POLS-143: Special Topics in American Democracy Journal Entry 6
February 25, 2022
It wasn’t until I was leaving yesterday’s class and I checked how many chapters the Unthinkable had that I realized that we were basically half way through the book. It didn’t even seem like we’ve been reading for so long; time really flies when you’re having fun. With every class that goes by, every discussion or heated debate, I get to see a different side of my peers. I must say, their humor ? top tier content. From Kenthia’s sarcasm to Tye adding ‘love muffin’ to the end of every response.
After yesterday’s quiz, we spent the rest of the class exploring the leaders in the field that we are interested in exploring for our Personalized Leadership Development Project. Dr. S put on soulful music and we all laughed as each person tried to sing a verse or figure out some of the ancient music-it's good music, but ancient. Seeing as my selected field of interest was community service, volunteerism, non-profit or philanthropy to an extent. The first person that came to mind was the cousin of my roommate (or brother as we tell everyone we are, because of how close we are and how much we bicker), Dr. Rachel Victoria Brown.
Dr. Rachel Victoria Brown is a 29-year-old Jamaican who earned a Ph.D. in Media, Communication, and Culture at Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona in Barcelona. Her thesis, written in both English and Spanish focuses on “The Impact of Social Media Activism on the Law and Society”. She is also a teacher and consultant for multiple companies in Barcelona. But what I admire the most about Rachel is her visions for her charity organization based in Jamaica and Florida, the Every Mikkle Foundation. This organization seeks to serve 350 orphans and underprivileged youth annually. Her passion for service and benevolence has surpassed the boundaries of the Caribbean region and continues to change the lives of so many lives across the world. For a 29 year old, her accomplishments are amazing, but her will to make the Earth even a little bit better before she leaves is the most astonishing aspect of her personality. Throughout our discussions, I’d say it was her wholesome Jamaican upbringing that has played a vital role in her informed development. She is well-traveled as she migrated from Jamaica to an American boarding school when she was younger and studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain and Argentina. This has allowed her to see life through a different lens, it has allowed her to look beyond the surface of life’s situation and westernized influence of individualism and materialism and try to educate, advocate and care for the voiceless. She has a history of navigating non-black spaces and developing safe spaces for the Black Community. She wears and has worn many hats throughout her short life so far. She has worked on the Mau Mau reparations case in Kenya as a lawyer and advocate. She is the cofounder and the executive director of the Every Mikkle Foundation. Currently, she is a professor at a university in Ghana. Her empathy, compassionate and conviction are the things I admire the most about her and I look to her as a role model in my own ventures.
Oprah Winfrey is American television personality, actress, and entrepreneur whose syndicated daily talk show was among the most popular of the genre. She became one of the richest and most influential women in the United States. With her wealth, she has chosen to take the path of being a philanthropist, as the founder of the Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation. Oprah Winfrey has personally and through her charitable foundations contributed millions in scholarships, with the intention of aiding promising youth on their journey toward success. Education is the key to lifting vulnerable and underserved communities out of poverty, and empowering people to reach their fullest potential. Since the beginning of the the organization in 2010, she has managed to raise over 400 million dollars in donations aimed at serving underserved communities and providing said scholarships. She was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a single teenage mother. She has shared life tragedies of being molested as a child, being pregnant at 14 and losing her only child due to him being born prematurely and dying during infancy. She has had a rather hard life and it is each of these tragic stories that serve as a foundation for her humility and ability to relate to those that are impoverished. She has taken a rather hard life and used it as an anchor or guide to help others see the light at the end of the tunnel or the beauty that life has to hold when you get a little help.
Dr. Norman Sandridge is a professor at Howard University. He has his undergraduate degree in Physics, after which he discovered his passion and his profound love for the Classics and the ancient Greek and Latin languages. He is also an author, one of his most recent books is Loving Humanity, Learning, and Being Honored: The Foundations of Leadership in Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus. He is the Co-founder and Co-Executive Director at Kallion Leadership, Inc.
“a non-profit organization that dedicated to the understanding, applying, and promoting the study of the humanities for leadership education and development”- Kallion.org
This organization establishes spaces and communities that designs and develops minds off the basis of the humanities in the efforts of establishing a sense of leadership, benevolence and traits that push people to uplift their other communities-help make the world a better place. Dr. Sandridge has been a mentor of mine since freshman year at Howard University and as served as a friend and even father figure while I’ve been thousands of miles away from home. I’ve seen him treat his students as his own and is very interested by their individual development in area in and outside the classroom. He comes from northern Georgia, so maybe it’s the southern hospitality that allows his to always give off his best manners and impression to everyone or maybe its just his love for the development of others. Sandridge has the academic background and experience in developing the minds of future leaders that allows him to aid Kallion Leadership, Inc in being a major facet of the American force charged with helping to build a more honorable America. It’s his pure heart and careful attention to detail that makes me respect him more and more everyday. He is an easy going man than that establishes a safe space for his students to be vulnerable and help guide them through their emotions and decisions. He allows himself to be vulnerable with us so that we can see that adults do struggle too. We get to hear our he maneuvers his difficulties in life and how we can take his challenges as lessons from experience.
As I looked at all of the people I have chosen from my specified field, I have realized a recurring theme and that is nation building or even community building. The idea of building beyond the idea of self, the idea of seeking the enrichment of the people around us, especially that of the youth, so that they may look towards tackling the world problems. I think this is really the theme that attracted me to this field in the first place. The perspective of choosing to see leadership and nation development as team sport-Each One Help One, Each One Teach One. We must identify that even terrorists, tyrants and dictators need the collective fears of the massive to make the world a bad place. We must see that no one person can make the world a better place, the onus is upon us as an individual to live morally and righteously and help those that do not have a voice, establish spaces for those in fear and at a disadvantage. Real equality doesn’t lie in actual equality, but in equity.
