I teach my sons?

This is a great article from NY Magazine's The Cut (2018)  about how to raise boys.

A Call to Men is an organization designed for coaches, teachers and parents on how to help mentor boys to a healthier version of masculinity.

Speaking Frankly: Raising Boys, a documentary from CBS focuses on the issues with masculinity and redefining it in a way that is both realistic and healthy.

This article from the NY Times called, Teaching Men to be Emotionally Honest.  

How is boys’ performance in school related to masculinity? 

What research does social psychology provide about males at a young age (1-5yrs) and at older ages (teen years)?

How does the growing number of women on college campuses affect men?

What are some ways that colleges specifically, and society in general, can help males have a healthier self-identity?

Judy Chu

A CONVERSATION WITH DR. JUDY CHU ON MASCULINITY AND HUMANITY

Why are boys hiding who they are?

Psychology Today explaining the danger of "Boys must boys"

The Goodmen Project is a website dedicated to helping men including this piece on the danger of Boys will be Boys.

From Gillette:

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/gillette-ad-campaign-best-a-man-can-get-we-believe-toxic-masculinity-progress/

And from Dove:

Parents Universal Resource Experts (PURE)

Although PURE is mostly a residential treatment program, their life skills program is a model for what may help young adult males. 

Life skills programs for young adults

Life Skills Programs for young adults (17-20) years old can offer the following ways to help stimulate your child in a positive direction and give them a second opportunity at bright future:

• Therapy through emotional growth. A young adult displaying a level of resistance to school or work will need to address the underlying causes in therapy. This is sometimes easier after leaving the comforts of their home environment outside peer influences.
• Building encouragement through a positive peer environment. Expressing frustration and anger with your child will likely make them feel worse and increase failure to launch behaviors.
• Structure. Help your young adult find the right balance between staying busy and having down time.
• Goal setting through mentorship and internship programs.
• Accountability through basic life skills of chores, hygiene, financial literacy, culinary skills, healthy diet decisions and more.
• Enrichment programs that can range from caring for animals, woodshop, landscaping, farming, arts and music, community volunteer work, gardening and more.
• Education – from finishing high school to starting college classes or enrolling in vocational training, every student has an opportunity to learn.

Life Skills Program can equip your child with coping skills to deal with adversity and change that real-life can throw at them, as well as help students identify who they are by what they can do, rather than what they have done.

From Loyola Twitter:

The Man Cave

The Man Cave is Australia’s leading preventative mental health and emotional intelligence charity for teenage boys and their communities. Our vision is for a world in which every man has healthy relationships, contributes to his community and reaches his full potential. We have provided 80,000+ young men with impactful programs, positive male role models and accessible resources.

Becoming a Man (BAM)

Today’s youth face many obstacles. Community violence and other stressors create at-risk environments where making positive life choices can feel impossible. It’s easy for young men, particularly from disadvantaged communities, to become angry and afraid. It’s easy for them to follow negative influences that lead to serious trouble. It’s easy for them to drop out of school.

In 2001, the Becoming A Man (BAM) program was launched in Chicago to help young men navigate difficult circumstances that threaten their future. Program founder Anthony Ramirez-Di Vittorio created a safe space for young men at Clemente High School to openly express themselves, receive support and develop the social and emotional skills necessary to succeed. Now in its 19th year, the BAM program serves more than 8,000 youth in 140 schools.

BAM at the Obama Center