“Both-And” Support for Black Students: Belonging and Cross-Racial Interaction through Race-Specific Programming

Taking a user-centered design approach, this paper documents the development of the Black Scholars Initiative (BSI), a program to support Black students’ belonging and cross-racial interaction at the Berklee College of Music. Three forms of support—Horizontal Support with same-race peers, Vertical Support with same-race faculty, staff, and near-peers, and Extended Vertical Support with different-race faculty and staff—are examined with encouraging results. Implications for developing similar programs to support minoritized students are discussed.