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December 2010 |
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| Faculty
and Staff Take Truth and Service to Heart |
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| By
Ron Harris, Director of Communications, Office of University
Communications |
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| Karine
Sewell and mentee Danian Short demonstrate the rich
tradition of mentoring at Howard. (Ceasar) |
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When
Karine Sewell, interim senior director for Development
and Alumni Relations, contemplated whether to take in
the friend of her eldest daughter two years ago, she weighed
a story that sounded similar to a chapter in her own life.
Danian Short’s
mother had relocated to North Carolina and left him
in the care of his stepfather, who could no longer provide
housing for the two of them. So, for Short, who had
graduated from high school the previous year, each night
was an adventure. One night he would sleep on a friend’s
sofa, another on a relative’s couch and another
in someone’s extra bedroom.
Sewell, also director
of development for the College of Medicine, had been
there. Her single mother died when she was six. And
for the next three years, she and her older sister were
shuffled from family to family around Louisiana before
they finally found a permanent home with her 23-year-old,
newly wed aunt in Houston.
“There’s
nothing worse than not knowing where you’re going
to sleep at night,” Sewell says. “The
only thing close is sleeping somewhere that you know
you’re unwanted or uninvited. Nothing goes right
if all day long you’re worried whether you’re
going to have somewhere to sleep or if your clothes
will be packed when you come back home so you can go
somewhere else.” |
So,
Sewell took the young man in and became his mentor,
a rich tradition among Howard University faculty and
staff. “I don’t think an 18-year-old is
able to face the world without a stable role model,”
she says. “Fortunately, he was receptive.”
Sewell and Short’s story, while unique, is representative
of the informal and formal mentoring that occurs at
Howard. Faculty and staff frequently seek ways to mentor
young people, whether it’s on or off campus. While
January is National Mentoring Month, Howard employees
find ways throughout the year to mentor the next generation.
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“It
is our responsibility to help young people as we were
helped when we were growing up.” |
“Mentoring is part of the Howard University fabric,”
says Melbourne Cummings, Ph.D., professor of Communications
and Culture in the School of Communications, who has been
mentoring Howard students and young people through her
church for more than 30 years. Cummings co-founded the
Rites of Passage program for young people at her church
through the National Council of Negro Women more than
20 years ago with Judi Moore Latta, Ph.D., executive director
of the Office of University Communications and Marketing.
“It makes a difference in young people’s lives,”
Cummings says. “They look at us and decide they
want to be like us or decide they don’t want to
be like us.” |
Academic Guidance
In the School of Social Work, Prof. Tricia Bent-Goodley,
Ph.D., provides her own brand of mentoring through The
Writing Circle, a monthly gathering that supports knowledge
development and scholarship among doctoral and master’s
students seeking help in learning how to publish, present
and advance scholarly work.
Approximately
eight to 12 students gather at the school, with the
support of faculty, to discuss writing and how to get
published. During the meetings, which are open to all
students and faculty, participants discuss writing for
potential publication as well as for grant and fellowship
applications. They talk about dissertation proposal
topics and can also practice oral presentations for
conferences and dissertation defenses while getting
feedback from colleagues.
Bent-Goodley started the informal group three years
ago as a way to address questions about the publication
and grant writing process. “We provide a place
where they can share ideas about research topics or
have questions about career advancement,” she
explains. “They also get to see unfinished work
from faculty and other students so that they can learn
more about the process of advancing their scholarship.
The Writing Circle gives students a chance to interact
with faculty outside of the classroom in a structured
way.”
She adds: “The goal is to help students really
recognize their own greatness and then step aside at
the appropriate moment to let them show what they can
do. I am proud of our collective willingness and desire
to support them each step of the way. We have to be
there for them.”
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Finding Solutions to High Male Dropout Rates
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“Being
there for them” is the unspoken theme of Man Up,
a mentoring program in the School of Communications
that provides confidential counseling to male students
seeking help with a broad array of personal issues.
Communications
staff and faculty started the program in 2004 to stem
the flow of male students who weren’t returning
to school.
“There
were a lot of reasons they weren’t coming back,”
says Lincoln Brown Jr., an academic counselor at the
school and director of the program. “Sometimes,
it’s financial issues, sometimes it’s academic
or it’s family obligations. Sometimes the family
needed them to come back to help out financially.”
Each
month, about 20 male students, mostly freshmen and sophomores,
get together in the School of Communications with male
faculty and staff to confidentially discuss their problems.
Administrators, alumni and friends of Howard also provide
networking access for the young men. What gets discussed
in Man Up, stays in Man Up. |
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| Lincoln
Brown (center) speaks with young men in the Man
Up program. (Justin D. Knight) |
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“We create an environment where students can come together
and talk with someone about whatever is on their mind,”
says
Brown,
who is also an ordained minister. “They can talk freely
without anxiety or any sense of retribution or being judged.
The sessions can be pretty
intense, with discussions centered on topics like depression,
money, sexual orientation, balancing school with an active
social life or just showing affection. The number one issue,
Brown says, is male students’ relationship or lack of
relationship with their fathers.
Brown says the school has
seen an increase in the number of returning male students.
He urged male faculty and staff from across the University
to get involved.
“It makes a huge difference,”
he says. “We’re saving lives, literally.”
Cummings says the school also
has a monthly mentoring program called Sister Stars, where
female students discuss an array of personal issues. She believes
the need for Howard faculty and staff to serve as mentors
is more important than ever. She noted there are more single
parent families, and fewer children are living in extended
families and cohesive, caring communities.
“They don’t have
the same kind of mentors we had when we were growing up,”
she says. “It’s incumbent upon us as those who
have done well to give back. It is our responsibility to help
young people as we were helped when we were growing up.”
For Sewell, the mentoring of Short in his journey through
life continues. “I told him he had to establish himself
in a career, but he didn’t like anything other than
working on cars,” she says. “So, I told him to
do something with that skill.”
Short followed her advice, and in May 2010 received a certificate
of completion from Lincoln College of Technology. Now 21,
he works full time with the Maryland State Highway Administration,
while completing an internship in auto repair to become a
full-fledged automotive service technician.
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