LONDON, England:

James Hendrickson has been on the campus of St. Catherine's College, Oxford, for less than two days, but the 14-year-old is already determined to read for a law degree here.

James was one of 35 boys attending a special event hosted by National Black Boys Can (NBBC) at Oxford University last week.

The event, for boys and their parents, included two days of talks, workshops and discussions on how parents can support their sons' application to the university.

The teenagers, ranging in age from 13 to 16, also had the chance to question university staff and black undergraduates about the application process and university life.

Black and minority ethnic students make up just one per cent of students at Oxford and Cambridge.

Discrimination

Cheron Byfield, one of the founders of the NBBC and a doctoral student at Oxford, explained that parents and black boys faced particular difficulties in getting to university.

She says: "There are issues to do with racial discrimination - stereotyping is very prevalent in schools - and the peer culture and peer pressure. There are also issues to do with the laddish culture: it's not cool to be doing well at school, it's very girly. These are the sorts of issues they have to deal with on a daily basis."

She emphasises that parents and their sons need to work together.

"It's a partnership between parents and the boys," she says. "We have had a 100 per cent attendance from parents, which is fantastic. They come along with their sons. It's very important to have that partnership because parents have a very important role to play. A lot of parents are very grateful that Oxford and Black Boys Can have given them this opportunity to come here and see the university and learn some of the inside stuff that people often don't hear about.

"A lot of them said they would never have thought of sending their sons to Oxford had it not been for this programme, which said: 'Look at your son. There is a possibility here.' They would never have thought about it. They would have automatically assumed 'Oxford] is not a place for the likes of us'. It's an open day, and it's up to them to walk through."

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS

James' mother, Gwyneth Hamilton, says that she had never thought about her son attending Oxford.

"To be quite honest, I never had my sights that high because I thought Oxford and Cambridge were more geared to the elite, to the princes and princesses that come over to this country. I really didn't think that my son had a chance, but now I know that he has."

James adds excitedly: "It's been fun. I learned a lot of new things from a discussion we had about black people and the monarchy. I never knew that there were any black people in the monarchy."

Another parent, Kenneth Fearoa, was also excited about the event.

"I think the concept is very well conceived. It's something that actually links the aspirations of children and parents as well as their thinking. We're supposed to be supporting our sons and instilling an aspiration that manifests itself at universities such as this one."

Some doubts

Dawn Fearoa says that there are a number of factors preventing more black students from applying and entering university.

She says: "I think it's the lack of the information that is passed out to the children. The media tells us that it's more for people of a higher level, and if you haven't got a certain amount of money you can't get there. That prevents them from feeling that they can achieve it."

Their son, Jordan, says that he is still uncertain."It's been really good," he says. "I liked the activities and the presentation that they did about black role models and about black people in history. I learned a lot that they don't teach us in the history lessons about black people."

He adds: "I still feel a bit of doubt. I don't think I'd fit in. Everybody just says that the people here are a bunch of snobs and they'll look down on you as a black person, but I'm not bothered. I think it's a place for me if I'm good enough to get there."

The boys and their parents also benefited from the advice of current students and recent graduates.

Olasunkanmi Obamubi graduated with a first-class degree in maths this year.

He told The Voice: "It's down to the individual. I was brought up with a strong belief in education. That was my mantra. I would never think for one second that because I'm black I can never go [to Oxford]. Schemes like Black Boys Can try to reach them from a young age and give them that drive: you're good enough and you belong there. Don't think of yourself as a black person going to Oxford. Think of yourself as a student trying to go to university."

Positive role models

Recent graduate Emos Ansah echoes his views: "It's important to have positive role models, to know that people have done it and you can do it. I've always wanted to come to Oxford because I had role models."

First-year undergraduate Lewis Iwu says: "It's down to the individual to be honest. Had there been no black students in Oxford, I still would have applied.

"I'm not one of those people to look at the numbers. That's partly to do with my upbringing and partly about being determined enough. When you let statistics influence your choices, in effect they're dictating how your life pattern should evolve."

The Voice is a British newspaper owned by the Gleaner Company Limited.