Collegiate Talk: Seeing the Bigger Picture

As part of Collegiate 100 week, Southern University’s chapter of the Collegiate 100 men brought in guest speaker, Dr. Leonard Moore who spoke on the hurdles blocking black college students from truly succeeding in the United States on Wednesday, November 13. Being a graduate of Jackson State University and current Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas in Austin, Dr. Moore explained why we, as black people, have to do things differently and that the goal is to graduate college not with a job but with options. 
Dr. Moore stressed the importance of getting out of our comfort zones to experience things that make us a more holistic and diverse individual. As he is a man that practices what he preaches, Dr. Moore told a story of how he took a group of forty elementary schoolers to not only get their passports, but also on an international experience to Africa. Stressing that in order to truly understand the scope of the world, you have to get out and experience it by traveling abroad, “he has a point. Black people are so reluctant to get out of our communities that we are missing out on a lot,” said junior Biology major, Destiny Banks.
He implored everyone to grind, hustle, and work towards the goal of getting out of the United States and seeing another country and addressed the fear of traveling to a country that may be considered “unsafe” by drawing a parallel to the fact that many of us come from dangerous areas. Chicago and New Orleans both have some of the highest murder rates in the country so while it would be hyperbolic to compare either them to a country that has recently experienced serious civil unrest, it is not a stretch to say that we should not be afraid of going somewhere that isn’t the safest.
Dr. Moore then went on to address the fact that many of students have literally weights attached to them in the form of toxic relationships and drug abuse that prevent us from taking college and the classroom as seriously as we need to. “You all have to raise the standard…it is a good time to be young, black, and a college student, but understand the future is coming,” explained Dr. Moore, “everyone is trying to eat, [people in India, China, Vietnam, etc.] are all coming here to make money.”
By the end of the presentation, Dr. Moore had the entire room, many of whom were forced to be there, engaged and on the edge of their seats, “He was a really good speaker and shared some important stuff,” said Collegiate 100 member, Derrick Stewart. Dr. Moore then extended an open opportunity to anyone wanting to go to graduate school, “If you want to come to graduate school at the University of Texas and you get accepted, then we will pay for you to go to graduate school.”