Black Men in Leadership (BMIL), a student-led organization at Claremont McKenna College (CMC), celebrates their one-year anniversary this month. Since its creation in 2023, BMIL has cultivated a strong, diverse community where Black male leaders at CMC can form relationships and initiate change.
Elijah Touzoukou CM ’26 founded BMIL as a first-year student. In an email to TSL, he explained that he was inspired by his experiences growing up in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he said he was “immersed in the heart of HBCU culture at an early age.”
Prior to entering college, Touzoukou attended an academic program at nearby North Carolina A&T State University for Black youth. He highlighted the impact of the program and noted that it served as an inspiration for the creation of BMIL.
“Dreams just feel like fantasies when you’re by yourself, but they start to feel attainable when you have a team,” Touzoukou said about the program.
Touzoukou explained that BMIL was formed to reflect this mindset and to create a supportive community where Black, male-identifying leaders at CMC could prosper socially, intellectually and academically.
Last year, Touzoukou reached out to fellow students about starting BMIL. Giovanni Pierre CM ’25, a current Senior Advisor of the club said he was immediately excited by the club’s mission to build community, mentorship and professional development.
“I was wanting to help in any way possible,” Pierre said.
As founder and president, Touzoukou describes his responsibilities as “twofold.” He is responsible for directing the organization’s mission, collaborating with the Executive Board to implement these ideas and for offering a platform where members can share their experiences and expertise.
BMIL members come together in bi-weekly dinners to organize sessions to provide academic support, as well as collaborative events such as the Black History Month block party hosted on Feb. 17.
According to Timi Balogun CM ’24, a Senior Advisor for the club, the community within BMIL aims to promote diversity of perspectives and strength in members’ differences.
“We have very different experiences and those aren’t things that should drive us apart,” Balogun said. “They should bring us closer.”
According to Pierre, BMIL members develop “big-brother” relationships where more senior members offer support and advice for navigating social and academic life at CMC to younger students.
The relationships formed across grade levels are honored in their annual Rose Ceremony. At this event, which will take place this spring, seniors and graduating members of the organization will be celebrated. Touzoukou talked about the importance of their older members.
“Without [the seniors’] contributions, Black Men in Leadership would not be what it is today,” Touzoukou said.
Recently, the club has gone beyond current students and expanded its outreach to admitted high schoolers. On Feb. 7, Jennifer Sandoval-Dancs, associate vice president for Admission and Financial Aid at CMC announced in an email to the CMC community that BMIL would be partnering with CMC’s Office of Admission and the Kravis Lab for Social Impact to help connect current students with admitted students.
Sandoval-Dancs explained in her email that this new opportunity would allow current CMC students to be involved in “outreach to admitted students, such as phone calls and emails, serving on panels, hosting students for shadow days and meeting with admitted students and their families locally and in [their] hometown.”
This program will be offered to admitted students beginning this spring.
Last year, BMIL members proposed and launched this outreach initiative to CMC’s Office of Admission with support from Vernon Grigg, executive director of the Kravis Lab for Social Impact and Jerry Morrison, associate dean of Admission for Diversity and Strategic Initiatives.
Events Coordinator and Senior Advisor Julian Rivera-Williams CM ’25 also suggested that the initiative was meant to contribute to general outreach efforts for minority students.
“We were thinking about ways we can create new student jobs on this campus too and also outreach to more minorities,” he said.
According to CMC’s fall 2023 census, only 5 percent of students at CMC identify as Black, while Black Americans make up 13.6 percent of the national population.
“It’s difficult to find people like you here when you are a Black person or a person of color, in general,” Pierre said. “There are certain struggles that you might have that are unique to your identity or might be augmented in certain ways because of your identity.”
BMIL guides new members through internship recruitment, taking advantage of on-campus opportunities and generally navigating the transition to college.
Balogun said that BMIL creates a tight-knit community on campus where members can turn to each other for support throughout their college journeys.
“BMIL is that team you can go further with, as opposed to going by yourself,” he said.
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