Welcome to the Jolly podcast I’m your host Melissa Barrett this podcast is for those who are interested in the conversation around Equity diversity and inclusion each week I’ll be interviewing a guest who has something special to share or is actively part of Building Solutions in the space let’s get started
Dominic hore he was born in San Jose California but raised in Mantia both of his parents are graduates of San Jose State University his father is a firefighter and his mother is a labor and delivery nurse he’s the oldest of two siblings having a younger sister and comes from a
Mixed race background his father is Louisiana Creole and his mother is biracial white black and Puerto Rican he says he’s white passing in appearance he went to East Union High School and attended University of lever from 2015 to 2019 he played college football as a linebacker and graduated with a
Bachelor’s degree in Communications in May 2019 he pledged iota by Theta Fraternity Incorporated in Spring 2019 with a line of two under the Theta gamma undergrad chapter and beta Zeta Omega graduate chapter he is an ace his line brother Duce was also his teammate and was part of the process of
Iota 5 Theta officially being chartered at the University of lever he was a great graduate assistant for academics and compliance at Texas A&M Kingsville for their athletics department and currently works for the Outreach department at Delta College in Stockton California as well as substitute teaching for high schools within Mantika
Unified High School District he is aspiring to become an educational counselor at the high school junior college or 4-year University level as well as coach football he’s currently finishing up his master’s degree in educational counseling with a PPS credential at CSU Stannis which he will do in 20124 he currently resides in Mantia
With his beautiful wife chabriel of three years and his two-year-old daughter Arabella and soon to be born daughter Elise all right so I am excited I’m excited every week but as I get to speak this week with Dominic who is a member of Iota 5 Theta member of the D9
Community fraternity and I am just excited because I started this kind of interviews of the D9 last year and there’s just so much great work going on out there that I think a lot of people don’t know I of course rushed when I was 50 years old and there was no person in
My family that was a Greek so it was a whole new experience for me and I just appreciate the Brotherhood The Sisterhood it’s it’s an amazing just an amazing opportunity to live your life differently so I appreciate you being here Dominic and am excited to talk to you yes ma’am I appreciate the
Opportunity to come speak thank you so much for having me yeah so I figured we would just start out a little bit with you telling us a little bit about how you got to where you are today well I was raised here in the Central Valley I was born in San Jose
But we came to Mantia when I was three and a half years old went to Easter Union High School had the opportunity to go play a college ball at the University of lever and that’s where I got in touch with with Divine n and my first introduction to what the Divine n was
Was my freshman year at a BSU meeting they did a tour in the main hall Ballroom as you would say and they had all the tables of all the D9 there and I went to all the tables and they all thought I was white and they’re
Like oh yeah we integrated this and this and this and I’m like I’m not I’m like I’m not white they’re like oh wow like and that I mean that’s been all my life but it was it was just funny that every every singone was like oh yeah we
Integrate like we welcome everybody blah blah BL blah but the I think going to the Iota table and just hearing the history and listening to the core values that that they have that we have scholarship leadership citizen Fidelity and brotherhood like excellence in the classroom being a upstanding member in the community
Taking leadership roles and everything that you do as far as like just being the tip of the spear and being that that man of action and then always keeping faith faith in God we the only fraternity with the cross on our on our shield on our symbol and then
Brotherhood just and I didn’t understand what that meant I guess until I finished Crossing and it’s like you’re part of a lifetime brotherhood like I’ve seen that play out just in my professional and personal life like everywhere I go like and I see a brother and they automatically see me like and it’s
Shaking hands introducing yourself you know what do you do what what can I help you with how can we feed off each other and build off each other like that that has been like I think one of the greatest benefits to me personally is like I can go anywhere in the United
States and in the world even and there may be another brother around that I can connect with and help out he can help me etc etc yeah it’s amazing it it absolutely is and I don’t think people quite understand it until there’re in it and you crossed a few years ago right I
Crossed spring 19 in my senior year I was part of the first I was part of the process to get Iota fight data chartered at the University of leverne so the first line was a solo which and it’s funny all of us are all football players
So the first line was my older teammate who is like two years older than me well yeah he was two years old he was a senior when I was a junior and he was pledging I couldn’t he wanted me to pledge my junior but I was in the middle
Of offseason workouts and I pledge in the night and then going to 5:00 a.m. workouts I was like uh I can’t I can’t do that so I waited to my senior year when I was done with football to pledge and I got to pledge under our former National Grand players Richard Johnson
Who is also one of my just mentors like I lived with him for a year he welcomed me into his home and just taught me a lot about like how to serve the community he’s also a history teacher in Ontario High School but he I learned so much from him that
Like I like now that I’m you know back home like I take a lot of what he’s taught me and how to like reach out to especially students of color and and help them and serve them in different ways as opposed to other students because they need certain resources and
Assets that others maybe don’t require especially in California yesterday I went to the National College Black Expo in Oakland and students of color from California get you know advertised by HBCU because they don’t don’t advertise them a lot out here it’s growing but there’s still a lot of work to be done
Like and I brought a lot of my students from Western Ranch High School up there some of them are on the step team and everything like that and they just got to see and they’re like wow like we would never get this type of stuff like
Just at school like as much like it’s and again it’s growing at their campus but just giving them that resource and that access to that like that’s great yeah well and I mean I think it’s so awesome that you work at sanen Delta College now I work there part-time and
Then I also substitute teach mostly at Western Ranch High School in Stockton and then also my alma moer East Union in Mantia oh wow you’re all over okay awesome I love it so tell me about maybe you can talk a little bit about the history of Iota Theta because I know
They have kind of a rich history and they came about uh as one one of the the last of the D9 they there were a lot of things going on I think at the time that you all were chartered yes so ioty the of attorney Incorporated was founded September 19th
1963 at Morgan State College which is now known as Morgan State University on the fifth step of HZ gymnasium so if you think about the year 1963 we were founded weeks so August 28th was the March on Washington we were founded 4 days after the church bombing of those
Little girls in Birmingham Alabama The Assault on the I forgot what bridge it was where they walked across the bridge and they all got beaten that was an April that Bloody Sunday yeah Bloody Sunday that was happening Malcolm X gave his famous Grassroots speech in Detroit
Michigan at the time I believe so there was just a lot of stuff going on at when we were officially chartered and created we were not founded by typical college students we were they were 12 members most of them were in the military and they were all significantly older than
The stereotypical age of a college student so that they all had some of them had wives and kids and careers and they were just coming back from the military on the GI bill to get their education to further whatever career Pursuits so it was it was different and
We were founded so much later than the the rest to the D9 because about 40 years because at simaro was founded in 1922 so there was a big gap there’s a about a 40 year Gap in between us and the rest of the D9 but yeah we were just
Founded right in the middle of like when everything was turning its head and we were and we were we were fighting to make the progress that we have now yeah obviously there was an urgency to create the the fraternity do you think that I mean for one I know
It was founded in Morgan State you said were there things happening there or they just they just got together because they knew each other or how how did this happen a lot of them were childhood friends again they were all service members so they that that strong value of like patriotism and
Wanting to make the country better because it’s like you go off and serve your country but you’re not equal at home right they’re like we need to do something about this plus it’s in Baltimore Baltimore is not far it’s a it’s a border state when you look at the North
And the South so it’s like you have that so they’re able to see they’re not far from Washington DC either so it’s like they’re able to kind of just see what the heck is going on I’m sure some of them are at the March on Washington because my like my grandpa lives in
Baltimore but is Washington DC PD so it’s only a drive away so I’m sure they were witness to this and they were like we need to create organization that’s going to continue like to serve the community so then in terms of and I know all the D9 have community service and
Social activism in their DNA and it’s kind of part of fraternal life so what components or how does ioty Theta engage and give back to the community both locally and nationally obviously we partner right now we’re big in parishing with like the NAACP there’s going to be
A youth Summit AT Delta College in mid-march I believe that will be prev to we also try to just kind of especially where I’m at in the North Central Valley where we’re at you don’t see us a lot everybody’s kind of just tucked away so we’re kind of just partnering up with
Like the high schools and nonprofit organizations for like mentorship and just trying to kind of spread the word and bring more I would say just black community in this area like I know Delta College has what’s called the black empowerment educ or black educational empowerment organization me and another brother of
Mine that I work with Mr Evan Wade he put me on that organization so now I’m like okay so what can I do to help reach these kids and get like get kids around Stockton and Mantika and even Modesto together so that we can like create some
Type of community here that they that can propel them elsewhere and they have a but they have a positive experience while they’re still at home oh that’s awesome and I know there’s always opportunities for mentorship in in the community it’s it’s amazing so so can
You talk a little bit about I mean I talked a little bit about my The Sisterhood that I feel in my sorority but can you talk a little bit about Brotherhood and the I mean it it is truly a Cornerstone of a fraternity but how do you get a sense of
Brotherhood within your fraternity and how has that Brotherhood really impacted you personally it is it’s just doing life with people it’s just some of brothers from the Bay Area were at my wedding it’s just the experience that you share with with men and it’s just and it’s I
Almost equate it to like you’re being a part of a team you you are you’re doing meetings you are you’re trying to plan how to serve your community and like doing all and doing that work like because it is about work like I think kids get the misconception cost it’s
Like you see strolling and you see all the fun stuff it’s like no there’s work like yeah we we are for we are a nonprofit organization that is here to serve the community so like you doing that work and going to events and just sharing in that common out like hey like
We all went through the same process to be members of this organization and now we’re going out in the community and serving together and like you build you just build a brother you build a Brotherhood with that and then again going across state lines and you and you
Recognize people wearing your colors and that went through the same process and are doing the same work as you but they’re all the way in a whole another state like it’s like all right we already have a mutual understanding it’s like when you see somebody like you had
Like it’s like oh we were raised the same or we like whatever it’s like were brought up in the same thing so it’s like we already know we don’t even have to like discuss right what what to do it’s like we already know what to do because we
All gone through the same process yeah that’s for sure let’s pause for a moment we’ll be right Back so can you tell us a little bit bit about your specific journey in terms of like how you were brought up and how has that made a difference for you in terms of and I know you’re just you’re young yourself I crossed when I was 50 but you
You crossed in college and it is a different experience I think at the college level versus an alumni chapter well because I decided to I decided to wait to my senior year it was like almost like a transition into grad chapter because usually you cross like
Your sophomore year and then you do you do all the undergrad stuff and you have and you do the fun stuff and and then you and then you go into grad world it was like it was me it was like I crossed and then it was like learn the stuff
Okay now I was in grab chapter meetings with when I was still living in SoCal um with my Dean and like so I was already put into like the more of the business like granted I still got to enjoy it but I was already like because
I live with my Dean I’m already going to meetings I had the opportunity to being an a for my Neil who came after me and he ran track at University of lever so it’s was like I was already put in like the work the process of like just hey
Like okay so because we were a Citywide chapter so we’re trying to like just get as many members as we can at Cala Pon University of L Cal State Fullerton my chapter was founded at Cal State San Bernardino like so it was immedately like okay so let’s get to work and
Recruit new members we’re going to the high school speaking in the high schools doing BSU Summits and all this stuff like that so it was it was just yeah it was basic yeah like I said a transition into grad chapter okay awesome awesome so then in terms of the impact what do
You think the impact on the community for people of color meant for Iota 5 Theta it’s a platform it’s it’s you think about even the different like organizations that were founded in our in our history as far as NAACP or Jack and Jill or anything like that like it’s
A platform to be to be an upstanding member of the Community Serve your community and just fellowship with people of like-minded individuals and in doing so it’s like you build camaraderie you build a a community with people it’s and it’s not even just with Iota it’s
Being D9 in general like you you meet like I met you at the Jun celebration in lath and it was just like wow like there’s actually Deltas out here like that’s great let me go like let me go speak to them and introduce myself the history teacher at Western Ranch like I
He’s an alpha I walked in his office and I said his his founding date and he was like what you know about that and I was Iota and it’s like and now we have lunch every day you know so it’s like being in this in these organizations it’s like
You and you go anywhere and it’s like you meet other people and it’s like wow like you’re out here too like awesome like let’s link up let’s talk let’s Fellowship together like what do you got going on like say like and that that’s that’s great like that’s that makes me
Feel whole as a person because it’s like I I can I don’t even have to know you but again it’s like you went through a similar type of process and you’re in a organization that’s out there trying to reach people and and do things and promote the wealth or promote the
Well-being of people of color like that like comes down to yeah it’s pretty awesome and it’s funny because I think there’s this it’s a kind of a LoveHate Thing where we love each other on the other hand we like poke at each other right yes and we’re the little brothers
So it’s like ha like all right well we still have a found living we can talk to them oh well we’re here we’re here we all working together and doing a lot of similar things and I think the more we connect together the stronger we are as
A people and so I think a lot of times I think we we look like we’re trying to fight individually but one of the things about kind of the D9 and the p helenic council is really kind of coming together and you talked about Partnerships with NAACP
And there’s so many opportunities for us to connect together and in many cases we’re part of multiple organizations it’s the same people you know work in D9 that are members of the NAACP or you know and so just trying to move the ball forward in our community is kind of it
Shouldn’t just be us but we definitely have to fight and and make the movement so then what are there things coming up locally for you all or that you want to highlight Are there specific things within the mission or values you want to tell us a little bit more
About besides the youth Summit not right now no just kind of just preparing for that to kind of what will that entail it’s going to be basically different high schools coming and I might even be middle schools or elementary schools I’m not I’m not sure I have to get more
Information but I know it’s high schools and they are going to come to this youth Summit AT Delta College because it’s probably going to be mostly stocked and unified and they’re going to come together and they’re just again it’s sharing resources and getting in touch with the youth because I don’t think the
Kids know that there is an NAACP chapter in Stockton like so just kind of making the presence known and sharing any res like sharing Resources with the kids so that they can maybe reach out form relationships Network and figure out like hey like I can go talk to this
Person if I want to go here or whatever we’ll probably also be Evan Wade and I will be probably sharing just like the different resources that Delta has at its disposal and being able to get kids maybe direct transfers to HBCU um all the service the program that
We have on Camp is as far as the black educational empowerment Organization for the Learning Community they can sign up for if they decide to go to Delta College different things like that but other than that yeah I’m not in this yeah I’m not sure every year my chapter
In SoCal they do what’s called project gyro we hand out clothes to the homeless during Christmas time so we’re always like taking donations and Gathering up a bunch of stuff so that next year we have clothes of and everything to give out to the homeless on Skid Row oh homeless on Skid Row
Yes ma’am oh okay wow yeah interesting so and then in terms of kind of goals and aspirations for the Iota fi Theta chapter I don’t know how big your chapter is I know in the Central Valley their typically chapters aren’t very large and so the work falls on a very
Few and Partnerships I think become more critical yes they do the Central Valley is just there’s not a lot so it’s just kind of branching out and making connections with the different college campuses and kind of getting touch with students of color in the area just to
Kind of maybe spread the message and spread what we have to offer and kind of just getting building more Community around the campuses and then even keeping in touch with the Bay Area chapter to kind of just all partner up in Northern California and get things
Out yeah because it is it is very small so it’s it’s hard to have people everywhere because you know so it’s just doing as much as you can with the time that you have to build community and spread the message and just put I on out out there
On the map yeah I love it I love it so and you currently are substitute teaching and doing all sorts of things how do you think your you being part of Iota how does that translate to some of the youth that you work with oh I get to talk to youth
About it all the time so like the alpha that I work with the history teacher Mr Roland Davis he’s the BSU adviser at Western Ranch High School so they’re always asking us like what is it like what do they what do you guys have to do all this stuff like that like
Like what hav they asking much of like the scary questions like I’m like guys it’s not it’s not that just show up work hard you know study your information all this stuff like that because especially a lot of the young ladies that we have in at the BSU at Western Ranch they want
To go to the HBCU and they want a pledge and I’m like okay like just make sure you’re researching you research that specific chapter at the school get to know the people that are already in there and just and do your research as far as the organization General and make
Sure it aligns with like who you are as a person like and don’t join for the the clout and all stuff like if you’re not going to join to be of service and like build community then like you probably shouldn’t do it because it’s not all the
The glitch and the the Glamour and the fun and the parties and the strolling all that like that’s a byproduct and but you have to be able to put in the work like we don’t want no organization wants t-shirt wearers we don’t want that we want people that are out there gonna
Like do stuff because that’s what it’s all about so that’s what I really try to impart to my students because when I’m on campus like and and he and Mr Roland Davis he’s the history teacher he’s always on campus so it’s like there it’s resources for them to come ask us so
It’s nice to be able to share that and get and get direct access to kids that are on their way to potentially take that step yes and shout out to Roland Davis he is one of my soror husbands yes so there are all kinds of connections and
I’ll say a special shout out to Evan as well and he’s been on the podcast before so you have to check out his episode as well he is just a library of resource when it comes to black history and being a professor of African-American studies he is an amazing individual so what else
Can you tell us how should we end I’ll just as I say to the kids this is a platform this is a community we are here to serve we are here to fellowship with like-minded individuals for the continued progress of people of color in this country and
Abroad so if you want to join just make sure whatever organization that you join aligns with your values and just get just be ready to do work that’s it that’s it and congratulations to you I know you have a baby on the way yes ma’am thank you so
Much I appreciate it yes when are when are you both du April 1 so the day before my birthday but we probably won’t make it past I’m being honest I’m like yeah it’s coming it’s coming well congratulations I know you have uh another is it is she
Two or three she’s two two okay so you’re gonna be busy yep girl dad I have have two girls I love it I love it these are future deltas maybe I I’m I am definitely going to expose my daughters very early to to the D9 to Greek life
Because I think I would love to carry on that carry on that Legacy in my I guess my own immediate family like I have extended family members in Louisiana that I have a lot of like Capas in my family I have a lot of AKA in my family
And they’re all all in Louisiana a lot of them went to Southern but like I guess because I live in California like just being able for my children and my grandchildren to continue on maybe something that I’ve started as far as being a part of Greek life and Deni
Organizations like that would be amazing but yeah I’m definitely going to put on my daughters to Greek life fantastic I love it well keep doing the work that you’re doing I love all of the leadership that you all provide the tradition that you’re creating and the impact that you’re having on our
Community certainly locally and and nationally and abroad so thank you so much Dominic for all that you do and thank you to all the Iota F Theta frat brothers because I think what you all do is amazing whether you are the last of the D9 or whether you are the first it takes
All of us to impact our community so thank you for all you do yes ma’am thank you so much for having me I appreciate Thanks for joining me on the Jolly podcast please subscribe so you won’t miss an episode see you next Week this podcast is a part of the seet radio network for more top business podcasts visit c-set radio.com
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