With nothing more than a foot locker, I boarded my first flight. I landed at Boston’s Logan Airport in January 1975 and enrolled at Northeastern University. I went on to graduate cum laude in June of 1979 as my family’s first college graduate.
A life unimaginable
Since graduating from college, I have lived a life that was unimaginable as a child growing up amidst the violence and despair of Chicago’s South Side.
I have been employed as a financial systems analyst with IBM and Transamerica, I have taught students in elementary school through college, including incarcerated youth in the Los Angeles Juvenile Court Schools, and trained educators and parents for over 30 years. I have published 28 books and given motivational presentations to audiences throughout the United States and Bermuda.
Closing the college knowledge gap
While I should be retired, I am now having more fun than ever, working with students in a College Planning Cohort program that my wife and I designed to expand college access for students from lower income backgrounds, marginalized communities, and those who will be the first in their family to attend college.
As the Education Ministry Leader at the Turner Chapel AME Church in Marietta, Georgia and as the Founder/CEO of the Foundation for Ensuring Access and Equity, we are partnering with school districts and community colleges to close the “College Knowledge Gap” so that students and families are able to develop comprehensive college-bound plans to avoid or minimize student loan debt, while increasing college preparedness and on-time degree attainment.