Thank you Thank you hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of the male perspective I am your host Lana Reed and today is another wonderful day an amazing day I get to spend some quality time with the phenomenal men of Omega Sci-Fi fraternity Incorporated today I have
With me two gentlemen out of town pie chapter of central Maryland uh chapter I have with me brother Nicholas Mead and brother Earl Jefferson they are the current boss of us and vice list of the chapter shortly we will hear more about the wonderful work that they are doing
In their community and some other things but as I always do gentlemen I take a quick moment to pause and say thank you to you both for making time for me today time is a gift once we give it we cannot get it back so I truly appreciate you
Setting aside this time in your day to talk with me and with that gentlemen welcome welcome to the show thank you very much thank you very much awesome so as we get started because I did mention that you guys are accused please uh both of you tell me how long you’ve been in
The Brotherhood and where did you pledge it well I’ll begin uh I joined the fraternity in uh April of 2017. pledge the top High chapter so I’m a son of top I Chapter and now I’m fortunate to serve as bosses and uh I had a little bit of different
Of a little bit different route um been enjoying a little bit uh very much earlier then it brought to me I joined in 2008 from 2016. um I joined and um I played Stevie at uh new beta beta chapter in Thomasville Georgia and then migrated up to uh Gentile pie
And now uh just climb the ranks I should say up to being uh serving as the vice versa so um at that particular point in your life what was it about Omega sci-fi that made you say this is where I belong I can answer that question this was never uh
Time at that point of my lifetime uh decision it’s something that I’ve always wanted it’s always something that I’ve always known that I was I just needed the opportunity and the time to be able to commit to it okay and uh unfortunately when the train when I was
Able to catch the train is what we thought when I was able to catch the train I jumped on it and I didn’t let go yeah for me um same thing I just it just ended up being my time um I I looked around as far as Omega
Sci-fi maybe as early as 2011 but I had some other things going on I got to finish my doctorate in 2015 so once I cleared that up and uh put on my first book and all that then I was able to kind of just focus on uh pursuing this lifelong ambition to
Be a part of this Brotherhood that started probably when I was in college but of course you know the queues weren’t on the yard and so um it wasn’t my time then and it wasn’t my time in 2011 but 2017 it was my time awesome awesome you mentioned
Um you put out a book just a segue for a minute What’s the title of the book the title of my first book Is refilling the church’s Fountain of Youth it’s a um the recipe I came up with during my doctoral program is my uh because I’m
Also an ordained minister so I went to a couple seminaries my latest one I went finished in 2015 and um that was the my project if you just call it my dissertation okay awesome also so um trouble one of you gentlemen gentleman’s three rundown of your chapter Central Maryland cues
Sure we were found in April 19 1975 so almost for almost 50 years we’ve been serving the community of Howard County of Columbia vicinity we’ve done a lot of great work in the community uh over that time I believe we’ve had 27 lines since we’ve been chartered
Um by some great men some of whom are still in the chapter to this day including brother Charlie Mitchell who was made a pie chapter in 1965. um so we just have a great legacy we stand on the shoulders of some great leaders who served um you know with Excellence over those
Past almost 50 years so pretty soon like I said we’re going to be celebrating our first 50 years in style in a couple years um spring 2025 so we’re looking forward to that now as I was roaming around social media video site I believe I saw one of your
Charter members just had a birthday he’s over 100 years young did I read that correctly this is um he’s I believe 102 now awesome is that correct 80 how many yeah beautiful so has he given you gentlemen the secret to living over 100 is it being a queue [Laughter]
He definitely if not passed on the word other than you know be kind and he always said he told me to be kind and to just always do people the right way so yeah he’s just pretty low-key so you know yeah awesome that is some wonderful
Wisdom and knowledge to to have it to be able to touch and lean on that’s just a beautiful thing a hundred and something is amazing awesome well let me get on to some of the work that you gentlemen are doing um because I do have a short amount of time
One of the things that uh Omega sci-fi men are very good at one of the things I truly love you gentlemen for is that you pour into the younger generation especially our boys and I see that your chapter has a mentorship program I was wondering if I could trouble you to
Explain the various pieces of that and how do the gentleman of the young gentleman get involved with that meets uh twice a week uh on uh on Saturdays and Wednesdays throughout the course of the school year uh they also um uh uh are in several of the elementary schools in the area
Specifically uh they are in the middle school right now I want to say Edgewood Elementary School right now uh where there will be uh working this year but they have um you they start off in the with third graders and they go from third grade always to 12th grade
Um so they have Elementary Schools elementary school segment they have a middle school segment and they also have a high school segment um what’s their service to boys uh and and making sure that they are uh properly uh prepared for for the academics uh they make sure that the high school students are
Properly prepared for college uh to include financial aid and fast FAFSA uh submissions uh they uh they have constant uh parental uh conversations in in seminars to make sure that parents are prepared for their students in during the Academic Year and as well as excuse me they they do some exposure to
Uh area uh hbcus college tours are concerned a new arm of our mentorship program that we’re actually working on right now is the uh the uh Alpine uh stem program so we’ll be working with a different set of boys um and and girls as well this time uh to
Uh to to to try to close the uh the the the equity Gap in stem as we move forward uh in the world okay so the mentorship program for the boys is it um year-round or is it only is it an enrollment period for the young boys that they have to
Um sign up for it’s uh it runs throughout the course of the Academic Year okay and then they do sometimes have like an end of year celebration and then maybe sometimes they’ll do some things over the summer but primarily it’s during the school year and we actually
Um this this program has been going on for years um before we even got to the chapter our current leader is Brother Richard and agree he took over for brother Frank miles and brother Jerry Watkins who had been leading it for a long time just you know doing excellent work and um you
Know the brothers who came before us did such a great job with mentoring that it became a prototype for not just uh the fraternity as far as the district goes but as far as the international fraternity they took a lot of their cues for how to do mentoring for my chapter
So we’re very proud of that Legacy okay and so just so I make sure I’m understanding correctly the mentorship program for the boys will be a separate program from the stem program that’s correct so um will the stem program be year round or is that um just a certain time of the school
Year yeah so the student program is actually a year-round program that uh is being worked and I worked upon again it is still in its infinite in yeah right now um we are planning to do several different things but uh but specifically one of the things that we’re going to be
Doing is we’re going to teach uh our Robotics and drone uh uh drone automation so that’s uh as well as uh computer science so those are things that are gonna that we’re gonna really be focused on uh in that program okay okay now um your particular chapter
Um has an arm an auxiliary attached to it Bridge Builders Foundation yes did everything is is the mentorship program under that or or what what programs or features are part of the foundation that’s attached to you gentlemen well the foundation really partners with us they’re a separate entity um
So it’s not really an arm of the chapter but we do uh work together on some things some events fundraising especially for things like mentoring stem and scholarships okay so um yes they they have a a great hand in mentoring and also um they will have a great hand in stem
A talent hunt that you mentioned previously and um scholarships so as a matter of fact we have our or I should say they are having their grand gala at the end of the year December 16th called holiday with Omega which is primarily geared toward raising money for those
Charitable efforts so we um there’s definitely some overlap but you know they are a separate entity from us okay okay understood now you mentioned the talent hunt um and I want to talk about that because I’ve been doing a couple of these interviews with uqs and I see it and
I’ve never taken the time to have anybody explain it to me or Break It Down um because it’s very unique because usually you hear about scholarships but this kind of pours into the artistic and creative element of our youth so kind of break down what the initiative is for
Omega sci-fi that’s talent time um so the talent hunt again is one of those programs that’s mandated by the fraternity so it’s one of the things we have to participate in as a chapter of Omega sci-fi attorney Incorporated um what we do is we have a competition
Normally at a local high school or other venue where we have um students high school students and it could be not just from Howard County but around the state or you know wherever where they compete in two main categories which are performing arts and visual arts and then based on that
Performance they we have professional judges uh they are judged based on their performance or their presentations and then we give out scholarships based on first second and third place and then the first place winners in both categories have the opportunity to compete at the district level so wherever the district conference is for
That year for instance this year we’re going to be in King of Prussia Pennsylvania next year I should say next spring um whoever wins our talent hunt will have the opportunity to participate in that competition if they wanted that competition they’ll have the opportunity to complete compete at the Grand
Conclave in Tampa Florida this year or next year I should say next uh June so um it’s an exciting program for some reason we always have tough times getting high school students to compete for free money um is weird what’s that about I have no idea it’s definitely always a challenge
They don’t know about the program or they know they just um even my son who plays piano um is is I guess gun shy I think some of them may have performance anxiety or they just don’t want to compete or to be honest some of them maybe don’t feel
Like we felt when we were their age like you know so they have more more resources so they don’t feel like the need that if somebody’s offering them 500 to compete you know they just kind of wink at it I mean it sounds to me like the Omega sci-fi version of America’s Got
Talent and you know I mean you know these kids are you know looking for you know content and you know time or you know media so it seems like it’s interesting I wouldn’t have thought that the Young Folks wouldn’t be first in line they’re like let me be on stage I
Want some time okay all right all right so I’m pretty sure with all this mentoring of the young folks and and and the the program with the boys you end up turning over young folks going to college and eventually come becoming accused right that happens that happens sometimes yes
As a matter of fact one of our uh one of our chapter Brothers his son uh who actually came through the mentor program uh several years ago uh became a uh a Neo fight this past year uh we’re very proud of him he uh as a matter of fact
He was at uh in our district meeting the last uh last a couple of weeks ago uh with this father so it’s a good thing to see the uh the the fruits of our effort you know uh start this route it’s as important um because sometimes you know when
You’re doing community service it you don’t get to see um all the evidence of your good work and your hard labor uh but just to know that you know you affected one person um and and made a difference in in someone’s life and you can see their
Life being changed uh it is a very relieving thing it’s very very empowering powerful powerful let me ask how about how many brothers are in your chapter uh 152 registered Brothers on in the chapter right now all righty so uh let me lean in Lord you
Know me and you question here as y’all are the top heads leadership of it is it a headache trying to get all these brothers together to do what they need to do or uh absolutely not what are you talking about the fake news I mean we never argued you’re always Brothers
No raise voices no fallouts you know just a great group of guys you know well well the here comes the bigger lessons uh for the the the seasons folks to tell the younger folks how must we handle conflict resolution in the Brotherhood what’s the best one
I think the best way is just to have you know honest dialogue you know where you put all your cards on the table without being disrespectful or disagreeable um you know because I think in a lot of times we see way too much passive aggressiveness like people don’t want to
Actually confront problems they just want to gloss over it or act as if everything’s all right uh but at least in my experience the best way or the fastest way to smooth things out and calm the waters it’s just to have a face-to-face um you know adult to adult kind of
Conversation where you can just be honest again without being disrespectful or disagreeable great and it’s the time and a place for all these for all things so uh you know when we do have those when we do have those conversations no you said you guys get along all the time
Exactly that’s what you said but you know when we don’t like have when we have a little bit of scratch you know we definitely have a sit-down conversation at the right time okay and we and we really do um the whole deer to our four cardinal principles when we have those
Conversations and we make sure that we um you know are being mean to each other that we’re you know we are you know doing those doing those things that are respectful to each other for each other so that we can be able to upload each other at the end of the conversation
Yeah we want to always maintain you know consistency and be you know in line with what I found is intended you know don’t want to be men making the fraternity look bad making our families look bad Etc so those are some things we keep in mind right great examples that we need
To spread out into communities Beyond Omega Psi Phi okay um let me ask you uh this because as I said I was roaming around your social media being nosy uh as I was getting prepared and I saw you gentlemen had a uh an event that I missed my spot at the
Spades table probably you guys had a cookout um and a lot of times people see these events these um gala’s divine nine has and they say oh they’re just partying all the time but there’s actually a lot of backstory these are fundraisers for the things that you gentlemen do in the community
What was this particular event um raising money for or were you guys just having a good time no hey we had a good time obviously because it was a cookout but the purpose of it was it was twofold one we wanted to we this is that that’s our opportunity to
For the as a chapter to give back to the community throughout the course of it because throughout the course of the year we’re going we’re out we’re doing things you know asking them for for contributions and time to give back for to give us we want to give something
Back uh to the community and that’s our opportunity and then in the same token we we do take um we have a book A book drop excuse me school supply drive at the same time with that uh uh with with that uh that event to make sure that you
Know we’re giving doing still have doing community service on top of community service so we’re always yeah we were actually fortunate to collect a lot of school supplies a lot of backpacks into um brother Earl’s Point another part of the give give back is to kind of give
Back to our families as well you know our families see their sacrifice they see us you know pouring out to other people and we do quality families obviously but you know just to have a time where they can just pull up just eat just have a good time not worrying about
Um to Earl’s point you know collecting money or you know us to listen to donations it’s really just a pure spin um where we’re cooking you know myself and and brother VB brother Jefferson we’re on the grill you know we we weren’t just you know all day
I know that stuff you know but we we love to serve so you know that’s what we’re about okay you were on the grill accused and multi-faceted huh he’s writing books and on the grill and okay leading the chapter all righty okay now um at that particular cookout I saw it
Was full participation of the divine nine and um anybody that is familiar with the by nine knows that there is a lot of mine is better than yours teasing set in love you know a lot of love but when rubber meets the road everybody gets involved and does the work that needs to
Be done um why is it important do you feel that inside Divine 9 and outside Divine mind they see all of you coming together regardless of the letters I think it’s important because they need to see that we’re family you know that we have each other’s back that we’re not
In competition with each other although you know as cues we definitely you know feel some type of way about our organization um but but we realize you know it’s a family and that’s why we’re looking for as many opportunities to partner with our brothers and sisters in the Divine
Line particularly in Howard County and even you know supporting events outside of Howard County because we are family because we all still have the same goals even though we may differ in our approach would differ um or some of our internal philosophies we’re still family so with that in mind
One of the things we did as soon as we came into office we came in office in June is that we hosted a meet and greet where we welcome members of the divine nine and uh other community service organizations just to meet us um myself brother Jefferson as well as
Our human records and seal and secretary Brother Joseph Brown and also I keep her Finance for treasurer uh brother Frank turned into second uh just so we could kind of start those kind of conversations or keep them going to see how can we partner with each other what are some things we can
Work together on and so we’ve already been in conversations with them supporting their events and I’ve been fortunate enough to have them support eyes as well also the piggyback off of that um when you become a member of The Divide nine you kind of accept the role of leadership
Um and Community leadership is important um and and being able to work hand in hand with a different organization um shows that it shows people that who are who are paying attention uh who are watching uh that we can communicate that we can work together but we can work
Together to to achieve a goal um that we all are trying to achieve as black people um and we all we all live does the prime so it’s important that we show that um so one of the things that we’re doing uh as as a collaborative group of v9
Members we’re going to uh participate I’m here very shortly um at the end of the month of October I’m sorry this is not probably not the announcement it’s not but uh we are having a joint venture where we’re going to uh to do a trunk or treat um
One of the uh with St John’s Baptist Church to uh to to to give back to the community as a group not just Omega outside not just you know of the other uh you know other uh entities of the divine nine but we’ve all decided that we were going to try to participate
Together and to add to that um you know the aim of our fraternity is uplift and so we’re always looking for opportunities to partner with other like-minded organizations like we’re partnering with uh the county executive’s office we’re partnering with Howard Community College and um just continue to have those
Conversations because we about the American Red Cross that your partnered they were partnered with as well oh y’all giving up the blood huh yeah that’s a part of our that’s one of our many initiatives okay absolutely and we kicked off um another Health Initiative just trying to help raise money for the
American Heart Association even though I took the lead on that so I’m the point person you know I looped my chapter in so we can try to raise money and since you know our community especially gets played with things like high blood pressure and another Hardy ailment so definitely want to raise
Awareness with that and health initiatives in general is one of our mandated programs this work you gentleman are doing in the community um when do you Brothers take time to just enjoy yourselves just relax amongst the brothers and just be brothers I mean it it when we’re doing the
Service we’re doing we’re relaxing and we’re being amongst the brothers so I mean it’s it’s a two-fold every time we go out uh and do something uh we do have opportunities to kind of relax and hang out like one of the things we’ll be watching one of the football games here
Very shortly uh we also go and um uh we go to the Wizards ball games uh and we rent space there um we’re trying to do an Orioles ball game this year but that’s not gonna work because the Orioles started playing really good Ball but you know we do things that we you
Know we We Gather amongst each other and uh you know and and we uh we we always use size five one times 133 you know I mean we just really believe in that in that Bible verse especially when we live with each other yeah right and our model is friendship
Is said to the soul so we’re always looking for opportunities to Fellowship even after we finish our you know we had meetings twice a month but when we meet together in person there’s always a time and space for us to Fellowship um after the meetings and brothers will
Open up their houses their backyards their decks just invite the brothers to come pull up and have a good time have some conversations about you know how could we do some things better but again to brother Jefferson’s point we’re always mindful of the need to keep ourselves balanced you know getting away
For vacation um spending time with your family but as a Brotherhood yes we definitely make time for Fellowship that’s right you know you Brothers you got to make sure you balance it all like you said um because you mentioned earlier you know with diabetes and high blood pressure
You know just the pressure of you know taking care of family you know you guys want to just be able to relax and and you know take that load off um quick question comes to mind in Howard County is your particular chapter responsible for mentoring an undergrad chapter of cues or
Currently we are not okay that’s something that myself and brother Jefferson have discussed and we we broached the subject with our chapter we’ve had you know in our history we have done that before particularly with like Kyle Delta chapter years ago and some other chapters um like you at UMBC but it’s something
We’re definitely thinking about uh but currently not actually actively participating in all right all right you guys have enough on your plate already as it is as it is um real quick before I ask my last question because I’ve heard as we’ve been talking quite a few different organizations and uh
Businesses companies whatever that you partner with who else are you partnering with in the Howard County area that you’re doing the good work that you’re doing with us is there I heard some schools and are you at shelters or other non-profit organizations yes so um you want to speak to that Earl you
Want me to Sure uh we partnered with uh Leo endorsing Center um in Howard County um we heard about the church St George Baptist we also are partnered with um what’s the new relationship that we uh developed with the other church that we’re going to do the winter Council
Um uh Celebration Church Celebration Church uh we’re partnered also with uh with the Howard County government uh we cannot forget that uh so in several several different smaller businesses around me around awesome awesome and to add to that we we have been invited to several meetups and and conversations with uh Howard Community
College um we’ve been engaged directly with the chief of staff for the county executive of Howard County um and then other than that it’s just like a a mix you know um those are some of our I guess static relationships but we’re never going to turn down opportunities to work with
Like-minded organizations or the proper you know political officials who can help us you know do more work in the community awesome just just love to see the service just love to see the service which kind of brings me to my next question um it’s very important for the black
Community to see our brothers boots to the ground no pun intended um in the community but the reality is not every not every brother is going to have letters you know not everybody’s going to have the opportunity to pledge a fraternity why do you think it’s important just
Remove the letters for a minute why do you think it’s important for black kids black schools black families to see Brothers roll up their sleeve and and get involved in the community be it you know the sports League or whatever what value is it what would you tell the
Brother like hey get out there and do something you know just do something get involved some sort of way whether or not you’re a divine nine or not why why is it important for you to be involved in the area that you live in my opinion and I can I’ll be quick
With mine it it prevents it helps to prevent um violence it helps Wayward teams it helps to prevent unfavorable actions of of Youth when they see someone doing something the right way or the right all the time with Integrity yeah I agree and I’ll add to that um you know representation matters so
Like you know them seeing us in our professional settings them seeing us you know helping to clean up the community mentoring youth uh as he said with the um the one brother who just came through Bowie State after coming through our mentoring program you know having that kind of positive
Example especially for the young persons who don’t have that example in the home I think is Paramount um and you know just thinking about it with my own children how you know we kind of reset the norm for different people so especially for young people like
Um how we act how we behave how we carry it how we serve our community establishes a baseline for what they consider normal moving forward so that when they’re our age the norm is no longer you know the stereotypes they see on TV or you know browsing through that
Social media feeds but it’s men that look like them have been serving in their Community not for the purpose of ego but for the purpose of uplift right awesome now you gentlemen have been with Omega Psi Phi in the Brotherhood for some years now and I’m pretty sure you’ve seen some
Changes some Evolution uh what do you hope to see the fraternity uh growth to evolve and incorporate moving forward in years to come wonderful and amazing already right no no no there’s always room for growth right so I think that one of the places of evolution that I’d like to see uh see
More of is I’d like to see uh us do uh better with our uh our image on our images excuse me on social media as we continue to move forward with this high-speed Network and make sure that we are displaying the the proper parts of the brand that need to be
Displayed I’ll say it that way I absolutely agree with that it’s a little um and not to cut you off uh because the the age range of the fraternity is young 18 to up so and when it comes to social media I’m assuming there’s different concepts with how to portray ourselves I
I I think that it gets a little complicated and that takes mentorship yes and and that’s where we have to bridge gaps between the more seasoned gentlemen who are maybe still younger in the fraternity but still are older in life we could give that information back together those youngsters if we were 18
Yeah 21 before and didn’t want to listen to anything because we do all the answers we have to take that hat off for no no no and give some real explanation and give some real mentorship and some real uplifting we let people understand let those men understand hey this is why
It’s proper this is why we need to uh to to change and maintain this uh the the correct monitor yes yes you know because it is a brand and social media has complicated uh things for us because you know back when we were all undergrads we could do some things that nobody would
Hear about it or see it but now it’s a permanent presence and you know to kind of impart that yes impart that uh messaging on uh younger folks who are part of a brand I can understand that could be a little a little tricky a little complicated so
As leadership you know and that says that they never have any problems leading them in you know it should be no problem for you too so um so you mentioned that you gentlemen have a uh a huge Gala coming up in December that we can support what what was the name of
That one again called holiday with Omega on December 16th okay is this a frequent event that you gentlemen have every year every year about the same time yep okay and for those who um you know can’t make an event or whatever we have other ways to kind of
Pour into your chapter if we want to support the work that you guys are doing absolutely okay all right and I’ll ask you that in a minute um because I’m assuming that’s on the website but let me ask my random questions so there’s two of you so I guess what I’ll do is
I’ll pick the first one and if whoever wants to take and take it if you want me to ask another one or that one we’ll just we’ll just wing it here and see what we’ve got here okay let’s see what we got here Okay you don’t have to tell me the name just give me a yes or no all right do you still remember the name of the first person you had a crush on yes yes yes that wasn’t a pleasant smile that one was a pleasant smile like you’re cheating oh he met he
Married his first crush okay okay oh wait a minute okay okay you know all right so please tell us how uh we connect with you gentlemen if we are ever your way um if we want to pour into uh the chapter and support the work you’re doing how do we
Reach out to you and um all of that and if we’ve got some kids who may we might want to put in the uh Talent hunt and get that 500 was it five hundred dollars for first place if they’re in that area and want to uh participate just just
Give us the whole Lowdown so the best way is probably our website which is top iqs.org um using that website they’ll be able to anybody can contact us and myself and brother Jefferson will get those email messages um you’ll see announcements you’ll see our calendar Um you’ll see information about our mentoring program and other things that we do you’ll see who our leadership is and all that kind of stuff so um that’s the best way to get in contact with us but we also are on you know all social media platforms on Twitter or you know
Formerly known as Twitter x uh Facebook and Instagram um so you can find updates about everything we’ve been up to pictures and service and blood drives Etc on our social media platforms so what’s next for you too gentlemen District Bob salus and vice versa or
We just got in the seat in June so we got a little bit of time to sort that out I would say I’ll speak for him and say we didn’t we didn’t seek opportunities for you know advancement or seek titles we’re here because we love to serve so um
Wherever you know I can best serve Omega Sci-Fi fraternity and top out chapter you know you can sign me up I’m gonna speak like we need good servants especially in our communities of us so um well gentlemen I’m so proud I’m so anytime I run into my brothers just picking it up and
Putting it down I’m so proud I applaud you gentlemen um I applaud the gentleman of Cal Poly um just once you continued awesome success I don’t have to I know you guys are gonna keep on doing doing the work that you’re doing so you’ve been doing
That now for what what’d you say eight how many years now 50 years almost we got a couple more years but so right now and somebody give give a hug for uh brother the brother that’s a hundred and something Greenfield yeah give it give
Him a give him a hug for me because that is truly phenomenal so I just continue to wish you guys uh continued success in favor and thank you so much for hanging out with me today thank you so much for having us thank you very much that is
All for this week’s episode of the mail perspective I’m your host Lana Reed and I will see everybody next time thank you
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