Page Content Your browser does not support the video tag. Josh Kelly“The Male Success Initiative at Cal State Fullerton taught me it’s OK to ask for help. now I’ll be the one giving advice.” When Josh Kelly started at California State University, Fullerton in the fall of 2017, he was confident about his academic path. But the psychology major did feel the need for a community and more support. That’s where the Male Success Initiative (MSI) came in.The organization, which helps ensure more young men of color thrive as undergraduates, does so by delivering services targeted to each man, from tutoring to advisement. Most important, though, is establishing a network of mentors for every MSI member and ensuring that members stay in college and earn their degree, both of which are also core tenets of the CSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025. In addition to the assistance Kelly received from faculty and peers, he was one of 15 incoming freshmen at Cal State Fullerton granted an MSI-Success Scholar Scholarship of $1,500 per semester for four years.Now a junior, it's Kelly's turn to work as an MSI mentor. “MSI taught me it’s OK to ask for help,” he says. “Now I’ll be the one giving others academic advice and tutoring as well as just being like a big brother since I’ve been through what they’ll be experiencing.” Read on to learn more about Josh and about the CSU's Graduation Initiative 2025, which strives to increase graduation rates for all students while eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps. “The Male Success Initiative at CSUF offers members academic support, advice and someone to talk to. A lot of us come from low-income families and are first-generation college students. There are programs offered all year that inform us about different topics, and we do a lot of giving back to lower-income communities. MSI provides a space on campus so members know we are part of something bigger than ourselves. When I first came onto the campus, I felt like I had somewhere to go.” “I really believe one of my earliest memories is my mom telling me, ‘You’re going to college.’ The push for education growing up was forceful and tremendous and every strong word imaginable—that was my mother. Both of my parents went to college, so they told me it was extremely important, and that me being black, it was even more important.” “The class I learned the most in was ‘Black Men in America,’ which Dr. Edward Robinson [shown at right] taught. I knew about things like Jim Crow laws and the civil rights movement, but I had no idea about a lot of the things that happened to people of color. It was very eye-opening. It was one of those classes that is going to affect my life in ways that's not just knowing something like how to do long division.” “My journey with MSI is different than most because I had my academics on lock. I needed the group more for emotional support, and they also hold me accountable for everything. It’s the first time I was ever told it was OK to not be OK. It’s OK to have good days and bad days; progress is not just a straight line forward. I really needed that. The bond of MSI is hard to explain. My best friends are Isaac and Angel; if you ask me what their majors are, I couldn’t tell you. But I’d drive across the country for them. That’s the strength of our relationship.” [Left to right: Josh, MSI member Jeremiah Riggins, senior assistant coordinator of MSI George Parker, and MSI member Jared Lynch] “George Parker [shown at left] is just my guy. I go visit him whenever I’m on campus to say hi. I talk to him about everything and he’s always there to be like—‘You know what, I don’t think you should do that; I think you should do this.’ He gives me great advice because he’s very wise. We have a lot of fun.” “I’m minoring in criminal justice and majoring in psychology so I can get a job as a probation officer off the bat. That'll be enough for a little bit, but my main goal is to earn a doctorate in psychology and become a therapist. A Ph.D. is a lot of school and at the moment it seems very daunting, but I'd like to venture into criminal or forensic psychology.” Josh is on track to graduate in 2021.Check out more programs around the CSU that improve retention and graduation rates for men of color: CSU Dominguez Hills’s Male Success Alliance CSUN’s Black Male Initiative Cal Poly Pomona’s Project Success Read More GI 2025 Success Stories STORY: MICHELLE MCCARTHY PHOTOGRAPHY: Patrick Record and courtesy of Josh KellyShare this story Share Tweet Email Share