DLH: The Schomburg Junior Scholars Program is black studies program for teens.
It’s a unique opportunity for teens in the Harlem community and in communities throughout
New York City, and even New Jersey and Connecticut, to connect to all of the knowledge and resources
available here at the Schomburg Center.
TB: It was, it was magical for me because Harlem was a place, where you know for me
growing up, it was the Mecca so being able to come to the Mecca every Saturday was really
purposeful for me.
The Junior Scholars Program was providing me with primary source information on black
culture and history, something that I had never encountered before in my entire life.
This was an opportunity for me to really get in touch with who I was as a person and to
start to think about where I came from and to start to think about where I want to go
and to wrestle with those ideas and to also think about where I stand as a young black
man, creatively.
Over the year of interaction, she watched me grow up.
She was a really, really, really big part of that development and when I needed guidance,
I knew that I had somebody that I could call on and somebody who was willing to give me
the tough love that I needed to push me towards the best person that I can be.
Deidre has always been that person to me and she continues to be that person now.
One thing that Deidre told me was that I have to be true to myself.
I need to be in a space where I can allow myself to be me and to be comfortable being
me.
That was something that she told me about 10 years ago, that I have held on to for a
really, really long time.
That has really allowed me to be in a space where I am comfortable with myself and I am
comfortable being different and I am comfortable being creative.
I am comfortable being and activist and being a part of the opposition and that all stems
from, you know, one day she just said, “You got to be you.”
Seeing Dr. Muhammed in the position that he is in now gives me hope for my next 15 years.
He is a brilliant man that I look up to and I respect tremendously.
Knowing that a young person like himself can be in the space that he is in gives me the
hope and the drive to continue to push myself forward and to continue be better every day.
So my position at my school is as Dean.
I am in charge of school discipline and school culture.
I help to maintain a strict, healthy school environment while also supporting teachers
and students who are struggling.
A large part of my position is teaching my students how to navigate systems and I think
that is a large part of the black experience that a lot of students will not get if they
do not have a black male educator in their building.
A lot of them lack a lot of focus and that was something that I was really struggling
with as a, you know, high school freshman.
It was the Junior Scholars Program that allowed me to put myself in that space.
At the Schomburg Center I am instructor and I in charge of the social media group.
This year we have just started a new social media initiative in which our scholars are
really jumping in feet first with our brand new hashtag- Uniquely Black.
We are dedicated to showing the world what is going on here at the Junior Scholars Program.
Whenever I do anything in life, I always go back to my experience here at the Junior Scholars
Program because of the way it transformed my life and transformed my mindset.
I will forever be in debt to the Schomburg and the Junior Scholars Program and the will
always have my support.