Amongst the jam packed week of homecoming festivities, the first installment of “Conversations on the Bluff’ was held Tuesday, October 14 in the Smith Brown Memorial Student Union Ballroom.
“Its extremely important that students see alumni in action, so they can see what they can get from this place”
The vice- chancellor of student affairs, Dr. F. Carl Walton, emphasizes during his opening notes of the first of many “Conversations on the Bluff’. To start the series strong, Walton chose two alumni “who are apart of Southern University’s excellence, pride, and tradition personified.”
Special guest and southern alum, Lodrick Collins, a native of Lake Charles, LA, returned to the bluff to share the important role Southern University played in his journey in becoming a notable actor. Mr. Collins stars in BET’s drama series Tyler perry’s The Oval as chief of staff, Donald Winthrop, and in the award winning biopic Respect as Smokey Robinson. Collins graduated from Southern University with a bachelors in business marketing. He is also a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity incorporated.
Leading Lodrick Collins in insightful conversation was Host, Darby Smith. Smith bleeds blue and gold as she continues a long family legacy of Southernites by being a two time graduate of Southern University, the 88th Miss Southern, and a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. Ms. Smith returned to the bluff and works as the Inaugural director of the office of community outreach and parental engagement. Along with her role in student affairs, Ms. Smith utilizes her creative background in photography, makeup artistry, and social media marketing by teaching entrepreneurs and business owners how to build a strong online presence through her personal brand ‘Dear Darby’.
Smith and Collins’ conversation on the bluff was filled with reminiscences on unique memories and lessons gained from being a Jaguar that attributed to both alumni’s success. Starting from the initiation all students go through, Smith and Collins recall the tedious and difficult registration process. Collins jokes about how registration at Southern was the hardest part of his academic career, but served as an unforgettable teaching moment: “If you want something, you’ll go through what you need to go through to get it. That was my first lesson here.” Also sharing that experience, Ms. Smith added, “ if you can make it through Southern, you can make it anywhere.”
Continuing down the survival guide Southern provided them, Smith and Collins stressed the important role mentors play and the distinct quality of mentorship that Southern professors, staffs, and peers provide– calling it “the beauty of the bluff”
“I have never been to a place like this because of the sense of community. From the staff to the student body. From my counselor to our deans. Everyone had a hand in molding my path” Collins explained.
More specifically, Collins recalls when he was one of two students selected to sit on a board of company executives around the world to serve as a student voice. He didn’t feel qualified, but had a mentor who was confident in his abilities. Years later, after moving to New York and beginning his career, he realized “I wouldn’t have moved to New York with the job that I had if it wasn’t for Mrs. Thomas believing in me.” New York is where Collins later began his endeavors as an actor.
Concluding their survival guide, Smith and Collins added a new and refreshing connotation to the word entitlement. The experienced alums agreed that Southern University gave them a sense of entitlement– a mindset made for manifesting and bound for conquering. Wanted students to share the same self assuring feeling, Lodric Collins turned to the audience and said
“When you leave here you are entitled to everything the world has to offer you.”
As the first installment of Conversations on the Bluff, students left with a new sense of inspiration and alum Lodrick Collins and Darby Smith completing a surreal full circle moment.
