Foreign Perspective I am your host Lana Reed and today today on this day I am so pleased I’m so excited um I have the brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha for eternity Incorporated Zeta Theta Lambda chapter out in Harrisburg Pennsylvania with me today and ah this has been a long time
Coming and I’m just I’m just so tickled that they all made time to sit down and talk with me and looking forward to hear more about their chapter and the work that they are doing but first and foremost as I always do gentlemen I take
A quick moment to pause say thank you to all of you for making time for me today time is a gift once we give it we cannot get it back so I truly truly appreciate you all making time to sit down and chat with me and with that the gentleman of
The black and the gold welcome welcome to the show thank you so much started somebody uh just Just when did you get chartered and uh all of that’s good stuff I’ll I’ll begin uh my name is uh uh brother Kenneth II I’m the president of the city Atlanta chapter about five Fraternity Incorporated uh seat held uh house 241 uh May 12 1955 is when we were chartered uh
We currently are a chapter of about 38 uh Brothers uh very distinguished chapter we have a nice long lineage of Brotherhood and service in our community uh we actually won the pack the pack stands for Pennsylvania Association of alpha chapters chapter of the Year award this year
Um so we’ve been doing a lot of good things in the community um and the brothers that you see here are very integral and and not for productivity in the community and what we all have achieved so again thank you for having us awesome awesome so they so
50 what year did I hear again 1955. it’s been around for a minute now been around for a minute now as I was reading getting ready for today’s show I I think I read that your chapter sponsors to uh College chapters what what does that entail you guys breaking
Up parties late at night and telling people to go study or what’s all what’s all involved with sponsoring some undergrads well um we do it I’ll actually let our chapter advisor speak to the to the bulk of this but we do have responsibility uh
For uh Gamma New uh gamma news uh uh the alpha the undergraduate graduate Alpha chapter seated at Penn State University University Park Pennsylvania uh and then Ohio stigma Iota stigma which is actually a cluster of chapters uh Millersville Shippensburg if I’m leaving if I’m leaving a couple out brothers
Please help me out uh but those are the those are the the main two uh that we see we have our chapter advisors here that can speak a little bit about our support um and the advising responsibilities chapter advisors yes so as mentioned well good evening again miss Reed thank
You as an already mentioned from our President mickens we are delighted that you have chosen us to be a part of this but as being a chapter advisor um it’s a great opportunity to be able to meet young brothers who are going through their college experience they’ve
Been fortunate enough to join Alpha and of course this is a lifelong journey so our responsibility is to kind of make that connection to provide that guidance to provide that mentorship it’s a great chance to be able to speak with them about of course what it is to be a man
Of Alpha and of course support them in their academic successes we don’t want to leave that out the equation so we find ourselves meeting with them on a regular basis of course they reach out to us if we can provide them any support in any way whatsoever and the
Encouragement is hopefully once they leave their college chapter to join a graduate chapter but we emphasize of course this is not an organization that focus on of course just the social aspect of things there’s also a business Lane that we want them to be aware of and to get accustomed to there’s a
Community to serve and we always go back and reflect upon those values because we want them to know that this Legacy of alpha is a huge Endeavor and we want to see them all be successful of that fortunately I’m the chapter advisor of Iota Sigma and I’m going to now pass it
To my other brother uh Anthony Cox who’s the advisor of the Gamma New Chapter at Penn State yeah thank you Elena for having us and uh yeah we you know brother Harris covered most of it but uh a large part of it is really making sure that we’re guidance
For them especially with uh both of our universities being um but I’m a white institutions making sure they have mentorship and guidance to navigate that space as well so some of it is also making sure we help them navigate this space that may be somewhat unique to them
So you gentlemen are all professional men so my question um listening to the two of you talk do you also help uh the undergrads transition into professional careers is that some of that involved as well or or no yes that is we actually have a kind of initiative
Um called College to Career which is basically for just that uh making sure that we help them with securing internships mentoring um I know that we both sit down with our College brothers when they get to their junior year and say hey what’s next for you after
College uh most of the people in the chapter I advise wanted to be engineers and so we started how do we get there so there is a large part of that as well helping them transition into the professional world as well okay okay College to Career I had heard about uh
The other uh programs Alpha has initiative Nationwide what what is it school college help me out now I’m 53 now come on now go to college there you go but I didn’t hear about the uh college to Career One okay that’s awesome all right corporate life I believe corporate yeah
Okay all right okay happy 20 y’all be doing this stuff well I want to um I have a short amount of time and I want to talk about some of the community work that you gentlemen are doing in the Harrisburg area and it’s just so much of it I wrote down a
Few of them as I was roaming around your website and social media so I picked a few um and I’m gonna just ask you guys to explain expound on what you do now the first thing I saw is you recently were involved in an HBC HBCU college fair did you
Um take the kids to an HBCU or was it at an event or how did all of that play out so um you spoke about one of our national initiatives go to our school to college and in order to kind of help and my dad put into practice we held in HBCU
College period when we did is we partnered with Big Brother Big Sister who’s one of our national departments but we partnered with Big Brother Big Sister Capital Region and what we did is we um kind of broken into three prongs problem one was um to allow them to kind of see uh meet
Some of the different College Representatives some of the colleges were represented by um admissions counselors and some of the colleges represented by and love we have two alumn that were on here brother brother Mick is the second representative Hampton and brother Harris represented Bowie State so they
Got a chance to kind of see HBCU live from the admissions counseling perspective and the alumni Council perspective um some of the students actually were admitted to college on the spot uh and received hot scholarships the second part was kind of to get the chance to
See what college life was like so they got and then we also got a chance for them to kind of have what we call a Sonic day for lack of better words but they got to choose school they wanted to commit to and things of that nature so
It was a really good time so we didn’t take them to Cal that’s kind of the next step in this program okay okay and one of the underline elements that definitely we realized that day that we kind of talked about behind the scenes we wanted the students to be exposed to
Know that they can be successful that they can go to college that the opportunity of a higher education opportunity is there because of course a lot of individuals a lot of students may have that defeated mindset but we wanted to kind of give them that growth mindset
To say you know what these schools are out here and they’re looking for wonderful students like you and it doesn’t always require the school the school’s valedictorian or salutatorian and speaking with the representative they actually you know provided that warming environment but us as brothers kind of was walking around Whispering
Their ear letting them know that hey I can see you being that individual walking around the campus of Hampton I can see you being that individual walking around the campus of Lincoln University fortunately the state of Pennsylvania has two hbcus Lincoln and Cheney and Lincoln was represented there
And brother Saunders is actually a graduate of Lincoln University so we were able to kind of share with them the possibility of them being able to see themselves and create that vision of being a college student okay great uh Lincoln and Cheney that’s a uh which came first the chicken or the egg
HBCU uh battle there is it am I just remembering correctly yes oh sorry brother Casa Cuts you off you have the first that was established in the first that was accredited I think that’s usually the battle between the two um yeah I’ve run to a couple it’s a it’s a
Fierce little battle but you know I’m one of those ones that went to a predominantly white but it’s always it’s always interesting to hear that now um when it comes to education and getting to college one of the things is we need the money we need the money to go to
College and one of the things that Alphas do across the board you guys come up with some phenomenal scholarships to help the kids go to school and your particular chapter has two I believe right is there um could you explain like what they are and what are the requirements
And when are they handed out yeah we have the uh Andrew and Bradley scholarship is uh probably the first one you reference it in the James portlock and uh generally uh the requirements are normally we’re looking for college I mean excuse me high school one of them
Is the portlock is for a student looking to attend HBCU the other you can be looking at 10 anywhere and that was one of the things that we tried to push at the HBCU college fair so we normally um you give out one or a couple scholarships per year and follow the
Students to make sure that we’re keeping up with them while they’re in college as well you keep you keep up with the students when they’re in college okay yeah and some of them end up going on to come out because I think the the one of the last Andrew and Bradley
Scholarship recipients went on to be coming out so it’s always good to kind of see us so one of them and then those them don’t take that stepping Alpha and so on to someone else okay all right all right all right now another thing I saw you
Um gentleman did and let me shift a little bit is uh this past Thanksgiving you did a um Feast with the Pharaohs she did her research I’m a lady you know I’m scrolling around on the social media yeah I did my research yeah I did my research so tell me about
That event and and what what what that was all about the Cox put that together you thought I was just gonna come on here and just you know yo I wasn’t I was not masturbating you I’m just impressed um yeah if you’re pleased with the Pharaoh so we we try to
Um under under our um our leadership we tried to do this we tried to pick community service initiatives that were themed whenever my theme Thanksgiving time we know there’s a lot of people who don’t have homes that they can eat at um we know that there’s always shelters
And things of that nature we wanted to provide some of the people in Harrisburg that may not have some of the same opportunities we have with an opportunity to have a home for Thanksgiving meal so we had about uh eight seven or eight families that we
Sponsored we brought them out we um had a home-cooked meal that we fed to them and we fellowship with them and uh ended up kind of what we considered and we adopted them as our own so it was a good time to kind of we bought a piece of the
Pharaoh let’s try to make it Alpha theme and we had a home cooked meal with them and it was really a good time for us to sew into their lives awesome I love it and I’m and I’m truly hoping your research also showed that the relationship didn’t end right there
Because during the month of December we had the fortunate opportunity to be able to reach out to some of those families and we had a toy Drive which was a tremendous success and even though the temperature was ice cold but we are accustomed to that we were still going
Around knocking on doors uh walking in the homes getting a chance to give those families some toys kind of almost a surprise basis but they were absolutely laid it and we’ve been already talking behind the scenes of what more can we do to continue the relationship with them but we’re definitely encouraged about
Being able to provide that support it truly was a rewarding event a lot of times when it comes to Black Greek fraternities there’s a stigma that it’s all about party it’s all about party but I think people don’t realize um there’s a lot of community service
That goes on in there and there’s a lot of pouring back into the areas that you guys are in and I think really people need to to understand that more a lot of people see you guys out there they see the letters they see the colors but like
Hey what are those guys doing and they’re doing a lot they’re kind of keeping uh your communities afloat and people don’t realize that um so it’s it’s very important and I’m glad you’re here explaining that now I do have um a little bone to pick with you gentlemen
Um and as whoever mentioned that I did my research I I was doing my research and what I was doing as I Was preparing for today’s show I was kind of going through the social media and I came across a post and said well let me
Listen to it and I was multitasking on the computer but you as were in the process of giving away a raffle in there’s two of you on here that were doing this particular video and I was listening and I heard something and I said ooh me and ztl might not be friends
For too long um you guys were giving away some tickets for a football game I happen to be a Saints fan okay sorry about that yes sorry about that yes I’m a Saints fan also so um you know I was like um and I really don’t understand you know
My Saints Alphas Black Gold I thought maybe like on the bylaws page 35 paragraph three you guys all automatically had to be Saints fans but you guys were giving away this other team but I was like okay well you know the local team I’ll get past that at a
Local connection line that’s all but anyways for those of us who you know might want to support you still financially because it takes a lot of money to do the community service work that you guys do um and you need fundraisers I think I saw you guys who were having a black and
Gold campaign is that your fundraiser thing besides the football tickets correct uh black and gold uh campaign started I believe back in 2013 um with the end goal of raising uh funds uh to acquire a headquarters which we which we have acquired um I believe we acquired this back in
Early 2020 I want to say fully renovated um the house into a commercial space uh I believe up to up to date um we’ve we’ve raised over a hundred thousand dollars for sure um I believe the mark may be around 1 10 something of that nature
Um but yes uh in conjunction with our black and gold Foundation our charitable armor black and gold campaign uh was founded to to raise funds and um yes we we do take um charitable donations to that fund and we also Brothers also pledge a certain dollar
Amount every year uh to our black and gold campaign that helps for different for different functions of the house different expenses if we have to fix a roof or do some Plumbing work or help with you know utilities luckily uh we were blessed to purchase this home outright
Um so we do not have a mortgage on this home but of course you know we do our brothers have still have skin in the game and they help support uh the campaign by you know pledging a certain dollar amount so yes it’s been it’s been very successful thus
Far so the property that you uh purchase it’s available for people to have events and stuff like that is it one of those situations or setups people we can uh we can have events there we haven’t uh we’ve had events there ourselves we’ve not necessarily have had other organizations hold their
Own events there as of yet um we still um have a development piece that we want to uh still renovate we have another piece of the property um that we’re looking to raise additional funds for so that we can kind of revamp that uh portion of the
Property into more of a community Civic engagement Community mentorship or youth space um so so yeah so once we get completely completely done with the project we’ll have a lot more things that we can offer and services for the community okay um you mentioned something mentorship for Youth and I forgot something I
Wanted to ask you I I saw um you gentlemen I think it was past January you had a uh you went to a school you were partnership with uh you partnered with a school and you had a program and I said wow that’s amazing I
Think that should be in a lot of schools you you talked about relationships and talks masculinity how do they go over with the kids it went over well one of our other National programs we have about project Alpha and the goal of that is to really address some of those tough topics that
We have to have on young men it went really well um the children were very open we got a chance to talk about um what is it like being the the oldest child if you come from a family where you come from a single mother household
And you’re expected to step into a uh a male role or father role in some circumstances or the opposite you know you come from a a very strong developed family and you’re expected to live up to these certain expectations so if students are really open with us and it
Was a really great just kind of one-on-one conversation I think that really got to the Crux of what project out was about okay some future Alphas in the making there I’m assuming gears here a little bit a little nosy personally with some of you um as human beings we’re supposed to evolve
Hopefully we’re supposed to evolve and we’re supposed to grow and we all go through seasons in life I’m not sure how many of you that I have with me pledged undergrad but if you you okay so reflecting back like as the years pass in meaning and purpose being a man of
Alpha how is that wrong for you how’s it changed for you uh being a man of alpha from being an undergrad to what it is for you now well brother Saunders raised his hand but I can start um it was I I felt very fortunate number one in stepping my freshman year at
Alcorn State University back in Mississippi uh yes you’re back my brother and and having a chance of just kind of seeing these guys from afar and then of course having the opportunity to join the organization uh again very fortunate um I wasn’t the party guy I was the guy
Kind of trying to find myself and in joining the organization I was really seeking a what you’ve heard this word before Brotherhood to try to build a relationship with a group of individuals after leaving school it continued within as far as you know seeking uh to have a relationship with
Other guys to be able to find like-mindedness to be able to find guys who maybe has some additional aspirations that met in line with what my career goal was about fortunately in my journey uh family came about and I had to step away and come back and step away because that’s just
Some time how this thing called life goes but all along there was a gravitational pull to be able to uh have an unfortunate opportunity to meeting good gentlemen within the organization and to find them motivational to find them encouraging to find a shoulder to
Lean on someone to be able to talk to my Line brothers that I met back at Alcorn and so through the development and through of course over the years it’s always been a continual thing of having interest in some of the core values of alpha the community service aspect the
Mentoring aspect uh being able to do things like that in church but also being able to do things like that in the organization so over the past 31 years has been absolutely rewarding to be able to say that I was fortunate enough to join this great organization and to be
Able to carry along its Mission and still have that uh Brotherhood aspiration that Brotherhood mindset to me like gentlemen of these uh that’s in this um meeting with me right now and that has always been truly intimate and personal throughout my journey now I’ll jump in if you could hear me
Um I played the 1984 so I’m going on 40 years and um you know I’ve traveled from you know here in Pennsylvania and pleasure and Lincoln out to Arizona uh to California and now back here and in all those stops I connected with the brothers in the local chapter much of what brother
Harris said in regards to having people having other brothers that supported you pushed you held you accountable you know it was all about community service and doing the best by by the community and their families I’m always striving to move forward it’s been a um
A very positive part of my my life my my son is also in Alpha um he pledged in California so do your gentlemen come from a family line of Alphas or are you the first in your or was this something you I was the first you were the first what
Was it that was impressionable to you about it because you had you on first on campus freshman year on on campus there were some other people probably tuggling it you know it was just a thing of noticing their demeanor um they were known to be scholastically gifted gentlemen who of course uh always
Had this look of debonair about themselves and me being kind of the nerdy guy I was like you know what this may be something that I uh won’t Express a little interest in now of course you had all your other organizations but in seeing some of the things that they were
Doing not knocking them by no means but those things just were not in line with my personality or in line with what I wanted to see myself develop into I had some um gentlemen from my hometown who were Alpha and I looked at them as being very well respected gentleman in the
Community and so I had one uh gentleman who kind of was like an older brother to me and I didn’t know until after a certain period of time that he actually was a man of Alpha and so I really felt as though you know what maybe if I could
Actually express interest in be be fortunate enough to be a part of this maybe I can continue carrying that on that Legacy on in my hometown and of course to be able to involve myself personally professionally now I’m going to pick on you um quasi because you haven’t been quiet this
Whole time why did you choose to pursue Alpha by Alpha Fraternity Incorporated um that’s a great question I think uh for me it’s it’s different because I joined as um through the alumni chapter but also joined I guess I would say at a more later age at the age of 38 so I’m
Actually going on two years now being part of the paternity but for me in particular um I was being living in the area of Harrisburg for some time always trying to connect with like-minded um professionals uh men for that matter black men for that matter who are actually looking and doing work and
Engaging within the community and it wasn’t a matter of that there weren’t other organizations doing it but it’s a matter of doing it in a way that I see myself doing it yes that’s what I recognized about the chapter as far as the work that they do here in Harrisburg
Whether it be through the different programs of go to high school go to college and I hope uh voteless people to hopeless people and other aspects that we do uh within the community just kind of seeing myself and seeing how they do it is probably what caught my attention the
Most um it did not hurt that my sister is a an AKA out of Philadelphia so that was also that part as well too um but just kind of seeing the community that meeting these gentlemen um both younger and older than me and just how they connected and how they kind of
Um supported each other in the advancement of doing things in central Pennsylvania I I was all in once I saw that so that was kind of my purpose behind joining and I’m glad I did because I see it come to fruition after being on the other side uh and being
Part of the work that we do here in Harrisburg Area awesome amazing now you mentioned something um you know we go through these seasons in life and and the reality is a a young guy 18 19 20 while he’s in college he might say you know fraternity life is
Not for me but once he gets out late 20s 30s he might say this is something that I want to belong to so what requirements how does that go how does that transpire for a man to join the organization later in life versus in college what’s required
So I I speak for um and if others want to jump in that spawn too as well but I know that for the I guess the criteria for um alumni chapter the the first thing is you have to be a college graduate from a four-year institution um that’s number
One and then from there it’s more or less kind of recognizing kind of the I guess let’s see your professional status but some of the things you do that you’re involved in um kind of what work are you doing before you joined Alpha that makes you I guess a representative
Or a better representative of being a part of the organization for that matter too um there are things related to you know um your background check so there are certain things that you can’t have in your criminal background that would um kind of put a damper on being a part of
Attorney like outside Fraternity Incorporated uh and there’s other pieces of one alumni standpoint um but from an undergrad standpoint I’d have to have lean one of the other brothers to speak to that as far as um those details a brand you know we have we have a philosophy we have to observe
Yeah well I guess I’ll just undergrad for the undergrad standpoint you have to have a 2.5 GPA and be a um have completed your first semesters you have to be a second semester freshman um obviously some schools have different specific rules some schools still can override that and say hey you can’t join
As a freshman but at least overarching out we look for a 2.5 GPA obviously commitment to scholarship commitment to community work um and that’s kind of the start to the journey from there okay Community work I forgot to mention you also have to be a registered voter so
You do have to be a president okay correct correct being obviously us uh Champion championing um voter registration voter education um you can’t not be a registered voter and still be doing that so we have to be whatever party you choose is your party but you have to be a registry voter to
Join the paternity this one I’m going to be knocking or what is it voteless people is our registered to vote okay it makes sense and it makes sense all right well um I have I think I have one more question here unless something else pops up to mine um I um
Saw some of the lines that had crossed your in your chapter I think it was on your Instagram post and it made me think I had a conversation years ago with a lady um she was not black but we were watching a a line at an undergraduate chapter and
She was so puzzled she was like what is going on you know what is that and and it made me think to the person who’s not experienced in our culture it might look a little odd it might look a little puzzling but I was telling you there’s a
Lot of you know this is a um you know a lot of life lessons a lot of learning has gone in this is a very Monumental event you know so what character traits life skills are taught in the process of pledging of fraternity that people really understand let me jump in there now
Um new chapter I would say dealing with pressure uh working as a as a as a team um time management I mean because you’re still while you’re going through all that you’re going through you’re still you know you’re still going to school um I’ll open it up for others to add in on
That yeah I’ll jump in I think a big part of it is um as brother son has already mentioned for not just time management but kind of navigating adversity because all these things that we’re learning during this process is teaching us to be better leaders and better advocators for
Our community so in that process you learned about you know being a team player being supportive not always being the one up front but also being the one able to support and collaborate as well but even that act in itself is an act of leadership so the relation to community engagement and
Community Connection teaching um time management teaching you know how to use your voice because sometimes when people are used to trying to lead they’re not it’s not natural for them to speak out or stand against something or stand in support of something that may not be common so
Trying to learn that uh in the process as well as far as using your voice to Advocate certain things is important too and a big part of learning in this process I would I would also say it it challenges you but it also builds your confidence uh there are different
Obstacles that are placed in your in your way during one’s process where you wouldn’t think you’d be able to clear those obstacles otherwise um and those when we talk about adversity um my brother uh stated um and you know you look back and you say wow like I did that I never thought
I would be able to complete that task or um I never thought I’d be able to remember that amount of information or data or this was a a poem that I never thought I’d be able to recite um so it was different things that are put in your place where life lesson
Purposes to say hey everything is done has a reason for it and once you complete that Journey you realize you know those reasons were to better for the better making of men and it really does do that in your process it challenges you intellectually and it also challenges you
Um to you know complete test that you wouldn’t otherwise think you could do you know without you know without the process life skills life skills now um Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated likely said throughout our time today is heavily vested in community service um and that whole process of not only
Doing the community service preparing for it raising the funds that’s a lot of work you know that’s that’s that’s a lot of work on your shoulders my question to you gentlemen is as a Brotherhood how do you guys pour into each other and mentally Shore each other up and support
Each other and kind of keep each other pushing forward because you guys are carrying a lot of stuff from a lot of work a lot of work to be done I could jump in on one quick aspect um so we have a program called My Brother’s Keeper and one aspect that I’ve incorporated
Into that program where we’re looking to take care of our brothers is to focus in on health so we had our third Men’s Health webinar a couple of weeks ago and we talked about physical health you know about getting your screenings and exercise and and eating right but we
Also talked about Mental Health as well kind of long lines of which are what you’re speaking to in regards to nurturing and you know encouraging brothers and helping them deal with issues that they may be confronted with but this year also we incorporated um oral health and we learned about how
You know you you need to take care of your teeth and be cognizant of what’s happening in your in your mouth because that can affect your overall physical health okay um there may be other you know things that other brothers want to bring up in that regard
I’ll just add you know as that was we try to you know maintain an iron sharpens iron approach and part of that is you know all of us here are professionals and doing well not profession most of the time and most not professional spaces we don’t see other
People that look anything like us so Alpha is a what I consider a safe space you ask how do we keep each other motivated and encouraged encouraging being around each other spending time together fellowship and talking about things that may be happening at work challenges you may be encountering and
Maybe one brother has encountered a challenge and I’m now encountering uh encountering excuse me my workplace so that’s a large part of it as well you know being that iron that can sharpen uh that iron that’s next to me and and we find ourselves doing outings
Together we go to dinner together we may go to breakfast together we may meet up at um a sporting event we we’re talking about over the summer possibly taking trips maybe going to a museum or some other uh significant places we we celebrate each other events we were
Fortunate enough even just on Sunday to celebrate a brother’s graduation so we find that when these Milestones come about in their brother’s life we we really just jump in and be supportive and encouraged and that’s kind of a get away from the business of alpha but to
Also be able to embrace each other from a personal aspect and we look to establish those relationships and grow those relationships so again that support can continue going even further would be a good idea here it doesn’t always go smoothly there is some mediation that’s needed sometimes there
Is some discussion some hard discussions that need to happen uh from time to time but as brothers we we work it we work it through because there’s a a bigger goal that we’re trying to achieve in the small petty stuff only gets in in the
Way of that so we do the best that we can to overcome uh those those aspects no I I I’ll go ahead no I’m just going to build it what brother Saunders says as far as the idea of um not giving off the perception everything is perfect but everything is
We’re working towards that connection and that community and that continued Brotherhood on a constant basis so I think when speaking for myself uh the uni the unique thing about me and maybe for other people as well is when you join something like this before you join you
See yourself as an individual you know and then once you’re a part of it then you’re more of a collective a more of a Brotherhood so when you have those hard conversations you know they’re coming from a place of love and a place of trust so there’s a
Different approach to that in those conversations whereas outside of alpha sometimes that same conversation may not be received the same way so I think that us being intentional and understanding how to lean in to those conversations has been a big thing that I’ve seen reflected from the brothers that are on this call
Tonight and other brothers I’ve seen um since my time being a part of that as well I just wanted to Echo that sentiment as far as brothers had mentioned a lot of that um I don’t like you right now I love you but I don’t really like what you’re doing right now
So you know a lot of that going on I understand I can understand well let me ask you I said I have one last question but I lied I got one more question um you guys are all biased of course we’re all biased to Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity
We understand that but let’s say um one of these young gentlemen that you Mentor you have uh like a little bit babe you’ve got them off it’s freshman year in uh college and they come and have a sit down talk with you and they say you know I’m kind of I’m kind of
Perplexed I’m kind of torn I’ve got these options here I’m not really sure what I should choose to pursue what conversation would you have with them when they’re sitting there trying to figure out if they which way they should go I guess I would say do your research look who
Um or our members of the respective fraternities that’s one place to start I think one thing that’s pretty unique is that you know every every chapter every College chapter every alumni chapter is is different it’s it’s Unique so you may be in a community that the Elvis are doing one thing and
Be somewhere else and they’re doing something else um and then you may be in a community where one organization is is out front versus another and that may direct you in a particular way um so it kind of depends upon where you live what school you go to that type of
Thing as well no go ahead brother Cox and I can follow I was going to add you know in addition to do your research the question I would ask the conversation is you know which group of men exemplifies what you what you see yourself as and or what you want to be
Um yeah I think I think that’s a large part of you know a decision making process you know who’s where you want to be who’s what you are who represents what you uh yours to your values who carries the same values you have that’s
Kind of you know the type of the way I would steer that type of conversation my conversation is traditionally you know what let’s not even try to rush into this okay it’s not a thing of you have to hurry up and join an organization let’s focus on being a
Successful black male student because the higher education statistics say you know we joined school but we don’t graduate let’s focus on getting a academic system in place where you are able to be academically academically successful and then we open our mind up too of course the fraternal organizations let’s not even worry about
That right now that that’s going to be there let’s focus on you being acclimated to this institution finding your place in regard to a major and what you want to find yourself your end goal being as far as uh graduating and advancing in a career we can always come
Back to the conversation of fraternity but let’s first and foremost focus on why you’re here and that is to of course find yourself participating in a graduation at some particular period of time where you’re located my freshman year in college at the college I was at UCLA there were
Sororities that I didn’t even like Sigma gamma row I think that’s like that was the East Coast thing so I didn’t even know that that was a thing until probably like junior year and they were not around on the west coast and so it’s what’s there it’s what you know you need
To be focusing on it’s a lot of good tips there and yeah well sirs I um I have taken up more of your time oh I’m sorry I’ve taken up more of your time than I was supposed to today my true true apologies um I’m gonna ask you my random question
And then I’m going to ask you how we get in touch with you for donations if we don’t want to buy those yellow black and red tickets uh football tickets and um do you have any uh social functions coming up I saw somewhere down the line
You had a golf tournament uh some years back but any other events coming up yes we do have some events coming up we’re going to be having an alpha week coming up in the summer and we know the weather’s getting ready to get good and we spent the Fraternal year uh
Contributing commitments we’re gonna have some social events that are not just open to people in the Harrisburg Area um doing some brunch functions um to raise some money for scholarships and just Fellowship we’re going to be looking at um doing a poetry night at karaoke night
Paint and Sip there’s a lot of different series of things that are coming so we will definitely have those events broadcasted out on social media as well some culture Brothers some paint the soup okay okay yeah cool how far is Harrisburg from um Philly about two hours I would say
Oh yeah I was 45 minutes if you were here yeah so the closest the next Alpha alumni chapter to you is how far away Yeah Yeah Montgomery County is about about an hour 30 minutes away or even the Baltimore traffic might be closest okay so I’m gonna ask my I’m gonna put
My random question and then you know whoever wants to take it can take it if you don’t like it then I’ll put another one for the next few gentlemen because I’m not used to having this many on the show so let’s see not that one not not that one that’s true
When it comes to toilet paper is it over or under over who’s that over oh okay okay all right next you want another another one Mr that was an easy one I thought there was something you want another one that said under so I could judge them appropriately but nobody said
You’re just laughing they’re not saying anything so we don’t really know yet hold on a second this might not be your brothers after tonight hold on I’m saying let me see is it over under oh over for me I think that was a unanimous over yes yes one more question
Say what he said what is one thing you always procrastinate on I’ll be honest with me it’s getting up I probably hit my snooze button about 15 to 20 times a morning so I’ll be transparent on that thank you anybody else fill up my gas tank I’ll
Say I let that thing get to right above that golden e I’m right I’m I’m right there with you and I know exactly how many miles I can go when it hits the yeah we squeeze it in yeah we have a fraternity brother who will remain nameless who routinely runs out of gas
But that’s what he has you guys for that’s right I don’t need AAA I have my brothers this is clearly part of his life routine is running out of gas so is he is he I mean you know he’s nameless he’s nameless but is he on the the zoom
Call no no oh okay okay I was gonna pick one of y’all figuring out who what it’s not me gas up in Harrisburg is two dollars and something we wish oh we wish oh man come on yeah let us know your connection if you got two dollars three dollars for real yeah well
Depending on where you go you know you can pay it away from 3.40 to 300 3.80 And doing our homework about you are you in California I’m in L.A yeah because we did we did do a lot we did yeah me too okay so we all doing the back and forth research yeah you know no so it’s it’s four dollars and some change here
But yeah you know but see me being biased for California everybody else has to be two dollars I mean everybody else is two dollars but nine okay all right learning something new every day I have I have never even passed through I don’t think in all my travels I don’t think
I’ve ever passed through Harrisburg I might have to gotta come on I might have to come through and see my brother’s right here yeah I might have to come through and see y’all if it’s and and give some uh some of my donations as your fundraising and stuff like that and
Uh I’m gonna bring a whole bunch of saints and jerseys just because yes because we’d have been all right long not nobody’s a Cowboy fan no no no no I don’t hear it all right awesome we all right we work we work we work well gentlemen well gentlemen I’m so
I’m so proud yeah I know y’all hear it all the time I’m so proud of y’all I am I am I’m so impressed with y’all I just I just love when I see my brothers pouring back into the community because it is such an impact it’s such um
Especially for the young kids when they see Brothers out there rolling up their sleeves and putting in the work because sometimes they feel like nobody cares um the lives that you’re touching especially with the adopting the families for the Thanksgiving dinner you know sometimes you just feel like a lost
Voice and where am I gonna get some help from and Alpha Phi Alpha with their capes on here we are to save the day it’s just it’s just it’s just so phenomenal I mean um and and sometimes it’s a thankless job so um you have Lana over here saying
Thank you um I love you guys for what you’re doing what you stand for um just thank you very much Denise the need the need is great gentlemen I thank you all for your time today and I do nothing but continue success and impact on people’s lives uh
Old too young and uh nothing but the best from Lana thank you guys for your time that’s all for this week’s episode of the male perspective I’m your host Lana Reed and I will see everybody next time
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