Kashaunda Harris - Crafton Hills College

Campus Update: Power Outage Continues – Remote Operations Thursday, January 9

Dear Crafton Community,

The power outage at Crafton Hills College remains ongoing. As a result, the campus will remain closed, and limited services will continue to operate remotely on Thursday, January 9, 2025. Employees who need to access campus to pick up laptops should coordinate with their supervisor. Please be aware that some essential personnel may be contacted and asked to report to campus to assist with power restoration efforts. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through this situation. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to your supervisor. We will provide additional updates as more information becomes available.

Thank you,

Crafton Hills College

Kashaunda Harris
Kashaunda Harris

Kashaunda Harris -

EOPS Counselor/Adjunct Faculty

 

In what year were you born, and what if any significant event took place during this year for Black Americans?

I was born in late 1980, during the time of which Ronald Reagan was president.  The Reagan administration was known for it's war on drugs in Black communities and "reaganomics" which increased poverty and income inequalities for Black Americans.  Other events included:

  • The United States enters the severe early 1980s recession, exactly a year after the more minor 1980 recession ended; the Unemployment Rate is 7.2% (Beginning of Reaganomics – which lead to a huge drug problem in the 80’s
  • Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. is selected by the California Assembly to become the Speaker of the state legislature. Brown is the first African-American to hold this position. For 15 years, he serves in this 
  • Robert L. Johnson launches Black Entertainment Television (BET).

Describe your family.
I was born into a two-parent home that was very structured, and we were also very active.  My siblings and I attended school throughout the week which included sports and extra-curricular activities (band, gymnastics, drill team, girl scouts, baseball, softball, ice skating, etc.), family activities and weekend getaways and church on Sunday morning.  We ate dinner as a family every night and we had breakfast together every weekend morning. 

My mother and father both worked full-time jobs and my father also had his own janitorial company.  They were homeowners which was normal in our community. There were no specific gender roles between my parents; both went to work, both cooked and cleaned, and both cared for the children.  At one point or another, all my siblings and I went to private (Christian) school which my parents paid for with no assistance.  Every summer my family took road trips to other states to visit family, family-friends, and/or my siblings and I went to summer sleep-away camp or to summer day-camp.

Describe the neighborhood where you grew up.
I neighborhood in which I lived was predominately African American and Latino.  The neighborhood was majority two-parent homes and the parents were homeowners.  Mostly all the kids in the neighborhood played together and parents often kept an eye on all of the neighborhood kids walking to school, playing after school and during activities such as afterschool sports/activities or weekend trips to the beach.   

My family moved to Ontario, CA in the 90's which was a complete culture shock.  I was often one of very few black students in my classes and some of the black students grew up in Ontario, so they too were very different from me.  I met fellow students who were from parts of Asia that I had never heard of such as Cambodia and Laos.  It was then that I also experienced blatant racism and prejudices against black people and students.

Describe where your family is from (geographically).  Do you know if your family was part of the Great Migration of African American families from the southern states to northern cities?
My father was born in the south (Louisiana).  He relocated to Los Angeles in the late 50’s for a summer job and later, decided to stay.  He has experienced sharecropping in the rural south, being low-income and using college as his way of escaping hard times.   

My mother’s family migrated from Texas, where they owned land,  and settled in San Bernardino prior to buying a homes in Los Angeles and Compton, CA.

What was school like for you?  Best and worst memories?
School started out very difficult for me.  I had an issue with reading comprehension, but I excelled in math.  By the time I got to fifth grade, I continued to excel in math and was also above average in writing skills.  I joined several clubs in middle school such as MESA (Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement) and I also attended several MESA camps during the summer at Loyola Marymount University.  I was in honors classes for both English and Math during middle school.  In high school, I was a member of the California Scholarship Federation (CSF).

My best memory was being told by my 11th grade English teacher, Ms. Bivins, that I was a skilled writer and I shouldn’t underestimate my ability to do great things in my future.  Through her belief in me, I was able to excel in her class, receive a regional award for High Achieving Writing Skills on the California Standards Test and a high score on the SAT II Literature test (which counted towards my admission to UCLA).

My worst memory was in 10th grade Algebra II.  I was the only sophomore in my class and the entire class was struggling to understand a concept.  The teacher approached each student and asked where they took Algebra I (in an attempt to gauge our skill level).  When he approached me, I let him know that I passed Algebra I in 8th grade in my LA county middle school (with an A grade).  He said out loud, “no wonder you don’t know anything, you went to school in LA.  I hope you can keep up.”  I was embarrassed in front of the entire class.  I passed the class with a B.

What was your first paying job?
My first job was through a summer work program for low-income students.  I worked for the Air National Guard recruitment office in Ontario.  I worked as a clerical assistant; I worked the switchboard telephone system, filing, data input, and scheduled recruitment visits.

What advice would you give to young people today?
My advice to young people today is to learn how to seek resources and take full advantage of them.  Sometimes it’s not about how smart you are or how much money you have, but how well you have access to the help you need to get from point A to point B.  Being knowledgeable enough to seek resources will guarantee that you always know  get assistance or assistance to help get ahead.  The answers are there, it might not be as easy as asking Suri or doing a google search, but the answers are there.

Was education your first career choice?
I originally entered college (UCLA) as a pre-med student.  I majored in Biological Science in pursuit of becoming an Obstetrician & Gynecologist.  After getting a work-study job as a peer counselor at an inner high school and helping students realize they could attend college and become successful, I chose to change my career goal to become a high school counselor.  I changed my major to African American Studies with a Concentration in Psychology.

How has education made a difference in your life and that of your family?
Education has allowed me the opportunity to grow mentally, socially, and emotionally.  My educational journey has prepared for experiences both in and out of school.  I have learned transferable skills that have helped me to become a better person, lifelong learner, and educator.  Education has allowed me the opportunity to live a lifestyle that I never dreamed of; I’ve met people from around the world and different cultures, I’ve traveled and tried new things.  Education has also helped me to see and understand what people of different race, ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds go through and how it shapes their future.

Are you the first person in your immediate family to earn a college degree?
I am the first person in my family to go immediately to college after high school and the second person in my family to earn a bachelor's degree.  I am the first person in my family to receive a master’s degree.

How long did it take you to get the last degree you earned?
It took me four years to earn my bachelor's degree and two years to get my master’s degree.

Did your parents or someone important in your life have "the talk" with you?
My mother indirectly had “the talk” with me.  It was something that was very clear in our community, so we did not sit down to discuss it, but it was very clear what you should or should not do in “white” neighborhoods, when traveling with “non-black” friends, or in the presence of authority (such as the police).  However, we were always told to stand up for ourselves when it came to injustice.

How did you feel the day Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States?
As a black woman, it was a very important time when Barack Obama was sworn into presidency.  I took the day off work to watch all the inauguration festivities.  Obama’s presidency meant change for the US.  For one, it showed the growth in our race regarding education; from a system that made education illegal and even deadly for us to allowing a black man to achieve the education necessary to run this nation.  To me, it meant that the American people saw “us” as a race in a different light.  Even the first family dispelled all the myths of the African American family; two-parent home, both educated, raising educated and conscious children.  I like that Obama shed light on not only the discrimination facing African Americans but other groups of color who were/are experiencing all the turmoil that African Americans faced in the past and continue to face today. It was an honor to see several African Americans in their 80’s, 90’s, and even 100+ experience a black president after all the things they have seen in their lifetime.