Divine 9 Event (February 18th, 2021)

Is welcome welcome everyone so glad to have you here really excited to have you here it’s gonna be a great event to a a long week uh so thank you for coming thank you so much for being here we’re gonna let a couple of folks trickle in before we get started

Uh we have a great evening with you all um so uh one more minute and then we’ll get started all right ready to go adi okay cool should i go ahead and kick it off alyssa all right we may have more people join us but i’m gonna go ahead and get us

Started i’m leslie montgomery with the green building alliance team here welcome to our divine nine panel discussion tonight this is a a partnered event that we’re doing between green building alliance and the shout student group and so you’ll hear more about shout in just a second but here at green building

Alliance we have our inspire speakers even our green and healthy schools academy team supporting the event here and at gba we just envision a world where every building in every community is just so that every person can thrive and that and everything that we do and and this is an event that we’re

Incredibly excited about we’re so happy about the partnership with dr herring in the shout students um and and at this point i think we’ll kick it off and i’ll hand it over to one of your hosts for the evening alyssa lyon good evening everyone i want to echo leslie’s excitement sentiments my name

Is alyssa lyon i am green building alliance’s sustainable communities director i am also a member of delta sigma data sorority incorporated um so very excited about this collaboration very excited to work with the shout students so you will be hearing from them collaborating with them talking with

Them more today what i want to do is have them introduce themselves starting with a popcorn of who they are i’m starting with mia who’s an 11th grader from south fayette high school and a shout member so mia tell us your name tell us your grade and tell us what your

Favorite candy is hi thank you um like she said i am mia i am an 11th grader from safe high school i am the social media director at the sf chapter and i am very excited to be here tonight um my favorite candy is probably a

Twix but it has to be the right twix and not the left fix so it’s a weird difference for me um so today i’m going to be talking to you guys uh about uh shout history um shout was started by um our two founding members yamanei curry

And uh berfin birkin i believe that’s how you pronounce your name um they both uh saw some uh issues within our school and uh thought it needed to be fixed so this is a meeting with our very own dr herring uh who is the director of dei uh diversity equity and inclusion within

Our school district and and they came up with the great idea for a club called sdlc now shout um sdlc has grown into this incredible organization it started out with eight original members and has grown into i believe around 50 members in the shout in the safe chapter alone

Um we have done multiple events like uh we do a hand principle footprints event every annually um and we do we had a blm rally last uh summer um and we also have done a privilege walk and many more events and now we’re here doing our divine nine

Event and we are very very excited to be doing so um i’m going to hand it over to our next facilitator to introduce themselves for the night uh hi uh i’m rashika soretti um i’m a freshman and my favorite type of candy is the sour patch kids

Hi i’m chloe shooter and i’m in eighth grade and i think my favorite candy would probably be a reese’s cup hi my name is samiha saleem i am an eighth grader and my favorite candy is sour skittles hi i’m grace howard i’m in 10th grade and my favorite candy is definitely gummy bears

And i’m gonna hand it off to dr herring hello everyone um super excited to be here just uh flat out you know being the greek and everything just i’m just picked up so anyway my name is uh dr chuck herring and i am the director of diversity equity inclusion at south

Fed township school district and i’m also the advisor for the shou group which stands for social handprints overcoming unjust treatment i am also a member of alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated and i pledged in spring 87 which was back in the 1900s for you young people uh zamu chapter uh my favorite candy

Would probably be peanut m m’s and um again just super excited about being here so now what i’m going to do is is just explain to you a little bit about how shou and green building alliance came together uh he actually about she’s four or five years ago i was a part of

The green and healthy schools initiative it’s a um it was a two-year cohort at the time uh with several school districts from uh west virginia ohio and um pennsylvania and we went through this two-year program to learn about sustainability in schools and it’s not what you think it was i was

Thinking that it was all about recycling and stuff but it was a lot more about um environmental and social justice which really you know had me super excited so um in the mean in between time met uh the whole crew from the gba uh just so happened that we really resonated

With one another and we began to work together uh particularly through the inspired speaker series um they bring in they would bring in every year actually every month they would bring in national and local speakers and i began attending those events and eventually they had me speak at

Those events and eventually they had me hosting those events so uh i figured that we should probably start doing something with the kids and so it was like why don’t we do something a young adult version of the inspired speaker series they thought it was a great idea and

This is actually our third event we had the religions of the world we had our big book release we’re going to talk about that a little bit later on about the book and now we’re on our uh divine nine so right now what i’m going to do is instead of having

Everyone on the panel uh just talk about their organization you know just going through nine different people talking about their organization we actually put together a video about 10 minutes of the national panhellenic council and each one of the nine organizations that belongs to it

So i’m going to ask ms montgomery to go ahead and uh share that video now okay here i go give me one second well why are you doing that i’m going to shop myself it’s too late in honor of black history month the students of shout invite you to explore the divine nine

The nine historically black greek letter organizations that make up the national panhellenic council black greek letter sororities and fraternities have been a pivotal part of black american history and culture since the early 20th century these organizations have been a central resource for support and service in the educational advancement

And strengthening of social bonds among black students entrepreneurs and professionals especially when organizations expanded to majority white institutions of higher learning also they were a way to combat racism as many campus organization memberships were exclusionary to students from professionals of color at that time the pioneer black greek letter organizations have become

Known as the divine nine and among their ranks have been some of the most influential leaders of color in health care fashion business global affairs civil rights politics and more among the ranks of the black fraternities are leaders from wb dubois martin luther king jr and dr carter g woodson to hill harper

Al roker emmitt smith bob johnson and robert smith and hundreds of thousands more and the sororities boast an impressive roster of star wars as well from vice president kamala harris maya angelou shirley chisholm and loretta lynch to nikki giovanni soledad o’brien m.c light aretha franklin and many more the national panhellenic council formed

On the campus of howard university on may 10 1930 is a collective of the nine pioneering black greek letter organizations alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated omega side 5 fraternity incorporated delta sigma theta sorority incorporated phi beta sigma fraternity incorporated

Zeta 5 beta sorority incorporated sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated and iota phi theta fraternity incorporated Since these nine were started and incorporated membership has spread globally with chapters in asia the caribbean europe and africa their impact is also widespread professionally and financially as they have contributed millions to uplift communities send students to college via scholarships and support professionals in both corporate america and entrepreneurship via mentorship and sponsorship

The following is a quick introduction of each of the fraternities and sororities in the national panhellenic council the first organization we’re going to talk about are the brothers of iota phi theta founded in 1963 iota phi theta was established just weeks after the famous march on washington for jobs and freedom

And for the past 57 plus years the brothers of iota have been working hard towards jobs and freedoms for all people in general and black people in particular next we have the sisters of sigma gamma rho founded in 1922 sigma gamma rose commitment to service is expressed in its slogan greater service

Greater progress for almost 100 years they have had a proud history of providing positive and proactive community outreach sigma gamma rho enhances the quality of life for women and their families in the u.s and globally next we’ll introduce you to the sisters of zeta phi beta established in 1920

The founders of zeta phi beta envisioned a sorority which would directly affect positive change raise consciousness of their people encourage the highest standards of scholastic achievement and foster a greater sense of unity among its members these women established its mission to fully address the societal wars ills prejudices and

Poverty affecting humanity in general and the black community in particular next let’s talk about the brothers from phi beta sigma from its inception in 1914 the founders of phi beta sigma conceived their fraternity as a mechanism to deliver services to the general community rather than gaining skills to be utilized

Exclusively for themselves and their immediate families they held a deep conviction that they should return their newly required skills to the communities from which they had come this deep conviction was mirrored in the fraternity’s motto culture for service and service for humanity next we’re going to introduce you to the sisters

Of delta sigma theta delta sigma theta was founded in january 1913 by 22 women at howard university these students wanted to use their collective strength to promote academic excellence and to provide assistance to those in need in march of 1913 the founders of delta sigma theta sorority incorporated

Performed their first public act they participated in the women’s suffrage march in washington dc and because of their support women earned the right to vote in 1920. unfortunately black women didn’t get their right to vote until the voting rights students who faced racial prejudice at cornell the founders and early leaders of the

Fraternity succeeded in laying a firm foundation for alpha phi alpha’s principles of scholarship fellowship good character and the uplifting of humanity which is encapsulated in their motto first of all servants of all we shall transcend all [Applause] wow that was a really awesome video i just want to say it was just super informational um if it was a great glimpse into the snapshot we figured guys there are nine people here today we’d be here all night and tomorrow and next week talking about the greatness of

All of our organizations but we wanted to give you a glimpse and we also wanted to give you a personal opportunity um to talk to the folks on this call so we’re going to get right into it and i see we’re on time here so dr

Herring thank you so much that was an amazing video i want to move on to introducing our panelists that we have here today and we’re going to jump into a quick panel um q a so starting with alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated we have sean mccaskill joining us from

Alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated we have tanya riley gilbert joining us feel free if you’d like to wave so folks can um pinpoint you on their screen um from kappa papa alpha side fraternity incorporated um we have dr clyde pickett here with us um from omega scifi uh fraternity incorporated

We have dr rahman hart from delta sigma uh theta sorority incorporated we have sharonda hill from phi beta sigma fraternity incorporated we have dr vernon simmons from zeta phi beta sorority incorporated we have andy james um from sigma gamma rho sorority incorporated we have lysia bishop and last but not least

From iota phi theta fraternity incorporated we have ryan scott thank you all for being here we’re so so excited to talk to you today um you look lovely in your array of paraphernalia so we’re glad that you were able to uh come in and join us today dr herring would you

Like to kick it off with the first question thank you so much um i was feeling very erica the jewish video you know i’m an artist and i’m sensitive about my stuff so i’m really glad that you guys liked it so uh thank you so much but uh the first question

I am going to actually lead off with um i’m going to go just uh in order of right now i’m going to go to sorority and i’m going to go with my sister cousin uh i’m going to go to uh miss tanya riley gilbert and i’m going to ask this question of you

Uh and i’m going to open it up to everyone and i’m just going to start with you can you explain the role of black greek letter organizations in american history i believe uh the role of black greek organizations in american history it was almost like a trailblazing move in a time when it

Was difficult to be it you know admitted to universities as a black or brown person or or even to be given opportunities uh while at a university and so admission was the the beginning of the issue was that we had to start our own universities because of segregation of course

And so when those uh historically black colleges and universities started it was a way of bonding a way of starting a sisterhood and a brotherhood and and i believe that as that started it was a way of kind of strengthening us in numbers but also allowing us to

To heal you know we were able to heal one another and find commonalities and find similarities but also find our strength as well and and i believe that those organizations helped many you know african-americans get through school because of so many difficulties and so much adversity that they were faced with

At the time wow thank you very much um i kicked it off with you but i’m just going to open it up to the general panel i’ll repeat the question um can you just um add on to what uh with ms riley gilbert said about the role of my bdlos in american history

Yes i’ll jump in there so sigma gamma rho was founded in 1922 at the time that was the height of the ku klux klan um in indianapolis indiana so it was a matter of safety our founders were hiding in each other’s house they were trying to provide safe spaces

For them and any other um black women on campus so it was a necessity we needed it wow excellent excellent i had no idea learning something new right now so thank you um anyone else want to jump in on that question ryan i’m particularly interested in your

Oh vernon go ahead and ryan and vernon whatever whoever wants to hand it off please please um okay this is vernon simmons i think one of the things that the organization started to do among each other was started to bring out the humanity in each other because we started treating each other

As if we mattered on a larger scale and then we started demanding that everyone be treated fairly and that’s why all of the or most of the initiatives that were started especially those relate you know those items that were human or trying to get people to start being treating each

Other as human beings and started to care about each other were led or at least planned and helped implemented or initiated by people from the divine nine so dr martin luther king was one of them but you had all of these other people that helped us get this started

Mr scott yes yes and greetings and good evening uh my name is ryan scott with iota python fraternity incorporated i wanted to i guess one of the biggest things i think in american history for iota in particular is we were founded long after a lot of the fraternities and

Sororities so we were founded during the civil rights movement as was shown in the video so just three short weeks after the march on washington and the martin luther king i have a dream speech there were non-traditional students and less than 50 miles away in baltimore at

Morgan state college now known as morgan state university that had a vision and a dream and and in a time of racial turmoil and injustice as we are today um they knew that they felt like there was more that could be done so they formed an organization 12 uh honorable men

Uh who sat on the steps of hurt gymnasium at morgan state college um with a vision and a dream to help change the world enjoying our brothers and sisters here from each respective organization awesome thank you thank you so much oh sharonda do i hear you

Yeah i was going to say um while we did uh actually have gained access to education on the colleges um at historically black colleges and universities it was not just being there was enough to keep everyone content it was about banning together to go further and beyond that

Um to have a collective um on working together to move our culture move our society move um folks into a better place and a better space and so it wasn’t just talking about being a part of a movement it was about moving on that as well and delta sigma theta sorority incorporated

Was founded in 1913 when the first public act of the organization was was participating in the women’s suffrage march and so that was also very pivotal pivotal in uh the impact that african-american women and women in general had within the history in the context of shaping the history of the country

And they didn’t stop there and many of the organizations did not stop there so banning together in collective pluralistic views was also another thing that was very important when moving forward i also wanted to share that within the history of um global conflict and the fight for freedom our organizations have been

Instrumental in military service in this country of course i am a member of cap alpha psi fraternity incorporated and seven of our founders answered the call to serve in world war one and were instrumental in being amongst the first black officers to serve the united states in responding to global conflict our founder

John milton lee enjoys the distinction of having been a part of the first battery of black artillery men to open up fire upon enemy in world war one i also wish to note that uh upon return to war obviously or from war i should say we know that our founders and citizens

Around this country faced incredible odds related to their civil rights and and our founders and our members across all organizations fought for equity and opportunity one of those fights was in indiana to amend the constitution of the state to permit black soldiers to enlist and be a part of the international indiana national

Guard so in thinking about service nationally and globally our organizations have been front and center and i want to make sure that we know that’s a part of the history of of our of our organizations if i can jump sorry do you want all of us to oh no

I’ll definitely yield to you uh and go ahead thank you dr hart um i was just going to say um i kind of want to piggyback off of what i’m sore from delta sigma theta said um zeta phi beta was founded um in 1920s and since the early 1920s

We had hit the ground running to um to impact human conditions both nationally internationally um starting from the early 1920s we assisted world war world war ii workers um find housing when it was very difficult i’m in the 70s we started our storks nest program which uh focused on birth defects for

African-american women and their kids and as recently as this year we started our get engaged program which definitely i’m sorry not this year it’s now 2021 um but in the last few years we started our get engaged program which basically um had had stores put to pull their boots up

And actually get out there and um and and and impact the community as much as we can we focused on black lives matter we partnered with the nwa’s naacp um just to collaborate on criminal justice and voter education and retro and registration uh protection efforts so

Um like all of the organizations um you know when we see that there is a need in the community we pull our bootstraps out we pull our bootstraps bootstraps up and get hit the ground running dr hart you had a comment yes um i was just going to share a little bit

Um my name is rahman hart and i’m a member of omega sci-fi fraternity incorporated um our organization was the um the first fraternity founded at a historically black uh college uh we are we’re organizations just like many of what um everyone else has said we’re an organization that has a long tradition

Of really pouring into uh in our case young uh young black men and so we have the values of manhood scholarship uh perseverance and uplift which are cardinal principles and really just empowering uh young men to be everything they can be and so when you think about

A lot of the pioneers and trailblazers who have impacted uh life as we know it today a lot of them are part of our organizations as you can see in that amazing video that you that you watch as it relates to omega you got dr carter g woodson

Who’s the father of black history um he established negro history week which is uh black history month as we know it today um i think about people like charles r drew who was in the mega man who specialize in in transfusions and perfected the methods uh used to store blood so the blood

Banks that you see today came at the hands of a mega man and a black male um 1 lots of we can go across all our organizations and those are when i think about how we’ve impacted american history we’ve all impacted american history in a very unique way and for the young people

Since we got the young people where i know everybody has some js on their feet michael jordan michael jordan is an omega man so you wouldn’t have those jays on your feet if it was uh it wasn’t for an omega man so i wanted to make sure we lighten it

Up and i just figured i’d share a little bit differently so thank you so much dr hart as you guys can see everyone loves their organization and they will rub it and make sure that they know the history you know the history um i want to move on to another question

I am going to direct it and then open it up um uh dr hart since we were and it ended with you i specifically wanted to talk about omega scifi’s community service you guys do a lot we all do a lot of community service in the city

Um sharonda also wanted to ask about delta’s community service and andy i wanted to ask about zeta’s community service as well what order would you like us to go in you can go ahead you can start um okay well i’ll try to summarize we you know we do

A lot and i think um you know again our organizations are unique in that they’re not just about uh what you do in college you you know i pledged in in 1992 as a sophomore at slippery rock but once we graduate we stay connected and so providing uplift to the community

Is really important some of the programs that i’m proud of and um we got a lot i mean we give scholarships out to students every year college-bound students we’ve given out 181 to college-bound students we take uh uh two bus charter bus full of uh

Kids on a hbcu tour every year um we’ve taken over 2600 uh high school students um on an overnight tour to over 14 hbcus we have a food insecurity program in which we’ve um provided over 20 000 cooked meals to senior citizens and food insecure families just during covet alone

We have an educational program called the carter g woodson academy which is um it highlights omega men teaching classes in the areas of science technology engineering the arts and math with black history infused into the curriculum and it’s a saturday program the kids range from elementary to high school

And a couple of other things like food baskets thanksgiving food baskets we get we have a christmas toy giveaway we gave a thousand toys away um this past uh christmas so uh we stay active in pittsburgh my chapter out of five chapters was was founded in

1925 and we’ve been serving the city of pittsburgh since so i know there are a lot of other programs but that just kind of gives you a snapshot uh we’re very very uh committed to giving back to the community and lifting as we climb thank you so much um andy or sharonda

Okay yes as the largest greek letter organization of african-american descent delta sigma theta sorority incorporated has over 900 collegiate and alumni chapters across the world and so with that we have developed a five-point programmatic thrust system for which we used to be able to confront some of the challenges that

African-american communities face and with that the thrusts are educational development economic development international awareness and involvement physical and mental health as well as political awareness and involvement and when we hit all of these um various thrusts we seek to put together initiatives that hit that but also are giving public service uh

Within our community for which we have um so many folks have heard of the delta gems many folks have heard of um the academy that we have as well that serves youth um amongst that we also do things that um really are enriching for us in our culture so we have

A special um a special affinity with arts within the sorority as well so we have programs that not only hit those five thrusts but we have programs that hit the cultural arts that we actually enjoy and that we know that we are all really uh talented at and that the african-american culture enjoys

And so from that we have chapters that will have very various um an amalgamation of different programs that will hit those various things and so yeah that’s what we do in terms of public service and entire in terms of having initiatives that hit that for the community wow that sounds like a dynamic

Organization pretty much fantastic let’s say so myself wow wow please tell us about your organization the host sounds biased to me but i’m not going to say anything [Laughter] But i love it i love it um zeta phi beta has many community service organizations community service initiatives in which we partner with multiple national organizations our current international service initiative or programmatic thus thrust as we call it called z-hope it stands for zetas helping other people excel

Through mind body and spirit and we focus on five target demographics which are women men youth seniors and international women um z-hope is an outreach program in which in which chapters provide culturally appropriate informational activities and we foster collaborative partnerships between community organizations internationally regionally and locally some of our partnerships include the

Aarp march of dimes which is one of our main partnerships in which we are one of the top fundraisers we uh compete with the alphas every year and i think we beat the last couple of years but i’m not going to say anything um the american cancer society

St jews children’s hospital and that’s just to name a few of the organizations that we work with locally the lambda lambda zeta chapter here in pittsburgh which was established in 1982 we’ve held zoom discussions um that focus on mental health we all know um with the pandemic that’s definitely running prevalent we

Need to focus on that um we’ve talked about depression in men and women we’ve provided meals to essential workers across across the city and we’ve helped distribute few we’ve helped distribute food so families across the city and we continue to raise funds for all of our national partners

Um actually this month we’re partnering with the american heart association through an initiative called zeta’s have heart and we’re basically bringing awareness to heart health through various programming and it includes healthy eating tips exercising and general self-care thank you so much amy that’s really awesome wanna open the floor up um

To the other members of the divine knights to talk a little bit can i can i interject really quickly yeah i was gonna kick it over to sean but yeah absolutely oh definitely yeah actually i just wanted to just take this really quickly just because

I want to say thank you so much uh this lion for for beating up to this and allowing me to do this i’m really excited to have uh my brother uh young man i’ve known for 30 plus years uh on the call uh mr sean mccaskill and he was

Running a little bit late which is not like alpha because i used to say to us all the time punctuality is key but i’m going to have him explain to you because it dovetails exactly into what we were just talking about so i believe in the castle you know mike

Is yours i’m going to one more caveat i’m going to say be quick but don’t hurry because we we only have a certain amount of time so handle your business we’re asking about community service so uh please feel free you’re muted your music sir okay so as you can tell you know um

Individuals on a car very very very extremely passionate about their organizations and we compete with one another at any opportunity that we can get we always you know me so that’s part of what makes us who we are is that we know that we all basically are doing

You know similar work but we want to compete with each other to make our organization shine um like brother harry said you know being on time is you know one of the things that we you know that we pride ourselves on so i know uh dr hart

You know when i wasn’t on time i know dr hart was you know probably laughing in the background it’s going to give me a text a little later about me being late but i had another call that i had i had to take because um and i think you know people from you

Know organizations will appreciate this um you know recently i just was um appointed the executive director of alpha phi alpha fraternity incorporated so i will be you know in charge of our whole fraternity working along with our general president and all the chapters you know around you know we are our

International chapter because you know we have chapters in um in africa i established two chapters in africa one in london i have a chapter in bermuda i have a chapter over in seoul korea uh so again it’s one of those things like now you know i had to you know take that

Cause i had to meet with the board and things like that in order to you know confirm everything but it’ll be official um sometime next week we’ll let her go out so you guys are the first ones to kind of hear it you know so

Um the beauty about this is you know i you know i’m from pittsburgh you know i grew up in the hill district went to john a beshear high school um i you know i joined a fraternity that’s in the hills of um i just i joined a fraternity that’s in the mountains of

Indiana university of pennsylvania in the lower valley um and to be able to ascend to positions with inside our organization those are the things that we all strive to do um we’re all proud members of our organization alpha phi alpha was established and i want you to kind of look at this

You know um in 1906 uh in um in ithaca new york you know this is you know i think about the time in 1906 in ithaca new york you know seven individuals came together and wanted to they wanted more from a social a social studies club and they wanted to become

What they call a fraternity and and now look at us um where we are now um our national programs were really into the community like all the other organizations um i would you know push back a little bit about the statements beating us with the march of dimes

But you know it’s okay so i’ll give her her shot i’ll give you know to the ladies out there it’s okay um but here here in the city um when you start looking at these organizations this is what i want everybody to take from we can brag about organizations but when

You start talking about people doing the unthinkable things in our society nine times out of ten they belong to one of these organizations you know these organizations are about not only saving people in the communities lives but it saves some of our members lives and you know i’m passionate you know

About you know a guy like myself i have um my mentor is an alpha uh there’s two men in this country that’s raised over 100 million dollars that’s president obama and harry e johnson why is harry johnson so important because harry e johnson raised over 137 million dollars to build the memorial

The um the dr king memorial down in washington dc there will never ever be another memorial because there’s no other there’s no more space down at the you know at the capitol for you know to build anything so um and that’s my mentor you know these are the things that our organizations bring

To the table is giving light to where there’s darkness that’s what we do we go into those places where nobody else want to go and we’re going to shine our light to help everybody else out and that’s what these organizations are all about this platform of us being able to discuss

You know our organizations it’s really about the network that roi that return on investment us coming together collectively seeing the need and we’re and we’re going to help out the downtrodden you know about you know academic excellence and you know and things that we do in our communities that’s what it’s

Truly all about all the other stuff you know is you know things that we do but at the end of the day the core of all of our organizations is we’re all about helping out the downtrodden the people that the people have the um that we

Believe or the ones that don’t have a voice we’re going to be the voice for the voiceless you know we’re going to we’re we’re going to help out with voting we’re going to help out with with food projects we’re going to do the things that needs to be done to protect

Our communities and i always say this things will things will get better in the black community when those who know better find the courage to do better and that’s our organizations our organizations need to be the voices that’s out there that’s leading the charge um to make sure that things change in

Our society so with that you know i’ll take some questions whenever we you know we have our questions and then we can really start to compete about whose organization you know is really rock and roll sean thank you so much for coming in here hot

Hot as hot cross buns could ever be um we really appreciate you and we um congratulate you there’s a lot of congratulations in the chat so thank you so much for being here i there’s something that you started to point at um talking about the value of being a part of predominantly black

Greek letter organizations i’d like to ask a question to dr clyde pickett and and lee um what what do you find the value of being a predominantly black greek organization or predominantly black organization at all it seems a little bit um far-fetched it seems a little bit right

It seems a little bit crazy what is the value in this network as sean kind of put it as well i’m curious dr pickett um lee and then we can open it up as well lee i’ll let you go first and then then i’ll weigh in and give you my thoughts

Okay um so again my name is laisha some people know me as lee don’t be confused um but the value for me is 100 first and foremost my sorors right so whenever i’m applying for a job whenever i’m thinking about you know i just want somebody to read over a resume

I’m a grant writer i want to throw an idea by someone my sorrows are so supportive and in my career here in pittsburgh it has not been um just members of my own sorority that has helped me it has been members of the d9 that wanted black people to come together wanted by

People to win wanted black people to soar and wanted us to be in these really high places um so i like that you said sean congratulations by the way that nine times out of ten it’s people in the divine nine that are doing big things when you’re seeing

40 under 40 black people in pittsburgh they’re members of the d9 right when you’re seeing people create businesses or when you’re seeing people ask for grant writers or business owners they’re looking to the divine line they’re looking to people who look like them to help advance them

And for me that has been the value i echo those thoughts i think it’s important for us to reflect on the connection that we have to each other and how we are a resource to each other in coming to my role back to pittsburgh certainly members of my fraternity have been critical

In helping with that transition and providing opportunities as i get plugged back into the community and i think one of the things to recognize and to realize is being a part of this organization means you now have connection all over the world so as was highlighted we have connections

All over the world so i’ve been fortunate to touch down in london and connect with my fraternity brothers there to go to bermuda and touch them and connect with my fraternity brothers there and to really have a sense of connection no matter where you go and if the unfortunate should happen and

You find yourself in a bad position you can reach out to people who you know will have your best interest in mind who will support you uh and help you navigate those those rough waters and situations so you know i say candidly it’s it’s phenomenal to have that network

And and the reality is because of of the camaraderie associated with all of these organizations we have a connection across the different groups there’s not any situation where in in most situations we can’t reach out to one another across the organizations and support each other and be empowered

And to move each other forward and that’s that’s amazing and we do that not only for ourselves but the entire community thank you dr picker tommy i see you you have your hand raised yeah i’m feeling all fuzzy but you know i think about the camaraderie between the sororities and fraternities and

And it just made me want to just jump out of my seat when i think about kamala harris you know she was an aka you know we went from nine members at howard university in 1908 oh wait we’re already approaching 300 000 members you know we’ve got 1200 chapters we’re in

55 different nations you know so it’s so big it’s massive and and i think about the power that she had behind her as a greek letter organization member to help her achieve the vice presidency and and i was reminded of the stroll to the polls you know and i actually worked the polls

This year and i i was just overjoyed standing there you know passing out the voter sheets but i would see the alphas walk up and the aka is walking but the deltas walked up and said and i’m like hey you know we’re high-fiving at the polls and

You know and it’s exciting to see that that networking and just the power that comes with the numbers you know but just mentoring you know mentoring one another and as a member myself i’ve been a mentor but i’ve also been mentored you know so i believe that we have a lot

There’s a lot of value you know in being a member of a greek letter organization the networking is incredible thank you so much tanya i really we really appreciate that um want to leave it open for any other comments real quick before i hand it

Over to dr herring to lead us into the next part of our agenda all right dr herring i’m yeah uh yeah so i i think one of the things that you’re starting to hear is the the network right i think you know um and that’s we’ve all had to get

Evolved into that networking piece if you’re looking for a job you know the first thing you should do is tap into your network you know if i’m looking at anything i’m looking at there’s a member of my organization on the board and then if there’s a

Member of omega stop fat ass on the board i’m going to call dr hart and ask dr hartman we have a connection with the individual that’s on that board you know life is about connections and you no one make no one become successful on their own

You need some type of help and that’s what these organizations are you know when we start to utilize a network even leaving like the when the ak’s and the alphas and the deltas all come together of the divine nine come together and we start utilizing all our networks like especially like during this

Presidential election you can best believe there’s favors that need to be given back to these organizations because those organizations help get people to the polls to help this you know the unthinkable happen so again being a part of these our organization is a serious matter it’s not something that we take lightly

This is a this is a life commitment this isn’t something that you just signed off for for college and then you’re done with it this is forever i’m a life member of alpha phi alpha i’ll you know to the to the day i die you know probably on my cats i’ll probably be

Buried in a black and gold casket my headstone to be in black and gold without file somewhere on there this is a lifelong commitment this is who we are we love our organizations but we love giving back to our communities even more so that’s the passion about what we do

And networking it will help each and every one of you and again we’re not you know we’re predominantly you know we have you know um people of other nationalities in our organization but we’re predominantly black organizations but again the love and the passion the network and the things that you can

Benefit from it it wow whatever you invest in you know you’re going to be you’re going to receive a return on your investment thank you thank you sir thank you so much um before we break out into the other um um into the breakout rooms first and foremost again some powerful

Answers from everyone and uh i wanna just say you know just thinking about what we have on this college talking about getting across our network i know that you know there’s been times when i’ve reached out to uh dr hart um and we’ve had conversations and he

Even had he reached out to me about what some stuff from bi stuff for a friend of his and uh you know talked to dr simmons i had dr simmons actually come out to south fayette and um you know most people don’t know this but dr simmons is a nuclear physicist and i

Had dr simmons come and speak to a group of fourth graders about nuclear fission and how that works and it’s just amazing to me uh dr pickett and i you know that’s my brother he’s my you know we went through the doctoral program together so when he was in minnesota i reached out

To him when he came back he definitely we’re going to connect so just reaching across the lines of the other fraternities and sororities this is just what it’s all about we really are one big organization we just have different chapters of the organization really it’s really because

We’re all about the same things we’re all about fraternal sorority uplift of everyone so with that i’m going to go ahead and ask um miss ellen miss conrad can you um make sure that you just submit everybody to the breakout rooms and we’re just going to go with traditional breakouts we’re going to

Have akas and alphas we’re going to have deltas and q’s we’re going to have uh zetas and and sigmas and then we’re going to have iota sigma gamma rose and kappas all together so that we’re going to go into our breakout rooms and then we should see you guys

Back here in about 20. um okay as everyone is filtering into this breakout room i would like to once again thank our panelists for attending this um this event and i would also like to um thank all of the attendees for coming to this event and as

Our time dwindles down there’s like 30 minutes left in the event i would also encourage all the panelists to keep your responses succinct and attendees if you have any additional questions please put them in the chat and with that our first question is when were you first exposed

To the divine nine as um as a group of organizations to our panelists all right i guess i’ll uh start off um i say one of the things that um for me early on i say i had tons of family members that were members of the divine nine uh organization well actually even

Uh i said had uh uncles and aunts and and i remember every year coming to family reunions and then they would play a song and then everybody would start breaking out and doing uh what’s called uh strolling or party walking or even stepping um and different things

Like that and that’s probably one of the most common things that people see and think that’s that’s all we do which is not um but that’s one of the things that when we’re having a good time and celebrating um our organizations uh one of the things that we do

So i just remember from being a young age you know just the values and watching them do this and then also watching the service and the things that they did um you know and you know professionally i got i was mentored by several members of the d9 organization because

Like i said they were family members but they also really genuinely cared about their organizations uh so for me it was just um it was inevitable um that i was gonna join a greek organization um it was just you know going through my research doing my research

And figuring out which one was the best in line with uh with my values in which way that i wanted to go so my experience was a little different um i didn’t have any exposure to fraternities and sororities as a young person as a first generation student none of

My family were affiliated with uh fraternities or sororities um when i got to the university of kentucky my my college roommate um his father was a kappa so when i got there and we became roommates he he said you know we need to go check out the kappas and i had no idea

Who the captains were what he was talking about and why we should go check them out um but of course you know through uh him and ultimately his father who is a mentor of mine i began to understand the impact beyond just the campus and the impact on community

And his father was a significant mentor to me um and he helped both my roommate and ultimately someone who became my fraternity brother us navigate college and put us in connection with the fraternity and that was the foundation for me a learning more about fraternities in general but specifically learning more about

Kappa alpha and one of the things that uh moving forward in in my own being a member has been to expose younger generations particularly those folks in my community in the community i’m from into learning more about these organizations so this is why this is a phenomenal event

Um my experience is a little bit different than both of them right i grew up in a greek family everybody’s greek not necessarily what i am though which caused some contention right it caused some cause some anger all the women in my family are members of delta sigma theta and the men

In my family are members of omega scifi so it wasn’t if i was going to be greek right it was am i going to join the legacy when what you know like what time fall or spring um so i went to lehigh university predominantly white institution that had a lot of racial

Issues when i was there our multicultural house being vandalized um just a lot going on i was a junior so i was a little bit later in my college career when i decided to um become greek and so my decision to do something else was solely based on

The way that i seen the women in the community handle champion around us support the black students the way they really did the service and that’s what sold me um so yes i’ve seen the partying right i’ve seen the party walk and i’ve seen the stroll and

I’ve seen this step and growing up and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that but when i needed them the most when i didn’t know you know if if i wanted to transfer out of my university if i didn’t know if i could go on if you know just feeling the pressures of

Being a black woman at a predominantly white institution um the sisters really held me up and and they were there for me and so we chartered um my sorority on our campus so we were the first um black sorority to be chartered on a predominantly white campus where i went to school

I know we did touch upon why all of you joined a sorority or a fraternity but i would like you guys to elaborate on that so why exactly did you at the age that you did so i’ll weigh in on this one just a little bit so i ended up joining my

Junior year as well which was later in my college experience and having no exposure to fraternities i would say that as as i referenced my my college roommate’s father was also instrumental in getting me to examine and look at kappa alpha psi but i think my my family’s history so um

I am a seventh generation uh kentuckian and can stretch the origins of my family history uh back to being enslaved on plantations in kentucky the the founders of capital office of attorney incorporated are from indiana and kentucky so i think a regional connection in many ways was a

Significant influence on why i chose to join cap al fasad i talked about my reasoning for joining sigma gamma rho a little bit um but what i will add is that i’m a teacher i’m an educator i love students i knew in college that i was going to go the education route

And so it was really instrumental to me that my founders were school teachers so um everything from the programs that we put on to our models it literally has children and what we do ingrained in it and that was deeply personal for me and i think for me um it was the motto

That really got me building a tradition not resting upon one was really really important to me um you know it was a lot of people talked about you know what was and how it was but i felt like i wanted to write my own pages i wanted to write my own

Book and i wanted to see how we how we could do that and one of the things it just stood out to me and it was something that our founders stood on um you know again we were founded during the civil rights movement there’s a lot of racial talk turmoil across the nation

Um it was just that time to to do something a little bit different and that’s one of the things i respected a lot about my organization is that it was something that was a little bit different um and it was it was a time where we

Could really just uh stand up and and promote our individuality while working with the group um the unique thing about our fraternity is that we have uh four of our 12 founders still alive um and that is something that we get a lot of flack from sometimes from fraternity sororities but

I’ll tell you one thing and i have it actually my frame just broke today my son is right next to me but um anyway i have a framed picture with five of of of the founders when they were living some of them have passed on now

Um but one of the things that i can say is i haven’t i’m part of the history i’m part of the history books in such a way that a lot of people would be envious for i’m sure if you asked any member of the d9 organizations that are

Here if they had the opportunity to sit down with the founder and hear about their organization and hear about why they got started i’m sure everyone would give you a resounding yes that they would want to do that so that was key for me and it’s

Something that i take a lot of pride in this is coming from a slightly different place but what is your favorite part about being in your organization i guess i’ll hop back in um my favorite part is just the uh the brotherhood that i have that i have um

I i’ve seriously um i always changed my life in in many ways um you know i i was one of those people that were you know i also pledged uh like my colleagues in my undergrad experience um later in my college career as well um but i’ve truly

Brought myself to the organization the organization brought itself to me um in such a way so we it felt like it was just such a compliment but i think um the brotherhood that i’ve gotten um i have brothers biological brothers uh myself but this was this is one that

You know when you’re part of an organization you have a common goal and you have common interests um there’s just something about that especially when you see people that are reflective of you i know someone spoke earlier about uh trev i think it was uh dr pickett who

Talked about traveling all over the world i mean that’s something i’m a world traveler i mean anywhere i go i always have family there um you know i don’t have to go anywhere around this country without giving a brother a call you know if something happens you know i

Know i have support um so the brotherhood to me um you can’t pay for that you know it’s something that is this is a lifelong commitment um this is something that’s not you know a lot of other fraternities and sororities that you know when you go to pwi or

You know um or just for that collegiate experience as soon as you graduate so does you’re done with the fraternity or sorority not with the d9 organizations this is something that is lifelong and something that we’re still growing and again across organizations it’s like extended families so you even have folks even

Further like you know i work with several different members of the greek greek organizations um and you we you know probably on day one of meeting you know you would think we knew each other from you know since we were little um so you know i really enjoyed the

Networking piece of it uh and you know primarily like i said the brotherhood for me it’s the excellence growing up my mom used to say iron sharpeneth iron and my sorrows and my sisters they sharpen me so there is not a time where i’m not talking to my ls which is my

Line sister or soros that i’ve just met and they’re not pushing me to be better if i tell them i’m a grant writer they say okay well what’s your goal how much more money you’re gonna make than last year right it’s people pushing me from all over parts of the world

Of the country that don’t even really know me but we have this common bond we have this common you know this common goal of to be excellent and to push each other to be the best that we can be and i didn’t grow up with sisters so that was something different for me

Um and i’m just really excited to be a part of that and most of this is covered but of course i think the camaraderie and brotherhood i would offer um there’s not a day that that goes by that i don’t hear from some of my fraternity brothers we have a daily uh

Thread on text where we check in with each other and send inspirational messages to one another uh it’s an opportunity for us to keep grounded and especially in this environment uh to stay unified so you know i i think the other part of that brotherhood is to answer the call when

When we need each other unfortunately we’ve had to experience the death of more than one of our fraternity brothers and to be there for their families as well as for each other is a transformational experience and you really know that this bond is brotherhood uh is to you

Leave this world and to know that you have that kind of connection is is really a powerful experience so i would offer that i know we have touched upon um your involvement in your organizations in the past and the present but where do you see your organizations going in the future

In like 10 20 100 years even that’s a that’s a powerful question i’m glad you asked that i think you know i’m heartened by where my fraternity is right now with regard to activism so um uh colin kaepernick is a member of my fraternity and and i will say that uh

I’ve been quite pleased to see nukes from all over the country who have stood up uh and to be involved in social justice and activism so i think moving forward you’ll continue to see the excellence that our colleague mentioned but to also push and continue to move the agenda with regard to

How we examine social justice and think about global humanity and i’m excited about what we’ll do beyond the united states and on the global forefront of pushing for equity i would like to say that you know of course even though my sorority was founded by seven school teachers we’re in everywhere right entertainment

Law but one of the uh places we really thrive is education so um most of our national programs are there so in five to ten years i’m seeing sora’s become superintendent so i’m seeing them run you know a whole being a part of department of education i’m just really hoping for a complete

Transformation of the education system and with our centennial coming up next year it’s a part of our plans and uh i see uh iotified theta fraternity incorporated just growing at an exponential rate um it is the fastest growing uh fraternity um and i’m really excited about that i mean we

Uphold our principles of scholarship leadership citizenship fidelity and brotherhood and i see us really taking charge in the way of action in a way of activism and advocacy and uh you know again being founded during the civil rights movement um that’s what what we would what drove us

Um to move this organization and i think you know obviously uh where we are today in society this is still an uphill battle but ioda 5 theta isn’t it for the long haul so i i’m excited to see where we end up um with a couple minutes left i’d like to open

Uh it up for the panelists to talk about something that they like the attendees to know about their organizations or for the attendees to ask any questions that they have burning inside of them before we go back into the main room in three minutes floors open for anyone

I guess i’ll ask a question um and this is open for anybody did any of you all find it difficult i know i heard that a lot of you um the undergrad did you all find it difficult to transition from undergraduate chapter to graduate chapter once you graduated and you know moved on

I did i would like to speak for about oh go ahead nope go ahead um i came through in 2001 and i came i went to norfolk state so coming from a place where everybody knows you and you just have a sense of oneness and coming back to your hometown

And looking for a grad chapter where thing people do things differently i think for myself that was a challenge um because different regions do different things and just trying to acclimate myself with people who are already um friends so for me it was hard um now it’s not that

That bad because i’m cool with everyone here but um it’s just like the different levels of i guess sisterhood or just being in different regions it was just difficult for me from undergrad to grad chapter i think for me it was a difficult as well and the reason

Uh being was after i graduated i moved back to pittsburgh and at the time there wasn’t a graduate chapter in the area um so you know there were a couple iotas that were in the area that i quickly found um you know as i moved back to the city but

One of the things that uh you know i was really excited about was the opportunity to start that graduate chapter so in 2009 uh we started the beta omicron omega pittsburgh alumni chapter uh which several of the brothers are on on actually on this call i just sent a

Text out as they said to share it um and a few of the brothers are here uh just to support that uh but i’m really uh you know excited uh that we were able to do that um and and that’s you know when uh going back to when i

Said uh kind of writing the pages of our own books you know i think there’s still you know a lot of room for growth and there’s a lot of a lot of areas where we can expand and i’m just you know forever grateful for that and i’m glad that that experience

Happened that way for me oh yeah i’m closing them they it takes like you have 36 more seconds that won’t be bad you scratched me up you just smashed me up i was like oh i’m sorry what happened i got snatched up it’s like going to the prison

And then there’s nobody else there so it’s like i’m going to the principal’s office you can’t be doing that should have brought me in like third or four you know you brought me right in like first like i did something you know be like oh yeah these breakout rooms don’t mess around

You know oh man you just snatched me up oh man well you won’t be the only one snatched up it looks like we’ll have everyone joining a second okay how was the breakout rooms everybody uh chloe did a great job in hours a great job a very good job samia was like um

Good job on answering these questions but you need to even move it great great job samia she kept us in order you know what i’m not even surprised where’s she at you wouldn’t even think she was in eighth grade oh she definitely was telling everybody what to do in the room

Where to sit where to have your hands i’m sure the students struggle with uh mr mccaskill um keep him in order [Laughter] hey hey heart i got snatched out she just i we were i was in the group the next you know i’m in the room by myself

Just like i was going to the christmas office thank you all so much for returning to us we are winding down to our final minutes of this what seems to be like a nice camaraderie event everyone’s smiling and looking um beautiful um i wanted to open up more to any q a

Or any comments anything you found interesting from the uh the breakout rooms that you had and the other conversations that you had in there just want to leave the floor open for that whether it’s from our presenters participants people who are here a young lady in our breakout room asked

A really good question about how is it making the transition from undergrad to grad chapters and just having a really candid conversation about that so if anybody wants to speak about that that was that was good yeah we um we had a mild conversation about joining at a later age as opposed to

Joining um underground your teenage years so would anyone like to speak to that yeah um my bad man i was discombobulated i was in the wrong wrong room um as far as we’re going from undergrad to grad i played spring 97 587 at jackson state university

And then uh i came up here in 2014 i was looking for the brothers and sorrows and next thing i know i see a woman of a fighter woman who with a zeta by the name of andy sarah bam she was like yo what up bro i was like what’s happening

She was like man where you from i’m like from the south side i’m trying to get down what what a brother inside of that she was like let me hook you up with brother vernon brother vernon he got me plugged in with the the grad chopped up here i’ve never

Ever been in a grasshopper in my life all i knew was just undergrad and that was it so they showed me an entirely different way of life it’s like nah bro you grad now you ain’t got to go out here and set out of stuff every time so it’s way different

You know what i mean it’s it’s about the brotherhood the business the uh the organization the community service you know helping other people out which is what we did in undergrad but it’s just so funny because i mean i’m 43 talking about trying to step out of steps

Come on man so he was like look bro let me show you the real things that we’re doing in the grass chapter so it was dope so for anybody that’s wondering the truth transition it’s the mind state first you gotta have a mindset of okay let’s go from

Undergrad to grad like from kicking it to understanding what you really are as well as kicking it but on a grown folks level if that makes sense to y’all i’ll touch on briefly uh my experience going into a grad chapter um i was pretty young you know when i got

Out of school i was working i had relocated by myself and i was doing going through a lot just as a single woman just kind of in a new city and and i met some akas and i remember them inviting me to a gala and i walked in and they began

Introducing me to people and they’re this is judge mack judge whitfield you know i’m going wow judge king well i met three judges just on my way in through the door and so it was nice to know that you know among the people that were members in that grad chapter

That there was just so much diversity and so many people that could offer a lot you know for a person like me that was new in a city and didn’t know a thing the only thing i knew when i remember when i first moved to detroit

My very first city i moved to they told me don’t carry cash they had me scared to death you know but once you start to find your sisters you feel a little safer you know you start to run into your brothers you feel a little safer so i felt like that

Network embraced me and being in a grand chapter was like a saving grace oh just just real quick on that i think you know we call it you know we call it the college soil there’s nothing like joining an organization at the college level you can’t you can’t recreate that experience of

Being on a college campus and belonging to organization it’s like equivalent of being a rock star that’s what you become once you put on those letters you’re now a rock star on that on that particular campus um and your life has changed forever but when you go to the graduate chapter graduate

You know are you know alumni brothers in college brothers are two different stages in their life you know i mean so alumni brothers when they come to the table they should be bringing their network to our to our to our network to make our network even bigger

You know i mean and what happens sometimes you some people try to bring the college experience at the alumni level and it’s always been a clash um it’s just really getting that that understanding of i’m from a college chapter this was my experience and an alumni person his

Alumni brother is in a different state of mind a different being i couldn’t imagine some of the things i did when i was an undergrad when i was in college that i would do as a as an adult it just wouldn’t happen you know but could i bring my network now

To enhance office network absolutely you know i mean so there’s definitely a difference and you’re in different stages of your life um at that particular time thank you um we actually have a really good couple of really great questions in the chat um i’ll just go ahead and just read when it uh

Says here that this is open to everybody on the panel uh are there any specific events that hold significance to you or was there a specific moment where you realize the power and strength of your organization i spoke a little bit about this in my breakout room but the college i attended

Lehigh university when i was a student there we just had a whole bunch of really large things going on like the purpose vandalism of the multicultural house didn’t feel like we were in the year we were we felt like we were back in the 60s and we did not have support from the

Administration it was scary to be on campus there and at the time there were no um d9 sororities on campus and the ladies of sigma gamma rho without having interest there without needing to they were in the area and they were they were coming right they were protesting they were making home-cooked

Meals for all of the kids that lived in the multicultural house and that’s what sealed it for me and so i’ll never forget that moment because it saved me in college wow that’s incredible that i’ll happen um one of the things to me that was and i spoke about this also in my

Last breakout that was the most impactful was actually um unlike the rest of the fraternities and sororities we still have four of our 12 remaining founders um still living and i’ve had the opportunity to meet uh them and actually this is a picture of five some of them have passed on since

Um however i’ve had the opportunity uh to to network and learn from them um and i you know i said this also if anybody and i’m sure we get a lot of jokes about you know our founders still being alive but one of the things that i think

That really excites me and invigorates me is the fact that i actually had that that chance and i’m part of the history books and i can even tell uh you know one once they they all are gone i can talk about my interactions and my interface uh with people who started an

Organization in such a time um that was that was uh troubled in our in our nation um so i’m really excited about that and i um i think that’s one of the things that if i have to talk about anything that has changed my my perspective of the fraternities

Meeting um a couple of the founders wow that’s incredible uh for me being a delta i think one of the big things for me is our participation in the women’s suffrage movement and that’ll always be a big thing for me because i think that it transcends just you know black

History black culture like that’s in our history books that you saw in your school so that meant something that you know our part of legacy our part of history is a part of american history it’s something that we all got to learn and it just shows just how important our

Part in history always has been so i think that was always big for me and also you know shirley chisholm being the first black woman in congress as somebody who’s interested in law and things like that that always sat with me because it was like there we are again you know just

Transcending history and just bringing all of these different parts to american history that everyone has to see no matter black white whatever um i have something really quick i had um established a chapter in liberia so i went to the charting of the chapter so i’m in liberia

If you understand the history of liberius and west africa and the president at the time of liberia was an aka and she was going through her inauguration um so along it was the inauguration that we were charting the chapter and of course she wanted to be a part of

It so we’re charting the chapter and again like her security and do you understand what’s happening when we went they were like five years removed from a civil war so we’re literally riding around with security had i known you know i just you know had i know that

They were just fresh off this i was you know it was a whole different way of just looking at this event so when we get there she’s there um one of her security guys was um i was he was standing next to me and we were talking

He said who are you guys and i you know i’m just trying to wear alpha val from you know getting the you know the the normal spill he said no who are you guys and i said well why did you ask he said because in our country the vice president

And the president are never in the same space at the same time and when we were there the vice president of liberia and the president of liberia was at our charting ceremony and that just let me know the power of our fraternity in that particular country so and you

Know she was an aka you know me so it was and i have a picture you know a guy come from humble beginnings growing up in the hill district you know and i’m sitting next to the president of liberia you know you know she’s been i’m shaking her hand sitting next to her

It was it was surreal just being on the continent itself you know it was a moment just from being a member of my organization i’ll never forget that and that is the money class that’s the money class those of you who see this um out we have this thing we call the money

Clock when people do something or say something or give us something that’s valuable we clap like wealthy people do so in our mind’s eye when we see wealthy people clap they clap like this so everyone on the call today definitely deserves a money clap because you give us

So much value um we only have about two minutes left in this week you know don’t mind going over a little bit to answer some more questions um but uh is there anything that um alyssa did you want to ask that other question that was a really good question as well

Or do you want i wanted to ask one more question that i thought could be a nice personal question for everyone to run through not in a hurry but quickly um because it is thursday and some of us got you know thursday things to attend to

Um uh who is someone in your sorority or your fraternity that you actually look up to i want to do a quick run through of all nine and then dr herring i think it would be good for us to close it out then take a second and think about it or feel

Free to jump right in someone in your fraternity or sorority that you do look up to yeah i’ll weigh in here um i talked about this in our breakout groups and it’s an individual who’s younger than i am and that’s colin kaepernick i think what he’s been able to establish and

Putting himself out there to be an activist and to bring to the forefront social justice issues is incredibly inspiring and i think it’s also inspired other young people to be more engaged in activism and to push social justice forward so uh i would say brother kaepernick for sure

That’s a great answer dr pickett thank you so much a lot of people do not know that colin kaepernick is a member of kappa alpha psi fraternity incorporated um thank you so much dr pickett anyone else in your sorority fraternity you look up to sure i’ll share pittsburgh is a blue-collar town

A lot of organized labor i look up to a philip randolph who helped found black unions with the sleeping car reporters so um using that blueprint that he founded as black organized labor got its wings under um his work in his tutelage thank you so much um andy i see you

Unneeded dr hart i’ve seen you unmute and yeah um i have to say um um someone i look up to besides you know my local sewers that i work with um on a daily basis is our 21st 24th international grand bachelor’s mary bro wright this woman will walk into a room and

Light it up not only with her spirit um uh just her um the way she’s able to mobilize you the way she’s able to um to just make you feel like i’m gonna go out and do it right now we’re doing this like she she is just a phenomenal speaker a phenomenal woman

And i feel like um this sisterhood she was really able to rally us all together and the um during her two terms as international grand bachelors um we definitely um accomplished a lot of different things and we got a lot of our zeta history on point and i think that is something that’s

Very very important so i have to say my 24th international grand battle with mary bro wright thank you so much andy uh doctor hara see you’ve unmuted yes um i’ll answer them in a couple ways once there’s a there’s a host of omega men locally that

I look up to i can’t even name them all but just imagine because i’ve been in a fraternity since i’ve been 19 i’m since i was 19 Older black men have a way of of mentoring you like like no other and so to just to have those those men kind of reach me in a different way um and just kind of teach me the ropes and tell me things about myself i might not want to hear

Um that’s very important and so i look up to them and then um in terms of you know a famous of mega man it’d be dr carter g woodson um i just think you know that’s somebody that i’ve always admired um as an author but just just thinking about

Um his focus on us being proud of our history and it being important for us to celebrate our accomplishments and and who we are and our heritage i think that that’s uh that’s really really critical let’s go next um to kind of follow your lead i have to start with local

All estuaros have something called a sigma mom and your sigma mom is with you for life they require excellence in everything you do and so that’s something i really love because it’s personalized um but if we’re talking about like a national figure hattie mcdaniel first black women to win an academy award

Our breast cancer programs are named after her um it reminds me as a school teacher as an educator to require excellence right she won that in a time where everything was segregated if she can do that right black women can do anything and for me um i would say i would um

Also echo a lot of what my colleagues mentioned about um some of their their uh local members of their chapter i’m inspired by a lot of the younger brothers because they’re doing wonderful things and kind of changing history but i’ve had to talk about a notable iota someone who has

Been a great mentor to me and actually got me interested in the field of uh activism and and social justice was congressman bobby rush um who was a black panther um and you know had a lot a lot of history and is still making um making waves you know in congress um so

You know for me you know you know looking up to him and speaking to him and getting uh garnering advice um just about life and about what it is to be a social activist and a social justice warrior for that matter um has been has been invaluable i i’m just want to just

Interject really quickly about bobby rush just correct me if i’m wrong but he helped found that chicago chapter of the black panther party with uh chairman fred hampton am i correct that is correct and so if you guys are looking for something to find out about history

You can actually take a look at this movie that just came out up for all kinds of awards called judas and the black messiah true story fred hampton bobby rush bill o’neil take a look at it amazing dr aaron you can lead us out um i would

Personally like to say thank you so much um melissa who is your person dorothy irene hey use her um i have so many women um like someone said um kind of on the call earlier um there have been a lot of women that i just surrounded myself with in college who i

Said to myself if these are the women that i want to follow i want to be just like them so all the women of delta sigma theta who came before me but there are women likes like shirley chisholm and soledad o’brien um who are in the politics sphere and

Who all are who are all about people sora marsha fudge is getting ready to be um the head of hud um and so things like that uh are what move me um seeing that she can run hud and me being an organizer here in pittsburgh there’s a direct correlation there

Um and so i see myself connected to people like uh sora kamala harris um and even president barack obama who started like an organizer like me and so i would like to and i know he’s not a frat but i would like to continue in the steps of those great political

Leaders um hopefully one day um dr simmons you have your hand raised um sure uh one person that i do look up to literally is brother victor glover who actually was the or is the pilot of the spacex crew dragon so his next uh mission is to land it safely but

Someone else that i looked up to or that i look up to is brother goldstein um from north carolina a t and um he was a proud or he is a proud sigma man and one of the things that i tried to do while i was a an undergrad was try

To carry myself and conduct myself academically socially and culturally the way that he did and i had the opportunity to see him at the conclave um the one that was in detroit and he came up to me and he said you know um i had always found him inspirational and

He came over to me and said i just find so much inspiration in you and so he told me that and he here’s a person who when we built the the um our monument and at howard i paid to put his name on it and in lieu of mine because of

How important that man has been to me and for him to to like say that to me was just you know it is something that i always like whenever i think about it i get emotional just because in trying to you know stand proudly on his shoulders he in turn

Tells me how much or how proud he is of me and that that was just an inspiring moment for me wow that’s powerful that is very powerful dr simmons uh you can’t can nobody come after that who who who won’t come after that who’s gonna say something after that

He just dropped the mic he’s gonna drop that one clearly so first and foremost i do have to say who i look up to one locally it’s actually a man from erie uh some of you may know him his name is fred rush just you know been in politics statewide uh

Just took me up under his name and just helped mold me and craft me to the person that i am today so i’m not going to go deep into it but definitely fred rushes locally but um someone who’s actually wearing the same cohort same age pledges the outfit chapter at cornell university

Is brother robert smith for him to be able to go to morehouse pay for every one’s tuition just you know you leave school with no debt that’s one of the most powerful things that i’ve ever heard of if i was a billionaire that’s what i would be doing

Just paying for kids to go to school so those are two people that i look up to so um as we’re wrapping this up first and foremost i want to give a money clap to all of the panelists once again you guys were amazing um i want to give a money cut for

Everyone who came out tonight and you spent your time with us so definitely time is the most valuable thing you have so we just want to tell you that we honor that uh there’s a couple of things that i want to say i’m going to ask uh

Our keeper to put this information in a chat we have a book the kids have written a book it’s right here uh it’s called raise your voice oh wait a minute i see dr pickett he’s holding his up i need my copy the story uh we’ll have the link in here where you

Can actually go we don’t have uh we’re a school district so we have to go old school like an order form but definitely a little pretty order form if you’re interested in this uh 20 books would really help support our chapter and keep us going

I’m not all just our chapter but all of the shelf chapters um secondly the kids we actually have multiple chapters based off of this model we have built 10 chapters of xiaomi in the last six months and so what we did was we partnered with another one of our chapters oh yeah that

Is worth the money class definitely so um the even worse school district and the south fayette school district got together and did a podcast so the first ever shout podcast is available now that’s going to be placed into the chat as well so you guys like what you hear here go

Ahead and check out the podcast click you know the like button click the bell subscribe for notifications the whole nine yards so you can definitely be um informed when the next all of our um podcasts come out and then finally if you guys really like what you heard here

Next month her story month her story months i want to say that again her story month it’s going to be about the ladies and we’re having an event here with the gba you guys are all invited and thank all of your colleagues invite all of your friends invite all of your family members

To get some more about this great hurt story on march 23rd so with that i am just again humbled that you guys came out and i am just ecstatic that so many of you were able to experience a little bit of what i’ve been able to experience

For the past i’ll be in the fraternity in april 34 years so thank you so much um you guys have an amazing evening i’m going well i don’t know if leslie has anything to say thank the gpa the green building alliance thank you for south fayette and you can thank your panelists

Have an amazing night have a great night everybody thank you again thanks everybody thank you thank you you

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