I am Shawn Smith; Professor of Mathematics at Lansing Community College (LCC) and my latest project is Math Noir. Math Noir is a series of mathematics study sessions that uniquely and intentionally supports students of color, other underrepresented groups in STEM, as well as any students that needs a positively amped atmosphere to study mathematics with their peers under the guidance of a professor of mathematics. In addition, potential Learning Assistants are prepared under the premise of if there are more student of color (or groups of underrepresented students), these students that need additional help will be more inclined to use the Learn Commons and other resources provided by the college. The idea and the need for Math Noir was established by previous work through my tenure at LCC. The first was the Lucero Mathematics Project in which we granted students without as math level the opportunity to take a college level mathematics course with value resources at their disposals. The structure of this class was the premise of the development of MATH 105. The next influence was the two Black Males Mathematics Initiative in which the mathematics department led my Mark Chapman, Tristian Sprague-Williams, and myself held two forums to ask the black males what their triumphs and challenges with their mathematics classes were. One of their suggestions was to create a study group in which their peers are supporting each other. In its short existence, it has produced a black male learning assistance and several students having greater confidence when it comes to mathematics as well as propelled some to pass their course at the time of their participation. I learned from the evolution of Math Noir from other equity projects I been a part of since joining the LCC staff 7 years ago is that my conviction is stronger than my desire to follow the normal stream and that their must be a sense of urgency in this work because we discourage students (especially students of color) as we put items to committee and deliberate for semesters.
