What
does "Daraja" mean?The word “Daraja” (Dah-rah’-jah) is a Swahili word meaning step, set of steps, or stepping stone.
The Daraja Program is a learning community designed to promote transfer and to increase academic and personal success. This program, based at the Chabot College Hayward, California campus, addresses students’ needs through academic support services and a curriculum focused on African-American literature, history, and issues facing the African-American community. Daraja is for students who are: serious about getting a good education, willing to work hard, and want to study the topics Daraja covers. Daraja students persist longer in college with better grades and transfer to four-year colleges and universities at a higher rate. The benefits from Daraja include:
The Daraja Project couples the English 102 and the Psychology-Counseling 20 courses in the Fall semester and the transferable English 1A and the Psychology-Counseling 7 courses in the Spring semester to prepare students for their intended majors and to meet graduation and transfer requirements. The English courses introduce students to African-American history and literary works that include Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promised Land and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as other similar classics and contemporary works by noted African-American authors. The Psychology-Counseling courses may include topics on:
Daraja students learn from each other through critical analysis of African-American literature shared by fellow students.
