Love told radio [Applause] good morning everybody good morning welcome to another episode of house talk pregame i’m your co-host ronnie ransom of virginia state university um i also have with me jared johnson of bowie state university unfortunately this morning dr pitt dr lauren pitts isn’t able to be with us this morning
Her family is currently mourning the loss of a loved one so for all of those who are listening this morning let’s please extend our condolences and prayers to dr kiss and her family as they’re going through this uh tough time with their family um you know covet is definitely
You know hasn’t been playing fair this year and you know a lot of people have lost their lives a lot of people have lost loved ones to this tragic virus so you know enjoy each moment you have with your loved ones you know extend the arm out to them when
They need to check up on them as needed and you know let’s keep everybody safe um you know each week we’re happy you know happy to have our family here listening with us each and every week tuning in chiming in on the conversations um we know we’re excited that you know
On hey on hsrn they’re playing our old shows at 11 o’clock in the morning so during this hour right now and then in the evenings i believe at 10 o’clock at night so if you have a siriusxm radio and you have the hsrn uh channel on there give a listen to our
Old episodes as well you can catch our other episodes as well on um apple podcast as well and uh spotify um and eventually as dr fitz said in recent weeks we’ll also be moving to uh hsrn live so be on the lookout for that um we have an exciting conversation today
We’re going to have some guest speakers as well today um so jared kick it off yeah good morning everybody and as ronnie said we want to send our condolences to dr lauren piss and her family i’m just keeping them in your prayers if you could but we’re definitely excited about
Today’s show we’re gonna hold it down for her and still give you guys that great energy that we do every week um and with house talk pre-game being on a whole different level with all the raw times that we’re living in right now really doubling into these issues
Pulling topics from the hbcu landscape and giving our experiences and plus like ronnie says i’m going to call in on that calling from week to week and we’ll have some today they’ll give their experience we’ll be as transparent and truthful as we can i’m looking to always give something
Back to the listeners out there i’m gonna provide some value and we know some of you guys may be tired with things that are going on and we know you guys care and we’re here for you guys we have the time to optimize glad to be running
We’re going to have a very interesting and powerful conversation today so during our conversation please call in with your questions and comments by simply dialing direct at 515-605-9744 or email your hbcu shout outs questions or comments to hdpregame gmail.com so every week me and dr pitts do what we call the
Diagnosis of the week where we talk about a mental health diagnosis and we give you the rundown on it some symptoms some uh behavior that associated with the diagnosis and some treatment options and resources um so this week i’ll be holding it down and for the diagnosis of this week we’ll
Be talking about schizophrenia schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that affects how a person thinks feels and behaves people with schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality which causes significant distress for the individual their family members and friends if left untreated the symptoms of schizophrenia can be
Persistent and disabling however effective treatments are available when delivered in a timely coordinated and sustained manner treatment can help affect the individuals to engage in school or work achieve independence and enjoy personal relationships so some of the symptoms of schizophrenia um are as followed and two or
More of the following each present for a significant portion of time during a one-month period um so basically any of the symptoms that i’m about to list if you’ve experienced them for at least one month actively which are the first one is delusions hallucinations disorganized speech or frequent derailment or incoherence
Grossly disorganized with cannatoni behavior meaning that they’re in this kind of like stuck or standing still or kind of in a stupor or negative symptoms such as diminished emotional expression or um excitement for life so typically these will be active for at least one month over the course of at least six months
So continuous signs of disturbance persist for at least six months this six month period must include at least one month of symptoms that meet criterion a so those are the symptoms that i just explained it may include uh periods of prodromal or residual symptoms meaning reoccurring symptoms during these pro-drama or residual
Periods the signs of disturbance may be manifested by only negative symptoms or by two or more symptoms listed in criterion a um another criteria for to be diagnosed with schizophrenia is if schizoaffective disorder and other depressive or bipolar disorder where psychotic features have been ruled out because either one no major
Depressive or manic episodes have occurred co-currently with the active phase symptoms or two if mood episodes have occurred during active phase symptoms they have been present for minority of the total duration of the active and residual periods of the illness um the disturbance is not attributed to a psychological effect
Of a substance meaning that this person who could have been abusing let’s say maybe marijuana or heroin or something like that a psychoactive drug they not having a reaction from one of those or a medical condition and if there’s a history of autism spectrum disorder or communication disorder of childhood
Onset the additional diagnosis of schizophrenia is made only of prominent delusions or hallucinations in addition to the other required symptoms of schizophrenia are also present for at least one month meaning that so if a client is already diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or any other type of communication disorder
Typically they’ll have an increase or more frequent rate of having delusions or hallucinations which schizophrenia will be tagged on alongside those diagnosis so there are some current risk factors attributed with schizophrenia number one being genetics um there are some research that shows that um schizophrenia can be passed down through families however
Even if a loved one is diagnosed with schizophrenia that does not mean that they’ll pass it down to their uh children or offspring or anything like that um environment also plays a role in schizophrenia typically individuals who live in poverty stressful surroundings and exposures to viruses or nutritional problems before birth
Are typically uh more likely to develop schizophrenia and also brain structure and function scientists think that the differences in brain structure function and interactions among chemical messengers called neurotransmitters may contribute to the development of schizophrenia for example differences in the volumes of specific components of the brain
In the way regions of the brain are connected to work together in uh neurotransmitters such as dopamine are found in people with schizophrenia differences in brain connections and brain circuits seen in people with schizophrenia may begin developing before birth changes to the brain that occur during puberty may trigger psychotic episodes
And people who are vulnerable due to genetics environmental exposures or the types of brain differences mentioned above and one thing and one key thing to note that i forgot to mention at the beginning typically you will not see the onset of schizophrenia for somebody until they’re in their late teens
Early 20s so typically when a child is going off to college um that is a very you know that’s a life-changing moment right there that’s a life altering moment so typically when you have that change you know that could start to begin to really um enhance those signs and symptoms of schizophrenia
So what are some treatments and uh resources for uh schizophrenia so the first thing is medication and medication is probably one of the most important things for schizophrenia because like i said schizophrenia effect uh affects the brain and neurotransmitters so antibiotic antipsychotic medications such as seroquel abilify which are pill forms can be
Taken or let’s say a client who has schizophrenia might not be uh consistent or be uh can be accountable to take their pills can take injections such as a vega or geodon which gives them the same medication but in injection form and some clients actually prefer to have
Injections as opposed to having the hassle of dealing with pills psychosocial treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy behavior skills training supported employment and cognitive remediation interventions may help address the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia usually a combination of these therapies alongside with medication is the common way we treat people with schizophrenia
Um family education and support is very important too um like i said earlier having a loved one or family member with schizophrenia can be very taxing it’s very challenging and it can also be very difficult to be around that person on a day-to-day basis so there are education programs or classes
There are workshops to help families gain better understanding of schizophrenia the treatment options and the resources available to them and as well so here are some things you can do to help your loved ones who’s going through schizophrenia um first and foremost help them get treatment and encourage them to stay in treatment
Um if the treatment begins to work you know definitely encourage them and give them that support to continue with treatment if they can’t do it themselves remember that their beliefs or hallucinations seem very real to them and that might be the most difficult thing to process as a person who doesn’t
Have schizophrenia and has a loved one who has it is that their thoughts their hallucinations their their gestures they believe they’re real um and when we talk about psychosis psychosism what that person deems real isn’t real so when they’re going through that psychotic state is you know
Is very crucial to remember as that caregiver that what they’re going through is real to them and you just have to stay consistent in your resources and treatment to help that person tell them that to acknowledge that everyone has the right to see things their way and be respectful supportive and kind
Without tolerating dangerous and inappropriate behaviors um and remember some symptoms require immediate emergency care if your loved one is thinking about harm one harming themselves or others or attempting suicide please seek help right away by calling 911 or visiting your nearest emergency room and call the national suicide prevention lifeline
Or text the crisis like uh text line all right back to you jared for our accu shout out of the week yeah appreciate that um i honestly didn’t even know the exact like diagnosis or um background on schizophrenia so that definitely was some knowledge that i gained right there
I was unaware um so we appreciate that and as we do every week we got to shout out our hbcus as uh we are hbcu alums ronnie with um virginia state and today i’m shouting out too um the first one is voorhees college employees college is a private historically black college in denmark
South carolina it was founded in 1897 by elizabeth evelyn wright as the industrial school for african americans it was molded on the well-known tuskegee institute of alabama’s campus and the first classes were held on the second floor of an old store so they definitely had very very humble beginnings in 1902 ralph
Voorhees a new jersey philanthropist gave the school a donation to purchase land and construct buildings two years later the carolina general assembly renamed the school and incorporated it as voorhees and industrial institute for colored youth so that’s how they got their their start with the film uh philanthropist ralph voorhees
Um in 1924 the school’s name changed to voorhees school and junior college and the school became fully accredited in 1962 with the addition of a four-year curriculum and that’s when it became voorhees college it competes in the naia the men’s sports they include baseball basketball cheerleading country track and field the women’s sports
Include volleyball track and field softball cross country cheerleading and basketball i’m a notable alumni is jackie denkins he was a former chicago bulls player he played with them from 1971 to 1972 and he was drafted in the ninth round of the nba draft of course now we know
It’s uh two dra two rounds in the nba draft so definitely um are proud of that to have my nba my second school is jarvis christian college um jarvis christian college is a christian historically black college in wood county texas it was founded in 1912. it is currently the only
Historically black college which still remains of the 12 founded by the disciples of the church the school started originally as a school for the youth with the early ages as elementary schools so they started off as a school for youth elementary school they eventually grew into high school and they also
Had a junior college portion as well and in 1928 the school became incorporated as a full college four-year university they also compete in the naia as well their men’s sports include golf basketball track bowling was very rare to have you know golf and soccer on hbcu campus i think i’ve only seen it
Twice shout outs and then for women’s they have soccer volleyball bowling and cross country and for the alumni i searched i could not find a notable alumni on there um i kept coming up with alumni associations but i didn’t find anybody that was a notable alumni i know they out there they just
You know they don’t want to see hbcu shine but uh ronnie you got the next uh shout outs come on google that’s like writing highlight of these alumni all right at all so the first school i’ll be doing is clark atlanta university located in atlanta georgia so clark atlanta is the comprehensive
Private urban co-educational institution of higher educ higher education with a predominantly african-american heritage it offers undergraduate graduate and professional degrees as well as certificate programs to students of diverse racial ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds the university was established in 1988 through the consolidation of his two parent institutions atlanta university which was founded in
1865 the nation’s first institutional award graduate degrees to african-american and clark college in 1869 the nation’s first four-year liberal arts college to serve a primarily african-american student population as i said atlanta university was founded in 1865 by the american missionary association with subsequent assistance from the freedoms bureau
Was before consolidation of the nation’s oldest graduate institution serving a predominantly african-american student body by the late 1870s atlanta atlanta university had begun granting bachelor’s degrees supplying black teachers and librarians to public schools across the south clark college was founded in 1869 as clark university by the freedoms aid society
Of the methodist episcopal church which later will become the united methodist church the university today celebrates this historic bond with the denomination clark university was named for bishop davis w clark who was the first president of the freedom aid society and uh became bishop in 1864. the first clark college class was housed
In a separately furnished room in clark chapel a methodist episcopal church in atlanta summer hill section in 1871 the school relocated to a newly purchased property at white hall mcdaniel street in 1877 the school was chartered as clark university for the purposes of econo economy and efficiency during the late 1930s it was
Decided that clark would join the atlanta university complex in 1957 the controlling boards of six institutions atlanta university clark college morehouse college morris brown college spelman college and gammon theological seminary ratified new articles of affiliation to create the atlanta university center the most prevalent consortium consultorium of african-american private institutions
Of higher education in the in the united states during the 1980s some of the advantages of proximity which had seen promising earlier again became evident clark college at atlanta university through consolidation preserved the best of the past and present and charted a bold new future clark atlanta university was created on july
1 1988. some alumni include james weldon johnson who was one of the early leaders of the naacp eva marcel dj drama kenya bears who is the creator of black-ish grown-ish nyx dish um bobby valentino and mace yeah that was um was a lot of history
Right there that was a lot a lot of fat it was fascinating reading it how it started too yeah um the second school i’ll be doing is a city state university located located in elizabeth city north carolina elizabeth city state university is part of the ciaa conference which also houses schools like virginia
State bowie state shaw and many others on march 3rd 1981 hugh kale an african-american representative in the north carolina general assembly from pasco tank county sponsored house bill 383 which established a normal teaching school for teaching and training teachers of the colored race to teach in the common schools in north carolina
The bill passed in their the origin of elizabeth state university was born the ins the institution’s first name was elizabeth city state colored normal school the institution was elevated from a two-year normal school to a four-year teacher’s college in 1937 two years later the institution name was officially changed to elizabeth city
State teachers college the growth and elevation the teachers college changed the mission to include training elementary school principals for rural and city schools the first the first bachelor of science degrees in elementary education were awarded in may of 1939 in 1963 the north carolina general assembly changed the institution’s name
From elizabeth city state teachers college to elizabeth city state college in 1963 and then on july 1st 1969 the college became elizabeth city state university over the years university fared well among publications that rank institutions elizabeth city state has earned the national claim for its advancements u.s news and world report ranked ecsu
Number seven among top public schools number 14 among top performers in social mobility number 22 among top hbcus and number 36 amongst best regional colleges washington monthly rank elizabeth city state number 11 for best bang for your buck colleges this just this past year alumni include larry johnson who is the current
Assistant head coach for ohio state university and alex haley who is the writer for the book roots and that was my shout out for the week back to you jared i appreciate it appreciate it and we’re going to jump into the show today we have a very very good show interesting topic
Um powerful i think you know this is something that anyone who thinks of hbcu this is probably the first thing that you think of and we’re going to talk about the dilemma between should i pledge and if so what so we’re gonna get into the benefits of pledging pledging grabbers undergrad pwi versus
Hbcu will have some callers um chime in on their experience from from their pledging while they were at hbcu and you know me myself i did not pledge i’ll say that up front um i had i guess opportunities to pledge i had teammates around me who were pledging um my football coach
Is a cue um so i mean i was on hbcu i couldn’t get away from it i literally walk outside my dorm and i’ll write on the capitol fly so it was definitely there i’ve never tried to put my foot into it but i do have some um experiences from teammates and and
Just my experience from seeing it on a day-to-day basis um we’re gonna you know talk about how that rubbed off on me what is my take on it what did i see as a benefit things like that um ronnie’s gonna give his take on it
As well um and i’ll just say for me i’ll just be straight up and say i didn’t see any reason for me to join because i was on a football team and you know a fraternity is looked at as a brotherhood or a sisterhood if it’s a sorority
And football was my brotherhood i’m at the time and i just want to say a lot of the black fraternity sororities they arose in the early 1900s i mean it was during a time in american history where african-americans were socially abused and oppressed um so with that being
Said there’s been some controversy as was that the actual reason why fraternities and sororities were established or was it you know for a different reason is it really an asset to the black community or is it not so we’re going to talk about all that and be transparent with it as well uh
Ronnie what’s your take or your introduction um to the fraternities and the sororities and and what’s your idea of them so before i give my opinion on the uh fraternities and sororities uh for our listeners who might not be familiar with all the black fraternity sororities um let me list
Them real quick for you um they’re typically called the divine nine and the divine nine are nine historically black greek letter organizations that make up the national panhellenic council collectively these organizations are referred to as the divine nine each of these fraternities and stories are rich in history
So the first one is alpha phi alpha fraternity which was founded in 1906 on the campus of cornell university um the first sorority i’ll mention is alpha kappa alpha sorority which was founded in 1908 on the campus of howard university the next fraternity is kappa alpha psi fraternity founded in 1911
On the campus of indiana university the next fraternity is omega sci-fi fraternity also founded in 1911 on the campus of howard university uh delta sigma theta sorority founded in 1913 also on the campus of howard university phi beta sigma fraternity founded in 1914 also on howard university’s campus
Zeta phi beta sorority founded in 1920 also on the campus of howard university sigma gamma rho sorority founded in 1922 on the campus of butler university and last but not least iota 5 theta fraternity founded in 1963 on the campus of morgan state university um so me and jared were talking before the
Show started and so i told jared that when i was an undergrad i had expressed interest to uh mega sci-fi fraternity incorporated um i had a lot of um i had a lot of friends who also expressed interest a lot of teammates who are who are already currently um accused at that point
And so you know i had expressed interest into omega sci fi and for me one of the things that i just had a hard time personally getting over was just um the fact of you know some of the things that you know fraternities do to members who are expressing interest
And you know wanting to join their fraternity um we’ll get on we’ll get into more of those details as the show goes on um i believe we have a caller at this point uh jared you said you have a caller coming in yeah mr head wright um he’s going to be
Joining us today as well um he’s a bowie state alum and he’s actually a uh mr edward can you hear us i can can you hear me okay yeah definitely definitely what on chapter um did you pledge if i said that right yeah epsilon sigma chapter which is uh
At bowie state university uh right here in bowie maryland and uh so yeah i actually uh joined the organization back in 1985 i went to bowie state from washington dc as a high school graduate to go work on my degree really nobody in my family had ever been
In a fraternity i knew of or recognized and i went on campus and you know you see the greek life and all the letters and all that and so my first year i just kind of observed what these brothers were doing and i saw the different ones and and a lot of
The ones that i kind of were uh associating with just happened to be brothers that happened to be in omega and some of my friends uh did it before me and they were already guys i was saying not because of what they were doing but just really simply because what they
Were about they just seemed more like me and uh and then you know 1985 i decided to pursue the organization and and actually get initiated in and uh and i did go through the process of of what you know at that time i did the initiation process i went through whatever the
You know the the program was at that time and uh it was at that time was about two weeks on campus and uh so i enjoyed the the the the uh connection with the a body of brothers who uh based on the surface where about the like uh attainments of manhood
Scholarship perseverance and uplift on those principles which kind of resonated with me okay so that’s why i chose that particular organization over another one even though they all do the same thing or have same service you know service level goals and and and those level things but uh i
Just resonated with those particular brothers on that campus and they just happened to be omegas okay got you guys we appreciate that we’re going to come back to you because we want to i want to ask you some questions um about your experience so we have another caller um one second caller1398
Uh welcome to the house talk pregame um what comments or questions did you want to share with everyone well first of all good morning and um i want to thank you guys for you know having this conversation about hbcus and greek life and things of that nature because it’s something that needs
To be talked about more um me personally i’m a member of omega south side to training incorporated um through the new side chapter of virginia state um i did pause a little bit later so i’m 2015. so my initiation might have been a little bit different from the brother who spoke before me
Um but i will say um you know it’s not really much about the stereotype i think we get wowed up in the stereotypes of fraternities and sororities it’s more about the values that you stand on and like um your brother said before me what resonates with you personally um you know i think
You know the motto friendship is essential to the soul is a mega state 5’s motto and you know that resonated with me you know um just based on true friendship and like you said brotherhood um i played football as well but the thing about football is it is a brotherhood
But football only lasted so long you got to hang the things up one day so you know um joining omega sci-fi was something that is a lifetime thing um you know you’re expecting to be you know active a financial brother for the duty of your life so you know it’s really important
To me um that you know we kind of changed the conversation about you know fraternities and sororities and them being so negative to the black culture because when you think about the history and the origin of these organizations um the purpose of it was to advance you know opportunities for black people
So when we get back to that to the root of the history um i think that you know kind of changes people’s perspective a little bit rather than just seeing it on social media or you know um stepping and strolling things of that nature that seems to bring the interest but
When you look at the heart of the organization it’s more about you know the service the advancing opportunities like we have mandated programs that we have to do every year that people don’t know about voter registration naacp things of that nature so it’s bigger than just stepping
And strolling and being on social media and things it’s not a social club at all so um that’s my skill yeah and i appreciate that i appreciate that what was so what would you say like was the thing that really drew you in i know you mentioned the brotherhood and things
Like that was there anything deeper because i know like before i went to hcu i saw a movie you know stop the yard you know all those movies and you know what that’s what you expect you know what i’m saying to go on at hbcu camp and that’s what draws a lot
Of people and you know what they see you know things like that was anything specific when it was like the light bulb went off in your head like i have to do this i have to be a part of it well um my first cousin is a member of omega sci-fi
Um you know that has an influence but it wasn’t the most significant influence when i um came to the campus of james state university like i said i played football two of my captains were members of omega top five so you know i just like the way that the brothers on my campus
They carry themselves you know we dress up we do you know work in the community um we had members of sga student government association things like that so it was you know it just resonated with me you know i thought i aligned with that you know my values were
Kind of aligned with their values as well and you know just seeing them do good things and kind of i’d say the newspaper is a little bit different from the other fraternities on the yard just like i said we’re more business-like we dressed up more you know kind of helped me
You know form into a professional at a young age so hopefully i enjoyed the most yeah nice and you and um our other guests were today mr ed wright so y’all both played football and either one of you guys can go first but um we can go back to uh mr mr ed
How was it pledging and being a part of a football team how was that balance what can you explain that you both can you know chime in on that i can jump in i i did play and uh the difference for me at the time was i was not on scholarship
So it was a little different so that i didn’t have an obligation to where they could actually leverage me that way but the fortunate thing for me was that we pledged in the spring so we were initiated in the spring of the year like in in march
April time so we went over in march it was between january and let’s say march football season was already over so the only thing it really interrupted or put a stress on me for was doing the uh off-season workouts which was a little bit easier gosh we actually
How about you mr wright real quick uh i know you said you had pledged during the spring and you weren’t necessarily a scholarship player um were you were you a starter at the time or if you were started at the time did it make maybe your responsibilities
As a leader of the football team um was that time management a little bit more difficult or due to it being in the spring it made it a little bit more manageable well actually i did not have a captain role on the football team at the time
I was a starter uh so uh you know so it did you know affect study time and things like that in preparation for the upcoming season but it was only for a short duration of time so it really didn’t affect me directly and i i know some brothers who actually did
The process while they were playing football and that is a lot more challenging yeah i would agree with that um daryl um your turn uh so talk to us a little bit about your experiences of uh when you were pledging and playing football i think you also crossed during the
Spring as well right right spring 15. um so i was actually a sophomore in college so i did start as well i was a starter on the football team it was a little bit early until you know my tenure in undergrad so i didn’t have admit as much you know responsibilities um in
Terms of leadership on the football team but i did you know contribute um as you know you know your teammates but um yeah i would say um you know pledging in the spring um it’s kind of not easier but it’s less you know there’s a lot of impact on the football season
Because the spring ball honestly um when you have coaches that kind of let your coaches know you’re transparent with them about what’s going on things of that nature you know um that tends to help out a little bit you know in regards to um them just having an understanding of
What’s going on you might be you’re not might you might not be your sharpens you know things of that nature so i think it’s all about just being transparent and um with your coaching staff because you can’t tell everybody but at least your coaching staff um should
Know and then as well as having the time management skills to say okay i need to take care of this first you know let me knock this out the way me do my homework in between you know this time i lose your time you know because i know i have other obligations so
Um it’s really about time management and you know just organizing your time guys and um so um when you had played spring 15 um you know as we kind of talked about earlier you know as far as expressing interest and things like that typically people express interest you know well
Before they actually start the pledging process um and when you’re talking about mentioning to your coat mentioning to coaches our head coach during that last football season in 2014 was also a queue as well um so did you so when you were expressing interest in things like that did you
Uh talk to our former coach coach scott about uh wanting to pledge omega sci-fi well at the time i did i did not because you know discretion you have to be very careful who you share that type of information with um and that’s a note got you
Those who may be listening you know you know if you feel like you want to express answers make sure you keep it to yourself or you know the ones that you trust the most because you can’t share that information with everybody because that could you know hurt your chances of joining that organization
But ronnie if you remember um spring 15 is when coach three came in um so we had a whole new coaching staff when i was president and you know coach hampton who was my position coach at the time he was against fraternities all fraternities and sororities he was thinking he had the same
Understanding of opportunities like football is your only brotherhood you should be focused on football you know i was on a scholarship so you know i had obligations for football but at the same time i didn’t let that you know interfere with my you know performance in the season time now for
The spring i might have been a little off the spring i will be the first to admit that because it’s kind of hard it’s really tough um to do both at the same time but you know um i did share it with my head coach and you know he knew about what
Was going on so he knew if i was a little bit more tired so i was exhausted you know these were the reasons why and a couple of my linebackers were football players as well so it was a understanding on the football team you know from the head coaching standpoint that
You know these guys are going through something right now so you know let’s be a little bit more empathetic and understanding of what they have going on um but at the same time you still have to uphold your football you know expectations and because you’re on scholarship so
You don’t want to lose your money all right that’s what at school absolutely after i feel you on that and that was one of the things um because when you had across spring to 15 that was the uh that summer before was the year i had actually expressed interest
Into um omega scifi and one of the things um that i had struggled with was what you talked about was the time management and balancing you know football academics and you know also expressing interest and you know trying to network with the cubes that were on campus and the older ones
Um that was something me personally that i had struggled with was that time management and you know for me going into that senior year i had you know had a heavy course load and that was one of the things that i had to make that decision on
Was am i going to you know sacrifice school or football to you know join a fraternity or while i have to you know be like well you know this is just something that i myself know i can’t handle the time management of doing this so i’m gonna have to you know
End this right here um so that was i’m glad that you spoke on that right it can be very passionate yeah now i think like i think there’s a definitely an elephant in the room when it comes to fraternities when it comes to sororities and things like that
Um and i know both you guys mentioned in your experience the brotherhood was if not the thing that led you to joining the organization but it was a pivotal um you know point and for me and we can go back to the football thing because i found my brotherhood in
Football versus finding my brotherhood and a fraternity and i had several teammates who pledged um cues uh we had alphas i think we have one kappa on my head coach was a cue you know what i’m saying so and i’ve met guys on the team that very cool guys schools guys that i
Respect guys that i don’t have any issue with like very down-to-earth genuine good people that pledged in these fraternities but then you also have these guys that and they would as well rub me the wrong way if they never had a purple shirt on if
They never had a red shirt on a black and gold shirt on there was nobody there was losers there was lanes on campus and once they get that shirt then they feel like they got the the audacity to feel like they’re bigger than you better
Than you talk to you any way they want look at you any way they want walk on campus with their chest out and that’s the part of being a part part of a fraternity and i’ve seen it in sororities as well that i just couldn’t get along with that
I just didn’t vibe with and while i was talking about brotherhood when i look at a brotherhood from my real friends or my real you know my teammates that i look at as brothers or my biological brother a brotherhood to me i don’t tear down i don’t dehumanize any of them
I constantly lift them up and what i started to see and you know heard from other people’s experiences was it seemed like there was a lot of dehumanizing going on behind closed doors and that’s what i couldn’t get with and that’s why i never wanted to join
Because i felt i’m not about to be less of a man you know and be treated poorly by another man but what’s your guys take on that uh i i i hear you because it’s a i felt that too uh because i had heard all the stories
But i didn’t know i was just saying you know you got to go through something and this will be not easy and you know this kind of thing but i didn’t actually know what it was it was it was just yeah they’re going to make sure that you fit
You know that kind of thing and so i i do agree that that there were some things that may have happened that i see even at 56 years old now that they had no relevance to anything and brotherhood or whatever the case may be however there were some concepts i
Think that were basic things that were supposed to be infused on that initiation process with your line brothers was to build unity collaborative effort where you guys share ideas and come up with something for the greater cause nobody’s greater than the other person the things that you were seeing my brother exuded
Are true because they are brothers who uh wear a shirt don’t do no work but yet they get all the credit for what the organization does and they clap for those things but then they’re not out there in the forefront when it when it’s when it’s time for the the organization to
Represent itself the way it’s supposed to be uh and to take it to a life situation man just like you were talking about my brother you too much what a real brother looks like is when you’re on your deathbed and about how high you can step
How many spins you can do none of that is where are you are you talking to that brother’s wife and his children right now where is your heart right now when you’re supposed to be a brother with my brother’s keeper when he can’t keep his family
He can’t keep his wife and his wife’s frustrated and and in pain where are you i’ll tell you i’ve been to some hospitals where brother was on his deathbed and some of the same brothers that said they were super cute they were nowhere to be found but the ones that
Didn’t wanna you know they were the brothers that was doing the work they weren’t the ones that were the most seen they were the ones that were exemplifying the brotherhood of the fraternity in times of need no way nice but and just to piggyback off that you know
Everybody is a different person you know before they get those three letters like your three letters shouldn’t change you as a person and we oftentimes see it happen a lot and you know you said a lot of factual things um but at the end of the day you know
You’re you’re a man before you had those two letters and you’re a man after you have them so the way you carry yourself is your obligation you know um some people get a sense of entitlement from it but i feel like me myself just speaking on myself personally you know i
Was the same person before and after and i think ronnie can attest to that um i didn’t change one day and you know um as far as the dehumanizing piece um i’m just gonna give a relation to football you know we go through training camp
You know it’s not the best part of the year you know like we may feel like why am i doing this like why does coach have me you may feel like coach isn’t dehumanizing you but it’s all for a greater you know common goal um for the season so i feel like every
I won’t go too in definitely detail about you know the initiation process but every every um experience served the purpose like it was a lesson in each experience that you know i’ve experienced what i’ve went through there’s a lesson in everything so um i think it’s just having that mindset that
We’re here for a common goal you know it’s not that i’m less less of a man than you it’s kind of that you know somebody’s breaking you down to build you up even stronger you know and a lot of the things that i’ve learned during my initiation process i can
Translate into life as a professional right now um in life as a human as a as a citizen in the community like it all translates so um you know everybody’s entitled to their own opinion though so yeah now i appreciate the response did you have something to say ronnie
Yeah i was gonna uh uh come into what daryl was saying and i would definitely test for daryl that you know i knew of course i knew daryl before he had uh plays omega and i i’ve had the opportunity to have a chance to get to know him even better
Afterwards and i can say that you know he has not changed as a man you know before and after and i would also like to think that you know all of our teammates who became accused during our time in college they also didn’t change who they were before they pledged and i think
I think a lot of that in daryl you can correct me if i’m wrong um a lot of that i feel like a tribute to you already being you know your own man as a football player and our other teammates who are going to be the football players like we already
Had an identity established you know you’re a football player you’re a scholar athlete and things like that um and you can attest to this better than i can unfortunately there were some you know uh individuals in uh the new side chapter of uh of omega 5 who you know i knew them
Before you know they had crossed as well and after they crossed you know you see a complete 180 in their character and their behaviors and it could be you know that you know they got those letters they got those colors on them and they actually had an identity for
Once they actually felt like they stood out and they were actually recognized you know for something that they may have thought was who they are but you know they had to maybe you know sacrifice their morals or something like that in order to you know reach this level of attention
And appreciation that they couldn’t get just being themselves um right and that’s not and that’s not the case with every single person like you like both you gentlemen said um for me like i know a lot of great men who are accused a lot of great men who
Are catholics alphas and things like that there are a lot of great men in those uh fraternities and things like that and sororities as well and um i think it’s kind of like you know uh like mr wright was saying football goes as the brotherhood you know there were some players on the
Football team who literally just want a team to have a jersey and to sit there and say yeah i was part of the right thing right dale you know this very well even on our championship team in 2014 you know there were quite a few individuals who had no business being on
The team and honestly we only had them on the team because we needed players for practice and you know so but they got you know you needed practice players and you know no offense to them but that’s just that was their role they had a role to serve
Um but they got five some rings within that season just like me and daryl did so you know right i think both of your points are uh very true and and very um very forthcoming as well yeah because because like i just wanted to add this and he was speaking to this uh
Uh just now um as far as our fraternity and any the rest of them uh men are men make omega omega doesn’t make men so you come to which you were who you are is who you are now unfortunately even though those guys go through the process and get a shirt
And get initiated and they actually on the books of the fraternity some of those guys still don’t sometimes represent what it’s about and the work that needs to be done and all of those things don’t get measured and they don’t get checked internally within the fraternity with those brothers right
So that’s another area so what you’re seeing should not be necessarily recognized by somebody who’s not in our fraternity we should have recognized it too hey bro you walk around here like you why’d you speak to him like that you ain’t no better than him so when we don’t check that behavior
It it it permeates and makes that it represents our organization in the wrong way and and we may have great men like yourself uh who say i would want to be a part of that organization that charles drew was in or that same organization that michael jordan is in
Why because i see the value but for you not to want to do it because you see somebody else not represented in the proper way it’s not good for any fraternity or sorority and i think sometimes we have to check the people that’s within the membership yeah a good point it’s all about
Polluting each other you know and that’s that’s part of what about being a brother is you know whether it’s biological brother or brother-in-law you know you want somebody that’s around you that you know want to police you and correct you when you’re wrong and help you out and uplift you so
I think that’s what it’s about yeah definitely this is our conversation one second ronnie um just one of the listeners out there if anyone else has any questions or comments feel free to call direct 515-605-9744 feel free to chime in on the conversation but go ahead ronnie what were you about to say
Thank you for that jared um so daryl uh real quick question and um and i definitely want to hear your viewpoint on this and uh mr wright as well so uh daryl like myself is also in the mental health field um he’s a social worker um has his master’s degree from uh virginia
Commonwealth university um so daryl um as far as the mental health aspect of you know joining a fraternity and pledging and things like that um for you personally tell us how it was on your mental health and did it affect your mental health at all and then have you come across
Any of your brothers in the fraternity or other fraternities who have had their mental health affected by pledging or you know whether it was positive or negative right so you bring up a good point i was actually 19 years old when i um joined the organization so you know i
Was still finding myself my identity things of that nature and that developmental stage right there but i will say you know it taught me a lot of resilience um and character you know and those are things that you can take to life and they translate to your daily living activities
Activities um you know of course it was overwhelming um you know i got school i got the fraternity and football so you know those three things can be overwhelming at times when you kind of step back and kind of partialize and you know prioritize that’s what it’s all about
It’s about time management so if you don’t if you lack time management skills i’m i’m sure that your experience may be a little bit different than mine um i didn’t feel myself slipping into like a crisis or anything like that but i will say it was definitely
Tough it was a tough period of life but it’s helped me um in my adult living life now so um you know it can’t be taxing on your mental um you know just doing all those things at one time so you know like i said it’s all about time management and
You know how you are with that how effective you are with with that aspect yeah definitely so now y’all and y’all sound like really you know upstanding you know gentlemen you know what i’m saying that’s representing um omega um so i definitely do appreciate um that as well and
You know like i said we we on this show we’re transparent we share our opinions and you know respect each other’s opinions and you know my side of the story is just coming from how i saw brotherhood on the football field and things like that but don’t get me wrong at homecoming i
Was definitely on the q plot for the uh for the cookout and i knew the guys that were doing the right thing you know what i’m saying and those were the people that i connected with you know whether it’s the alpha kappa or q plot and the guys that you know
Like we talked about where the letters just for the show just for the girls because we know if they didn’t they were not getting any girls but you know the same thing goes for well if it was guys on the team that would just had a jersey on and were not
There for the common goal of the team i didn’t have respect for them you know i respect them as a teammate but as a person morally you can’t respect them because they’re doing something just for the benefit of it without putting work in so i’m not saying i look at it
Any different than i look at a football team you know what i’m saying so that’s you know you know how i’m coming at it and i think there’s good there’s there’s great benefits um you know somebody does join a frat and they can benefit
Um you know you know in a great way what would you guys say is the most beneficial thing like has it helped with networking um maybe having resources that you wouldn’t have if you were not a part of this uh as the elder state’s been on here and
Have 35 years in the frat i would say absolutely now again it goes to how you view it and their brothers this my age that don’t make no connections with anybody they just only go to their party when they tell them for mardi gras and that’s all they show up for
But the brothers who have looked at this and saw that their brothers and powerful positions their brothers in the military like a lot of my military brothers have found that they’ve been in commands where the general of that command the top person was a cue and because of discretion and the relationship
And they not even just because you in that organization they’re at that general’s house for the cookout now at work you know everything is on the surface is the way it’s supposed to be ain’t saying nobody giving somebody some extras but when that’s on your resume
And it happens to be a q reading that resume and everything being equal between you and somebody else i think you get denied um yeah so it does have value from a networking standpoint and being able to know people and people helping to progress your career not that you ain’t
Able to do the work you have to be in position properly to be able to get that but sometimes it may take a push for somebody that’s internal to to make that thing happen for you right and i totally agree brother um you know it’s about how you apply
Yourself honestly if you’re engaged if you’re active um you’re more likely to seek out members who may be on different platforms or have different resources for you personally speaking my boss is a member of omega sapphire he’s actually in my chapter so that was a way that i kind of
Made my way into a management management position at a younger age just through that connection but at the same time you still have to have the skills the background the credentials to be in those places um but it’s just about using your resources reaching out to those brothers building a relationship
Bridging the gap between the old and the in the new um okay so um it definitely helps though right now i have a question for the listeners that are out there or that may listen later on um that are unfamiliar you know maybe it’s somebody who’s going into college and maybe they’re seeing
Interest in joining a frat or sorority what can you like break down what a chapter is okay well i guess the chapter is just where you’re initiated like um every school has a different chapter and then you know you have grad chapters for the graduate level um so a chapter is just
You’re essentially your home um through omega um so i don’t know if brother can better explain it but that’s how i see it just where you caught that where you are initiated through um so it’s just like the element of the whole fraternity okay and mr right was that did you want
To add anything else to any listeners for the chapter or is that pretty much the breakdown of and then for the folks out there that uh are part of the body of christ for example there is the body of christ as a whole is a big thing but everybody has their own
Home church so not that you don’t fellowship other places this is where you you you your home is this is where your community is this is where you can be most effective in your role right okay got you and and another thing um you know education when it comes to
Joining a fraternity a sorority you know i of course you know like we mentioned ronnie we haven’t been in the in the trenches of the pledging but you know i’ve had a roommate who pledged and you know i never see him uh four in the morning he’s out things like that
Tired dragon like ronnie mentioned i believe you know some of your teammates coming in to practice dragon how about how does it affect you on the education side you know there’s parents out there that you know maybe they don’t come from a family where their brother their sister their mother
Pledged from a standpoint of okay my son or my daughter going to be able to still function playing football going to school making the marks to graduate with a certain gpa to set themselves up for college um and pledge like how how do you guys see that
Um relation and did at any point if you don’t mind sharing did you suffer any educationally or anything like that i can tell i mean me personally my grades did go down uh not not dramatically um however maybe let’s say i had a three a three five a semester before i might
I think i ended up having a 3-0 the semester i played 3-2 or something so it did take some some some element of that uh away because of the change changing schedule that was abrupt it wasn’t like you didn’t know you weren’t able to plan for the schedule that you were very
Get so so you were unprepared so you couldn’t plan for it so when it came you had to make adjustments on the fly sometimes if you weren’t able to do it quickly enough it could affect your grades now i will say that as part of our process there was
A four-hour piece of time that we were all in the library there was no you were together the brothers was with you but you had your books you had everything that you need to be studying now did we get to go to bed after that probably not but the opportunity to
Study was there man whether you fell asleep during that time or you did something else that was up to you but if the opportunity was presented to you so the the part of of keeping your school work up a scholarship was given to you but again it comes down to time management
Okay and darrell if you want to share your experience on that uh just to piggyback off of that you know i had you know we had designated time for studying as well um you know everybody didn’t utilize that time for exactly studying but you know it’s all on the individual um you want
To take a step back and think of the individual now in this work ethic if you have the work ethic to you know go to school go to class deal with the fraternity business and and thrive then you know that that’s you on an individual level um
Honestly so i think it comes down to just the work ethic of the person um of course it’s going to have an influence on your grades the semester of um but i graduated with honors you know it didn’t it didn’t stop me from being a good student you know because
That’s what i was in school for essentially and you know one of our cardinal principles is scholarship so that’s something that is um you know promoted and enforced throughout the whole initiation process so um you know it all comes down to your work ethic and your time management fields
Right right so uh so gentlemen i had a couple more questions to ask both of you all but i wanted to start with this one first um so like i said earlier you know uh both of you all’s fraternity is part of what we would call the divine nine
Um which makes up the nine uh african-american fraternities and sororities so um with everything that’s been going on in 2020 and you know the emphasis on you know black greek uh black greek fraternities and sororities you know preserving you know their cultures and things like that how do you vote how do
Both of you gentlemen feel about um other uh races expressing interest into your fraternities and um before i know y’all can only speak for you know mega sci-fi but how do you feel about that whole notion of other races uh wanting to express interest in your fraternity
Uh now i’m going to take you back uh 25 years i’m my answer already no you got enough there’s enough organizations out there no i don’t want you to come in mine 56 says i’m look i’m not j i’m not judging what you look like i’m judging what you what’s inside you
And what you bring to to enhance the growth of the organization and to preserve his legacy so that’s how ted now so it’s it’s what added value are you gonna bring to this organization versus what you look like so that’s where i’m at today man 25 years ago i thought totally different
About it i got you right so daryl how do you know about that i mean since you know you’re only i believe 25 26 at this point have you had any other uh members of another race express interest to you during your undergrad years or even about maybe grad chapter
Omega sci-fi um i haven’t personally um you know but i have a strong stance on this you know i’m a social worker so you know i respect the dignity and work of everybody like i respect you know that everybody’s culture and everybody’s different you know but um i feel like our organizations were
You know the purpose of our organizations were to advance the opportunities for black people you know so i’m not the i’m not gonna say i’m against it but you know i don’t personally it’s kind of hard it’s hard to say ronnie honestly um it’s more about like about fraternity that’s that’s the mature
Answer that is the mature answer however you know like the history just you speak on a different level um and i try to keep that you know close to my heart you know because it’s all about diversity now and inclusion and things of that nature in this society but
You know certain things were just made for black people you know and and that’s obviously that i don’t want to get too deep in that right and the reason i the reason i asked both of you all about that is because in recent weeks we’ve had conversations about
You know the gentrification of hbcus one of the you know one of the examples i’ve thrown out is like for for example morgan state university where they used to have a white population of maybe one and three percent you know in the early 2000s but within the last decade
That has jumped up um i think until like maybe 13 percent and even you know hcc like howard where you know howard is like considered like one of the mecca hbcus even their you know uh other race populations including the white population has doubled within the last decade
And so you know like you were saying you know when we talk about these things and you know the diversity inclusion and things like that the conversations we’re having especially as mental health providers however right when you go to certain cities they still have chinatowns they still have little italy’s they still have
German towns and things like that you know so when we talk about these cultures and these traditions that have been you know passed down through the generations of african-americans i i can definitely understand both points you know like mr wright was saying you know i’m looking at what you bring to the
Fraternity whereas daryl you know i i i really feel you on you know well look we got to keep some things for us you know like you know that everybody else wants to you know be included in what we got going on can’t we have something for ourselves
And you know that i think that is a realistic you know idea or realistic stance to take on it is you know let’s have something for us you know not knocking you know the other races because i if you correct me if i’m wrong i do feel like there has been a
White person who has pledged q before um i don’t know the specific chapter or anything like that but i have seen videos right you know caucasian american hopping and things like that with a whole bunch of queues around them hyping them up you know and i know the other
Fraternities have had white people as well and things like that i don’t know about how many other races they’ve had in their fraternities but i i feel both points you know i think that is a conversation that needs to be had it needs to be understood you know so you know people can
Feel where y’all are coming from on that yeah i just want to be like your brother if i see a brother that is not of african-american descent i’m not going to um dehumanize them or refrain from being a good brother to them because at the
End of the day uh we play at the same fraternity we took the same initiation you know so i have respect for that brother but at the same time you know i just feel like you know certain things you know should be sacred to our community and i’ll just leave it there
Yeah the one thing just from a broader perspective if i may jump in here um if we look at what’s going on in our in our country right now we we’re talking about uh racial divide and all these divisions not that i’m promoting and putting up a banner to say join my organization
However if i i see it as an opportunity some if it’s the right person that’s why i said what are you bringing to the organization so i do see that there were people back in the 60s during the civil rights movement who were white there were people that were on the underground railroad
That helped harriet tubman that were white now they participated in the movement and they had a good reason to be there they had a purpose because they believed in what we believed in and the principles on what we stood for so i do see if that if that person has some
Reason to come in and maybe he can bring a different perspective on maybe his where he came from his culture to to share then then it could be conversations that we could take out into the community because we we’re selling we’re still settling that within our particular fraternity
So i i guess i feel from a different persp from that perspective uh whereas also what happens when you have a situation when we have multi-racial couples who have children now you have tiger woods that shows up at bowie state once you so what are we going to say to him i mean
I actually am a biracial you know makeup so you know that would i used to always i don’t know if i ever said this joke to daryl but um one of my other good friends who uh actually pledged uh grad chapter and daryl knows what i’m talking about but um
One of the things i had joked with him about was i was like man you know if i go through with this i could possibly be the chap the first white person and you know pledge you you know right you would definitely you know i think that was a very powerful
Discussion i don’t know i don’t know if you all have those discussions during y’all’s chapter meetings and things like that but i think that was a very interesting topic and you know a very interesting conversation that definitely needs to be had especially in today’s climate
Um and i just had one more question for both of you gentlemen um as far as you know both of you all pledged at hbcu so um how is that dynamic you know pledging at htcu versus somebody who pledges at a pwi is the process any different
Is there any like inner fraternity like you know like rivalry like well you know where you play the pwi i played that accu so the process was harder or like how does that work you know with the different chapters and things like that i i’m going to defer to the young
Brother i close my answer um well ronnie you know i went to hbcu for undergrad and then i went to a pwi for my master’s program so you know i was able to see the best i mean the you know the both best of both worlds essentially
Um so i wouldn’t say that it’s any like inner fraternity rivalry or anything like that like oh you played that at pwi so you know i don’t i don’t like you as a person or anything like that no it’s not like that every process is different no matter if you play it at
Http or pwi or grasshopper every every process is different um just speaking from virginia state our process compared to any other hbcu whether virginia union or state is different so it really doesn’t matter about a pwi or hbcu thing you know i think it’s too much emphasis on you know kind of
Differentiating between those two um but i will it’s my grandchildren you know it’s a brotherhood you know when you travel when you go to these other yards and campuses um you meet brothers and you you know you break down barriers and you move forward with them so it’s not
It’s the way that you go about it and you know i won’t go too much into detail about it but it’s a way that you go about it so there’s no oh you pledge that a pwi so you know you’re not really a cue or nothing like that so
Um i think we can just end that stigma right now yeah i i would agree with the brother there i i don’t i don’t i don’t see any difference in internally in the fraternity as it relates to whether or not you went to a pwi or hbcu i think
One of the reasons why that doesn’t happen is because uh anybody generally because we’re set up in districts brothers in the districts know who have ignition in any school whether it’s pwi or hbcu and so the brothers travel so the brothers were getting to cry and
Come see you or you would be heard about so there was always somebody had a relationship with that school even though it may be on a pwi that could vouch for that school and say oh yeah them brothers at uh university of maryland college park they they good um
Yeah so you you just took the word of what somebody else said who validated them it’s not it’s a little off of what we’ve been talking about i mean it’s still with the frat but have any of y’all gotten branded like does it hurt i just want to ask
My chapter is known for brands so i got about yeah 43. so man we call the hitchhikers yeah they are man i’ma tell you man i met a bra at new side that had like 56 brands man and i we used to think that was crazy man i’m like
What in the world really yeah right i got sick i i admit i got six i took five my first the first time we had a session and then one of my lb line brothers wasn’t there at that and i took one with him the next year because we only did them annually
Okay okay and uh so yeah man does it hurt yeah don’t let nobody lie to you and i’ll be honest with you most people had this impression that you’re drunk or you you out of it when it happens uh me personally i had just came from church service and the brothers were
Doing some here and so i had nothing to drink yeah you was protected yeah man now if i could describe it for someone who’s never had one it’s it’s not like most people think of it like you accidentally touch the stove and get burned it’s not the same thing because when
That happens you actually are shocked because you’re shocked that you didn’t mean to touch it but when you see the heat coming it feels like somebody actually take the smallest piece of your skin and they have nails and they pinching it for for a period of seconds and then it stops
Yeah the hardest part of it and this i know this bread though the healing process that’s when it hurts right and we you know we definitely appreciate most of y’all coming on here sharing your experiences being transparent thank you the listeners know like we really appreciate it we can see
You know the the uh level of men that is coming from you know the omega side fight is doing it the right way so we definitely appreciate you guys um i know ronnie had another question i wanted to find out about summit guys professionals things like
That so you know before y’all leave off of here we want y’all to you know let everybody know what it is what it is y’all do for a living i kind of hinted at what you do daryl so um let us know what y’all do for a living and and
People want to use your services how they can get in contact with you and things like that absolutely man i i can jump in i’m actually an entrepreneur actually a business coach and i basically help small businesses uh connect with uh business generating revenue opportunities with other organizations
That may look to do business with them so basically i married marry opportunities between businesses and they just kind of pay me based on what they actually generate from that they just had a piece of the cake and uh so i actually help people with staffing i
Work with a couple clients to do staffing so if there’s people out there looking for i.t opportunities or you’re a company that’s uh looking for that type of talent i have folks that can actually help you do that and then my last uh piece of my business that i help
Smaller businesses as well as individuals with is protecting their legal life i’ve been a you know entrepreneur with legal shield now for 18 years and that’s been my primary business so i help people uh protect their rights uh that they that that you supposed to have that don’t always have the time
Have these means of financial means to exercise them okay all right you have a website anything where they come here you can reach me my you just email me at ted at right talk w-r-i-g-h-t a-l-k.com and uh my website’s under construction because i wanted to top off the page
So i got a couple people smarter than me working on that for me right now because what i had wasn’t what i wanted to represent myself smart man smart man how about you brother um so i work in the mental health field i know ronnie hinted at it
A little bit earlier i’m a clinical supervisor at national counseling group which is a mental health company um based in virginia but you know we’re in north carolina georgia and a couple other states we basically just provide mental health services to people with mental health diagnoses we do mental health skill building
Intensive in-home um crazy stabilization life skills coaching parent coaching things of that nature so in my job in my role i just oversee a group of counselors and kind of make sure that they’re providing the clinical need the clinical service that we need the client needs also a practice outpatient therapy on
The side so if you are looking for a therapist or need help with finding the therapist maybe in your network or in your area um feel free to you know reach out um and if you’re looking for particularly mental health services uh with national counseling group you can contact eight zero
Four seven 767-3470 and i’ll say that again it’s 804-767-3470 and they will take your referral and then this is for intensive in-home it’ll help skill building crisis stabilization any services like that you can contact that number and make a referral and it’s in return in regards to the therapy
If you need a consultation i have our number give me one second i can pull it up um the office number is eight zero four four seven nine three one one three that’s 804-479-3113 if you’re looking for any therapy services or trying to get connected to a
Therapist um just reach out and we’ll help you along the way all right definitely definitely hey man i also want to give us i want to give a shout out to hsrn as well because i actually uh do games with them uh they broadcast their own heritage sports radio network
So i definitely want to get them a shout out because i’m going to continue to bring uh talented people like dr pitts and you guys to their network so that they can have these types of conversations that we have today so i know you guys are thanking us uh
But i want to thank dr pitts and you guys for being consistent week in and week out and bringing topics that our communities need to hear about and actually need to have people that’s really talking about these issues and not just talking but putting some things into action
So i appreciate you guys being a voice for that every week thank you we appreciate it we appreciate that thank you so much yes thank you guys thank you guys um you know wrap up this shovel we definitely appreciate you guys y’all have a happy happy holidays stay safe pray that you
Guys family good faith and you guys take care we appreciate you once again all right thank you all right you guys got faith as well wear your mask wear your yeah yes sir all right y’all thank you y’all y’all take care thank you all right thank y’all
Yeah so we definitely two great um guests in the collins today definitely gave a lot of insight you know i would say as ronnie and i you know we both played football but neither one of us were a part of one of the divine nine and you know definitely we
All have our opinions but i’m grateful that they were able to share their opinions and we were able to have a real conversation and respect each other and you know i learned some things that i didn’t know before and i’m definitely grateful for that so you know once again we definitely
Appreciate them coming on and i think it was definitely a powerful conversation um that we’ve had absolutely and i definitely appreciate them sharing their viewpoints on fraternities um and like you know like jerry said you know me and jared both uh chose not to uh go that route and pledge greek
However you know we had our own brotherhood with our football teams and things like that and you know um my only thing to somebody you know to a young listener out there or even you know somebody who’s uh you know maybe not an undergrad and you’re thinking about joining a fraternity or sorority
One of the things that we talked about and the two brothers definitely highlighted was you know understanding about having your own identity outside of you know that fraternity or sorority and you know even for me and jared we’ve talked about in recent episodes about you know having your identity outside of sports
And i think that’s important no matter what no matter what relationship or organization or dynamic you’re a part of having your own identity established outside of all of those even in a marriage you know even in marriage when they say you become one you know me and my wife we have our own
Identities outside of our marriage um you know so having that identity and knowing who you are in you know daryl made a great point you know he was 19 at the time when he had pledged and i’m pretty sure mr wright was also you know 19 or 20 21 somewhere around
There when he plays as well so you know the thought process and the decision-making process is you know a lot different than somebody who’s a lot older however you know make sure you do your research you know make sure you talk to you know numerous people in those uh
Fraternities and sororities if you’re expressing interest and make sure you’re doing it for your own personal right reasons whether that’s networking brotherhood sisterhood um you know doing the good work that those fraternities and sororities do do you know make sure you have your reasons grounded and you know that while you’re
Going on this journey um that you’re doing it for the right reasons and not to you know dehumanize somebody else or put somebody else down or to rise your stature because you did something that somebody else chose not to do um you know you know those type of
People whether it’s a football team fraternity sorority fortune 500 company those people will bring down your organization and a heartbeat and uh jerry can attest to this you know coach used to always say your own your football team is only as good as your worst player
So if your worst player is going to bring down the team you know same thing can happen in a fraternity or sorority you know that member who isn’t doing it for the right reasons and is you know um misusing their rights as being an attorney the sorority can bring down that whole organization
As well yeah for sure and i think another important thing that they both mentioned and hit on and it kind of um you know runs parallel with football is you know if you are in a fraternity sorority you’re at the school for four years five years or if you do grad chapter
Don’t let that be the end of you know using the benefits that it can offer you don’t let that be the end of your college career would be the last time that you network with somebody from the same frat a sorority you have to make sure you got to build on those relationships
Um that you’ve made throughout the years with the right people so you can progress and move forward in life you know once you do um leave college and i think you know once you guys do that as our guest mentioned you do it the right way you’ll definitely set your
Yourself up you know like they mentioned on resumes and having somebody that has assumed you know a lot of values with you that came from come from the same organization can definitely get your foot in the door that you might not have been able to um if you did not have that um
That uh stature behind you so definitely take that into consideration and as ronnie said do it for you know you know make sure you have the right morals going into it and we appreciate all of you guys um listening today’s show um once again we want to send our condolences out to dr
Pitt um and anyone else out there who’s going through tough times with you know what’s going on in the world our prayers are with you um and we just appreciate you guys again ron if you have anything else to say let us know then we’ll close it out uh nah just uh
Like jared said also you know sending my condolences to uh dr pitts and her family you know our prayers are with you can’t wait to have you back next week on the show we definitely missed you today um and to everybody else out there um you know please continue to stay safe
Wear your mask wash your hands drink plenty of water eat your fruits and vegetables um you know and you know continue to hold on to your loved ones cherish them every single day make the most of today and not worry about tomorrow because the only thing we’ll promise is today
And i hope everybody enjoys the rest of their holiday weekend um you know continue to eat them hey look by monday the leftovers gotta be gone all right by monday leftovers gotta be out the fridge all right so don’t hold on to them leftovers for two weeks after thanksgiving
Christmas eve they might be frozen they might you might see some games pop up a little bit longer yeah definitely but um definitely man happy thanksgiving happy holidays everybody we’ll see you guys next week stay safe stay blessed and take care you
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