The Black Men with Initiative program, a program of the Center for African American Male, Research, Success, and Leadership at the University of West Georgia, has without a doubt molded me into the man I am today. My name is Braxton Calloway and I am a senior marketing major with dreams of attending a prestigious advertising school or beginning a career at a top advertising agency in Atlanta, Ga upon graduation this May. The BMWI program taught me the power of dreams and having great expectations for yourself and others. Believing in myself and using the heartbreaking statistics about Black male success in post-secondary education as my motivation, I have been able to achieve things society thought were impossible. The achievements that I am most proud of are the attainment of an internship with Nissan North America, Inc. through the INROADS Internship program, being elected to serve as the president of the West Georgia American Marketing Assoc iation, and carrying a 3.82 GPA as a senior at a predominantly White institution. The BMWI program has also enhanced my cultural awareness through its study abroad program which took BMWI members to Canada last spring. While in Canada we toured Montreal and Toronto, attended the oldest African church in Canada, exchanged experiences with the Black Student Alliance at York University, met with the faculty and students of the Indigenous Studies program at Trent University, and met with the executive director of the Canadian Fulbright program. The overall experience was priceless and greatly expanded my knowledge of the Canadian culture. The Center for African American Male Research, Success, and Leadership has exposed me to successful African American male role models from UPS and Southern Company through its Executive Enrichment program which is designed to expose outstanding African American male students to successful African American corporate executives. I was given the opportunity to head this initiative and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity. The insights I’ve gained from the executives are invaluable and will benefit me greatly in my future endeavors. The BMWI program has molded me into an independent thinker, a leader, and a positive role model for other African American males at the University of West Georgia and across this nation. The BMWI program has created a no excuses culture for African American men at the University of West Georgia and has shown us all that African American males can achieve against all odds. Greatness truly is an endless journey.
My name is Joshua Copeland and I am a junior at the University of West Georgia. My time spent here at the University has been aided by the Black Men With Initiative program, headed by Dr. Said Sewell. Joining the Black Men With Initiative program has placed me around other African American males who wish to not just be complacent and content with being in college, but who wish to reach the outer limits of their capabilities and strive to change the stereotypes that seem to plague us as Black men. Up to this point while at the University of West Georgia and with my continued involvement in BMWI, I have become the Vice President of Student Government Association, which has opened up doors for me to participate in a Leadershape conference in Illinois; currently serve as the coordinating chair for Retention Progression and Graduation for the Board of Regents; and have the pleasure to be apart of history in signing a bill to erect a stadium for the University of West Georgia. Dr. Sewell, understanding my passion for personal protection, has appointed me head of security for our Distinguished Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Series, and in this capacity I have overseen 3 notable speakers: Mr. Dick Gregory, Dr. Eddie Glaude, and Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. I currently have a 3.71 GPA, which I can attribute to my involvement in BMWI. Not only have we been able to accomplish great things in Georgia, but we have had the honor and priviledge of participating in the Million More March in Washington, D.C., going to Canada where we toured Montreal and Toronto, met with the executive director at Fullbright (Canada), tossed around ideas with members of the Black Student Alliance at York University, and visited Niagra Falls. This journey has been filled with its ups and downs, its successes and disappointments, but with my Brothers who help to serve as role models to other African American men here on campus and abroad, I b elieve we are blazing a trail to greatness.
My time spent as a member of Black Males with Initiative (BMWI) has been priceless. BMWI is a program dedicated to first-year African-American male students and the improvement of their success skills. From public speaking engagements to enrichment sessions, BMWI has helped me develop leadership skills, communications skills, and most importantly, showed me the importance of community. I have been able to intern through networking, study abroad in Canada and meet with some of the most profound thinkers of our time including Dr. Cornell West, Kwame Jackson. Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr., and Dr. Dick Gregory. This program has encouraged me to read books and to lean more about my history and who I am as a Black an in America. We are a group of students striving to change the stereotypes about Black Men. We are showing the world that Black Men can achieve in post-secondary education and go on to bigger and better things in life.
My name is Beheruz N. Sethna; I am Professor of Business and President of the University of West Georgia. The Center for African American Male, Research, Success, and Leadership at the University of West Georgia is an exceptional program -- or set of programs, really -- which are directed towards increasing success for African American Male students. I am very supportive of the work that Dr. Sewell and the Center is undertaking, and of the great success in helping our young Black men. The program consists of research, modeling and training, and programming. We have multiple initiatives, such as Black Men With Initiative, the African American Male Initiative Learning Community, the King Lecture Series, and the Dubois Conference, to benefit African-American male students at UWG and other institutions. I wish the program all success -- in general and in this competition.
Sincerely,
Beheruz N. Sethna, Ph.D.
Professor of Business, and
President of the University of West Georgia
The Center for African American Male Research, Success, and Leadership is nothing short of incredible. I was first introduced to the Center as a member of one of its many initiatives, the African American Male Learning Community (AAMI). This program consisted of myself and twenty-five other African-American freshman who through the program were enrolled in the same classes and all lived in the same dormitory. There were structured study sessions and events that we attended together which created a strong bond and support system within our group. We were exposed to an innumerable amount of powerful and successful figures of whom we were able to identify with and realize that we too could achieve greatness. This program built a type of “academic village”, a brotherhood, an environment which was a strong fortress upon which we ricocheted our dreams, hopes, successes, failures, struggles, and our glorious breakthroughs. As a result of my participation in this program I was able to achieve a 4.0 both semesters of my freshman year. I am now a junior with a major in psychology and a minor in marketing. Shortly after “graduating” from the AAMI freshman learning community, I joined the Black Men with Initiative program which is also part of the center. Through this program I was able to refine my leadership, interpersonal, as well as communication skills which have been a great asset to me as I now strive toward greatness. I am the current Student Government Association President at the University of West Georgia and NAACP Community Service Chair; I am also a member of Phi Sigma Pi Honors Fraternity, University Ambassadors and United Voices Gospel Choir. I currently intern with one of the top global companies, Procter & Gamble as a Customer Business and Development Intern. It is undoubtedly the training and the support that I received and still receive from the Center that has been a crucial factor in my success in academics as well as in life. A quote that has resonated with me from freshman year in the learning community which originated from Dr. Elijah Benjamin Hayes states, “I've only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it. Forced upon me, can't refuse it, didn't seek it, didn't choose it, but it's up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it, give an account if I abuse it, just a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it.” I can honestly say that my eternity has been changed through the short minutes and seconds that I have had the opportunity to be a part of the center at the University of West Georgia. Greatness is and endless journey, but I can say that it is through CAAMRSL that I was able to strap up my boots.
Hello My name is Courtney E. Johns. I am a graduating senior at the University of West Georgia. I am the 2007-2008 Vice President of Black Men With Initiative, the Leader of the Men's ministry for Zion Campus Ministries, and CEO/Founder of Christian music & entertainment group - Reel Life Entertainment.
I am honored to get a chance to express my personal feelings of the Center for African American Male Research Success and Leadership (CAAMRSL). My affiliation with this organization dates back to Fall 2004, that being my freshman year of college. Before even my first day of class, brothers from CAAMRSL greeted me and exposed me to the pitfalls of school and gave me brotherly advice to successfully navigate through college. Dr. Sewell introduced himself to me with an extraordinary essence that I had never seen in any black man that I'd known. He was confident and cordial, but most of all, he expressed compassion. He had a compassion and a zeal for the betterment of young black men. That is what drew me to want to make a difference in my own life, with the help of CAAMRSL. I knew that I had a charge to keep, which was to help my fellow brothers. Of course, in order for me to meet the call of duty, I myself had to be changed for the better. These past four years, my involvement in CAAMRSL has prepared me for leadership and responsibilty. I have gained opportunities to help change my environment and instill better characteristics in my African American cohorts. With Dr. Sewell as I great mentor I have been able to travel to various locations and see the impact of black men and women. From the Million More Movement in Washington D.C. to the Pan-African ancestry of Toronto, Ontario in Canada. My experiences have been more than meaningful , they have been motivating. Through CAAMRSL I have been motivated to make a difference and be a positive leader to our youth.
CAAMRSL has been a great program at the University of West Georgia. Under the able leadership of Dr. Said Sewell beginning with the Black Males with Initiative Program, a number of Black males have been exposed to experiences and ways of thinking and acting that were new to many. Week before last as I was entering a building three BMWI participants happened to be entering a building before me. One grabbed the other two and pointed to me. They all then waited until I went through the door. Teaching his CAAMRSL participants respect for one's elders is only one example of the type of training that CAAMRSL participants receive. I also taught an introductory psychology class to a group of CAAMRSL learning community students last fall. This was a great experience for myself and them. This year Dr. Sewell and his BMWI students have increased the grade point average for entrance into their program. Dr. Sewell recently won an award from the University System of Georgia for what we already knew, that under his leadership UWG has the best BMWI program in the System.
Dr. Sewell has somehow found funds to sponsor outstanding speakers the past three years inlcuding Dr. Cornell West and Dick Gregory.
As a member of the CAAMRSL board I have been impressed with Dr. Sewell's leadership. I also work with him in other capacities such as organizing Black History month events.
In summary, I sincerely hope that CAAMRSL can be helped by your organization. It is definitely the kind of program that is worthy of support and recognition.
Jack Jenkins
Special Associate to the President
for Minority Affairs
My name is Joshua Almond. I am currently a sophomore at the University of West Georgia and the Center For African-American Male Research, Success, and Leadership (CAAMRSL) has positively affected my life in a such a great way and saved me from becoming another African-American male who has failed at living a decent life. As a freshman at the University of West Georgia, I was accepted in to CAAMRSL's African American Male Initiative Learning Community which is aimed at united positive African-American males on campus, uplifting their GPA's, and terminating the negative stereotypes that exist about African American males on college campuses all over the nation. As a result of this learning community, I was able to stay out of trouble my freshman year and achieve a 3.53 GPA the first semester of my college career. Thanks to Dr. Sewell and CAAMRSL, I started my college career of with a bang and now I am hungry to maintain a high GPA throughout the rest of my college career and to become a productive and resourceful young man as I graduate from college and attempt at doing something beneficial to the world. CAAMRSL is definitely making a huge difference in the lives of African-American males and is shaping the campus of the University of West Georgia into a production factory of intelligent, resourceful, and great African-American males.
In 2001, a visionary by the name of Dr. Said L. Sewell III, gathered a couple of young men on the campus of the University of West Georgia together and shared a aspiration of hope, greatness and change for the success of African American males holistically. During this time, the developing stages of what we thought then,were just meetings of a couple of African American brothers on a college campus, turned into a powerful movement of change through the leadership of a brotherhood; BMWI. BMWI, known as Black Males with Initiative, has done a tremendous amount of work in the five years it's been in existence. In fact, it has helped reshape the lives of many on the campus of UWG not just African American, but all walks of life. BMWI has produced the foundation and birth of several student organizations on campus including the NAACP, PRAYER Campus Ministry and UWG Students United, a organization that helped raise $10,000 for Tsunami victims under the leadership of BMWI leaders. BMWI has also produced three African American male SGA Presidents, myself being the first since 1976 and the third of the university's existence of 100 years. The first African American male Homecoming King and SGA Secretary were all members of BMWI as well as the university's first NASA receipt, African American male, nationally recoginized came through the BMWI program. This initiative has done more than just change the academic status of black males on UWG's campus but it has changed the mindset and helped erase negative stereotypes of African American males through the state. In fact, there are schools that are modeling their own initiatives after BMWI at UWG. Our work in the local schools in Carrollton and through Meriwether County, Georgia, has triggered a massive desire and yearning for the leadership of BMWI within different areas. Just from one meeting, the sharing of a desire to change the lives of young black men, who statistically have been deemed as troublemakers, unsuccesful, and hopeless, has caused a great movement of progressive change and inspiration to revive the strength, dignity, and rightful place of our men within society. How grateful we are for such a program as BMWI and it's powerful effect.
The Center for African-American Male Research, Success, and Leadership at the University of West Georgia in many ways has advanced my career path while stimulating hidden potential to come out and serve a difference within the communities we service. I would like to say that I would have never decided to choose the University of West Georgia to continue my education, if it wasn?t for this program that is in place to sponsor the growth of individuals. Since my tenure at the University I have been dealt the honor to introducing nationally recognized entrepreneur Kwame Jackson, to hosting an informational session by prestigious alumni of the University. The center sponsors several initiatives; two have affected me the most. One initiative that caught my initial interest for the University of West Georgia was the African-American Male Initiative learning community. This initiative is comprised of 15-20 African-American males that are first year students, taking classes together, mandatory study sessions, and community service involvement. On comparison black males who are enrolled into this program for the last year have a higher retention rate as well as great rapport with their professors, involvement on campus amongst the individuals within the community or high as well. The Grade Point Average tends to be higher as well ranging from five to ten points. The second initiative that further increases the retention and community involvement is the Black Male With Initiative program. Students in this program are transformed into brothers through a process. The main goal of this brotherhood is academic excellence and being a great role model for all students at the University of West Georgia?s campus. With the hard work and dedication that previous members have vowed to bestow for many years to come with the center, is the reason why I can say that my time at this University has been the utmost beneficial thus far. I recommend this program to every student and parent that I come across from my community.
Comments
The Black Men with Initiative program, a program of the Center for African American Male, Research, Success, and Leadership at the University of West Georgia, has without a doubt molded me into the man I am today. My name is Braxton Calloway and I am a senior marketing major with dreams of attending a prestigious advertising school or beginning a career at a top advertising agency in Atlanta, Ga upon graduation this May. The BMWI program taught me the power of dreams and having great expectations for yourself and others. Believing in myself and using the heartbreaking statistics about Black male success in post-secondary education as my motivation, I have been able to achieve things society thought were impossible. The achievements that I am most proud of are the attainment of an internship with Nissan North America, Inc. through the INROADS Internship program, being elected to serve as the president of the West Georgia American Marketing Assoc iation, and carrying a 3.82 GPA as a senior at a predominantly White institution. The BMWI program has also enhanced my cultural awareness through its study abroad program which took BMWI members to Canada last spring. While in Canada we toured Montreal and Toronto, attended the oldest African church in Canada, exchanged experiences with the Black Student Alliance at York University, met with the faculty and students of the Indigenous Studies program at Trent University, and met with the executive director of the Canadian Fulbright program. The overall experience was priceless and greatly expanded my knowledge of the Canadian culture. The Center for African American Male Research, Success, and Leadership has exposed me to successful African American male role models from UPS and Southern Company through its Executive Enrichment program which is designed to expose outstanding African American male students to successful African American corporate executives. I was given the opportunity to head this initiative and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity. The insights I’ve gained from the executives are invaluable and will benefit me greatly in my future endeavors. The BMWI program has molded me into an independent thinker, a leader, and a positive role model for other African American males at the University of West Georgia and across this nation. The BMWI program has created a no excuses culture for African American men at the University of West Georgia and has shown us all that African American males can achieve against all odds. Greatness truly is an endless journey.
My name is Joshua Copeland and I am a junior at the University of West Georgia. My time spent here at the University has been aided by the Black Men With Initiative program, headed by Dr. Said Sewell. Joining the Black Men With Initiative program has placed me around other African American males who wish to not just be complacent and content with being in college, but who wish to reach the outer limits of their capabilities and strive to change the stereotypes that seem to plague us as Black men. Up to this point while at the University of West Georgia and with my continued involvement in BMWI, I have become the Vice President of Student Government Association, which has opened up doors for me to participate in a Leadershape conference in Illinois; currently serve as the coordinating chair for Retention Progression and Graduation for the Board of Regents; and have the pleasure to be apart of history in signing a bill to erect a stadium for the University of West Georgia. Dr. Sewell, understanding my passion for personal protection, has appointed me head of security for our Distinguished Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Series, and in this capacity I have overseen 3 notable speakers: Mr. Dick Gregory, Dr. Eddie Glaude, and Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. I currently have a 3.71 GPA, which I can attribute to my involvement in BMWI. Not only have we been able to accomplish great things in Georgia, but we have had the honor and priviledge of participating in the Million More March in Washington, D.C., going to Canada where we toured Montreal and Toronto, met with the executive director at Fullbright (Canada), tossed around ideas with members of the Black Student Alliance at York University, and visited Niagra Falls. This journey has been filled with its ups and downs, its successes and disappointments, but with my Brothers who help to serve as role models to other African American men here on campus and abroad, I b elieve we are blazing a trail to greatness.
My time spent as a member of Black Males with Initiative (BMWI) has been priceless. BMWI is a program dedicated to first-year African-American male students and the improvement of their success skills. From public speaking engagements to enrichment sessions, BMWI has helped me develop leadership skills, communications skills, and most importantly, showed me the importance of community. I have been able to intern through networking, study abroad in Canada and meet with some of the most profound thinkers of our time including Dr. Cornell West, Kwame Jackson. Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr., and Dr. Dick Gregory. This program has encouraged me to read books and to lean more about my history and who I am as a Black an in America. We are a group of students striving to change the stereotypes about Black Men. We are showing the world that Black Men can achieve in post-secondary education and go on to bigger and better things in life.
Braddon Calloway
My name is Beheruz N. Sethna; I am Professor of Business and President of the University of West Georgia. The Center for African American Male, Research, Success, and Leadership at the University of West Georgia is an exceptional program -- or set of programs, really -- which are directed towards increasing success for African American Male students. I am very supportive of the work that Dr. Sewell and the Center is undertaking, and of the great success in helping our young Black men. The program consists of research, modeling and training, and programming. We have multiple initiatives, such as Black Men With Initiative, the African American Male Initiative Learning Community, the King Lecture Series, and the Dubois Conference, to benefit African-American male students at UWG and other institutions. I wish the program all success -- in general and in this competition.
Sincerely,
Beheruz N. Sethna, Ph.D.
Professor of Business, and
President of the University of West Georgia
The Center for African American Male Research, Success, and Leadership is nothing short of incredible. I was first introduced to the Center as a member of one of its many initiatives, the African American Male Learning Community (AAMI). This program consisted of myself and twenty-five other African-American freshman who through the program were enrolled in the same classes and all lived in the same dormitory. There were structured study sessions and events that we attended together which created a strong bond and support system within our group. We were exposed to an innumerable amount of powerful and successful figures of whom we were able to identify with and realize that we too could achieve greatness. This program built a type of “academic village”, a brotherhood, an environment which was a strong fortress upon which we ricocheted our dreams, hopes, successes, failures, struggles, and our glorious breakthroughs. As a result of my participation in this program I was able to achieve a 4.0 both semesters of my freshman year. I am now a junior with a major in psychology and a minor in marketing. Shortly after “graduating” from the AAMI freshman learning community, I joined the Black Men with Initiative program which is also part of the center. Through this program I was able to refine my leadership, interpersonal, as well as communication skills which have been a great asset to me as I now strive toward greatness. I am the current Student Government Association President at the University of West Georgia and NAACP Community Service Chair; I am also a member of Phi Sigma Pi Honors Fraternity, University Ambassadors and United Voices Gospel Choir. I currently intern with one of the top global companies, Procter & Gamble as a Customer Business and Development Intern. It is undoubtedly the training and the support that I received and still receive from the Center that has been a crucial factor in my success in academics as well as in life. A quote that has resonated with me from freshman year in the learning community which originated from Dr. Elijah Benjamin Hayes states, “I've only just a minute, only sixty seconds in it. Forced upon me, can't refuse it, didn't seek it, didn't choose it, but it's up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it, give an account if I abuse it, just a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it.” I can honestly say that my eternity has been changed through the short minutes and seconds that I have had the opportunity to be a part of the center at the University of West Georgia. Greatness is and endless journey, but I can say that it is through CAAMRSL that I was able to strap up my boots.
Hello My name is Courtney E. Johns. I am a graduating senior at the University of West Georgia. I am the 2007-2008 Vice President of Black Men With Initiative, the Leader of the Men's ministry for Zion Campus Ministries, and CEO/Founder of Christian music & entertainment group - Reel Life Entertainment.
I am honored to get a chance to express my personal feelings of the Center for African American Male Research Success and Leadership (CAAMRSL). My affiliation with this organization dates back to Fall 2004, that being my freshman year of college. Before even my first day of class, brothers from CAAMRSL greeted me and exposed me to the pitfalls of school and gave me brotherly advice to successfully navigate through college. Dr. Sewell introduced himself to me with an extraordinary essence that I had never seen in any black man that I'd known. He was confident and cordial, but most of all, he expressed compassion. He had a compassion and a zeal for the betterment of young black men. That is what drew me to want to make a difference in my own life, with the help of CAAMRSL. I knew that I had a charge to keep, which was to help my fellow brothers. Of course, in order for me to meet the call of duty, I myself had to be changed for the better. These past four years, my involvement in CAAMRSL has prepared me for leadership and responsibilty. I have gained opportunities to help change my environment and instill better characteristics in my African American cohorts. With Dr. Sewell as I great mentor I have been able to travel to various locations and see the impact of black men and women. From the Million More Movement in Washington D.C. to the Pan-African ancestry of Toronto, Ontario in Canada. My experiences have been more than meaningful , they have been motivating. Through CAAMRSL I have been motivated to make a difference and be a positive leader to our youth.
CAAMRSL has been a great program at the University of West Georgia. Under the able leadership of Dr. Said Sewell beginning with the Black Males with Initiative Program, a number of Black males have been exposed to experiences and ways of thinking and acting that were new to many. Week before last as I was entering a building three BMWI participants happened to be entering a building before me. One grabbed the other two and pointed to me. They all then waited until I went through the door. Teaching his CAAMRSL participants respect for one's elders is only one example of the type of training that CAAMRSL participants receive. I also taught an introductory psychology class to a group of CAAMRSL learning community students last fall. This was a great experience for myself and them. This year Dr. Sewell and his BMWI students have increased the grade point average for entrance into their program. Dr. Sewell recently won an award from the University System of Georgia for what we already knew, that under his leadership UWG has the best BMWI program in the System.
Dr. Sewell has somehow found funds to sponsor outstanding speakers the past three years inlcuding Dr. Cornell West and Dick Gregory.
As a member of the CAAMRSL board I have been impressed with Dr. Sewell's leadership. I also work with him in other capacities such as organizing Black History month events.
In summary, I sincerely hope that CAAMRSL can be helped by your organization. It is definitely the kind of program that is worthy of support and recognition.
Jack Jenkins
Special Associate to the President
for Minority Affairs
My name is Joshua Almond. I am currently a sophomore at the University of West Georgia and the Center For African-American Male Research, Success, and Leadership (CAAMRSL) has positively affected my life in a such a great way and saved me from becoming another African-American male who has failed at living a decent life. As a freshman at the University of West Georgia, I was accepted in to CAAMRSL's African American Male Initiative Learning Community which is aimed at united positive African-American males on campus, uplifting their GPA's, and terminating the negative stereotypes that exist about African American males on college campuses all over the nation. As a result of this learning community, I was able to stay out of trouble my freshman year and achieve a 3.53 GPA the first semester of my college career. Thanks to Dr. Sewell and CAAMRSL, I started my college career of with a bang and now I am hungry to maintain a high GPA throughout the rest of my college career and to become a productive and resourceful young man as I graduate from college and attempt at doing something beneficial to the world. CAAMRSL is definitely making a huge difference in the lives of African-American males and is shaping the campus of the University of West Georgia into a production factory of intelligent, resourceful, and great African-American males.
In 2001, a visionary by the name of Dr. Said L. Sewell III, gathered a couple of young men on the campus of the University of West Georgia together and shared a aspiration of hope, greatness and change for the success of African American males holistically. During this time, the developing stages of what we thought then,were just meetings of a couple of African American brothers on a college campus, turned into a powerful movement of change through the leadership of a brotherhood; BMWI. BMWI, known as Black Males with Initiative, has done a tremendous amount of work in the five years it's been in existence. In fact, it has helped reshape the lives of many on the campus of UWG not just African American, but all walks of life. BMWI has produced the foundation and birth of several student organizations on campus including the NAACP, PRAYER Campus Ministry and UWG Students United, a organization that helped raise $10,000 for Tsunami victims under the leadership of BMWI leaders. BMWI has also produced three African American male SGA Presidents, myself being the first since 1976 and the third of the university's existence of 100 years. The first African American male Homecoming King and SGA Secretary were all members of BMWI as well as the university's first NASA receipt, African American male, nationally recoginized came through the BMWI program. This initiative has done more than just change the academic status of black males on UWG's campus but it has changed the mindset and helped erase negative stereotypes of African American males through the state. In fact, there are schools that are modeling their own initiatives after BMWI at UWG. Our work in the local schools in Carrollton and through Meriwether County, Georgia, has triggered a massive desire and yearning for the leadership of BMWI within different areas. Just from one meeting, the sharing of a desire to change the lives of young black men, who statistically have been deemed as troublemakers, unsuccesful, and hopeless, has caused a great movement of progressive change and inspiration to revive the strength, dignity, and rightful place of our men within society. How grateful we are for such a program as BMWI and it's powerful effect.
The Center for African-American Male Research, Success, and Leadership at the University of West Georgia in many ways has advanced my career path while stimulating hidden potential to come out and serve a difference within the communities we service. I would like to say that I would have never decided to choose the University of West Georgia to continue my education, if it wasn?t for this program that is in place to sponsor the growth of individuals. Since my tenure at the University I have been dealt the honor to introducing nationally recognized entrepreneur Kwame Jackson, to hosting an informational session by prestigious alumni of the University. The center sponsors several initiatives; two have affected me the most. One initiative that caught my initial interest for the University of West Georgia was the African-American Male Initiative learning community. This initiative is comprised of 15-20 African-American males that are first year students, taking classes together, mandatory study sessions, and community service involvement. On comparison black males who are enrolled into this program for the last year have a higher retention rate as well as great rapport with their professors, involvement on campus amongst the individuals within the community or high as well. The Grade Point Average tends to be higher as well ranging from five to ten points. The second initiative that further increases the retention and community involvement is the Black Male With Initiative program. Students in this program are transformed into brothers through a process. The main goal of this brotherhood is academic excellence and being a great role model for all students at the University of West Georgia?s campus. With the hard work and dedication that previous members have vowed to bestow for many years to come with the center, is the reason why I can say that my time at this University has been the utmost beneficial thus far. I recommend this program to every student and parent that I come across from my community.
Kenneth Jackson, UWG