Morehouse College has a special place in my heart for many reasons. It helped me shape my own identity, outside of being the only black kid in predominantly white spaces, it gave me high-achieving peers that looked like me, and it also gave me professors that took as much care if not more in developing my life skills as my academic ones. During my time I had many amazing instructors, but the ones below changed the person I would be forever.
Dr. Rubina F. Malik
For those who don't know Dr. Malik, she's a very vocal, action oriented individual who specializes in life coaching and personal marketing. Anyone who ever sat in her class knows they're going to speak and present, frequently. It's one thing to stand up and read a PowerPoint, it's a whole different task to be critiqued while you do it.
God bless you if you forget to wear a suit.
Direct, blunt and honest are all things Malik, but her teaching style isn't the only reason she's on the list; it's her life lessons too.
Out of everything I've learned in college, I've practiced the techniques she instilled in me almost daily. S.M.A.R.T. goals, day scheduling, self-awareness and seizing every opportunity have become incredibly useful tools and I only have her to thank for giving them to me.
It seems like yesterday when I, along with my best friend, refused to turn in the application for the Executive Mentorship Program. For those who don’t know, it’s a Morehouse Program where CEO's are partnered with students to give them a pipeline toward being executives. Not only did we have the grades but Prof. Malik was in charge of it, and she urged us to join in.
However, being young and dumb, we decided that we were above the help of Executives from Coca-Cola, Bank of America and many more. Instead, we decided that planning for our Spring Break and enjoying our free time was a higher priority. Stupid I know.
But instead of leaving us to our own devices, Prof. Malik decided to put her two hard-headed students to work. Since we didn't apply she had us serve under her to organize and coordinate events for the Executive Mentorship Program. Then and only then did I realize the gravity of the mistake I made.
If seeing your peers cheerfully engage in intimate relationships with VP's wasn't bad enough, constantly being asked "who's your mentor?" certainly did the trick. Yet she must have known just putting me in the room was all I needed, as even though I was a humble helper I not only walked away with several important contacts, but also received a $3,000 scholarship from Bank of America. The books, the community service, and advice she constantly gave us seemed like nagging then, but they really were one person’s tireless investment into a stubborn student.
The day she candidly told me to stop being a people pleaser honestly changed my life, and it took those words for me to seriously start creating my own path.
Senior year, Dr. Malik was back with yet another life-changing opportunity, an all-expenses paid trip to Brazil serving as a school ambassador… and once again during our spring break. All I had to do was apply.
I would not make the same mistake twice and lept at the opportunity to travel abroad for my first time, joining Morehouse’s best and brightest in Rio, São Paulo, and Salvador. Tough love at its toughest is still love, and I’m eternally grateful for that of Dr. Rubina F. Malik.
Dr. Keith Hollingsworth
Dr. Hollingsworth is one of those select people who can somehow identify with anyone. I guess the background in preaching, engineering, and being the business chair of an all male historically black college kind of hones those skills. My first interactions with "Doc", primarily consisted of him reviewing my classes, but senior year the proverbial crap hit the fan. With no job offers in sight (very un-Morehouse-like), 2 final interview rejections (also very un-Morehouse-like), and close friends with completely opposite situations, I was beyond nervous as I sat in his office.
As he looked over my resume and "you still have your high school GPA on here? What a loser", were the first words to leave his mouth. Needless to say, his characteristic humor eluded me at the time, because I did in fact feel like a loser, but I forced a smile anyway. Seeing that my gloom was not budging a bit, Dr. Hollingsworth supplied me with a perspective I still hold to this day.
"You hang out with really smart people, there's nothing wrong with that. That doesn't make you dumb."
Sure that looks plain and simple, but for hyper competitive people like myself it's quite hard to cope with rejection and failure, especially if you are used to winning and your friends are winning. I had a million excuses as to why I wasn't as high as I wanted to be, but instead of trying to address each one he told me a story. To this day, I don't know if it was one of those pastor stories that make you feel awesome about yourself or an actual occurrence, but it starred a student who was indeed steller. He won all kinds of awards in finance, but could not seem to get past final interviews (just like me).
His final advice to me was maybe I should really take a second look at what I want to do and things will work out. At that time I was interviewing with BP for supply chain management, nowhere near what I wanted to do, but I thought it was my last chance to catch up with my friends, so Doc’s words largely fell upon deaf ears. BP flew me out to Chicago for final interviews, I did the best I could, and ended up not getting the position. Google, Bank of America, and now BP had passed on me. Dejected, I followed up with my interviewer and he spoke frankly with me.
"You were a great candidate and you did show mastery of the topics, but I wanted to ask you something. Are you sure you want to be in this industry? You seemed very passionate about the marketing and advertising portion of the case study...."
Before he even finished I was kicking myself. Doc was right and I was done chasing paychecks. I definitely had many other great talks with Dr. Hollingsworth, but that one had to take the cake. I doubt I would have focused on my passion without it. Now my specialty is promoting all those smart individuals around me, thanks Doc.
Dr. Vickie Cox-Edmondson
Have you ever had a teacher that you genuinely despised but grew to adore? I have, and even though I have nothing but love for Dr. Vickie Cox-Edmondson now, there was a point where I loathed her and her class. Yeah, I said it. Her class really wasn't extremely hard if you listened carefully, and did exactly what she said, but senior-itis was running rampid, and we wanted nothing more than to coast on our last year of college.
It should go without saying that there is no coasting in Business Policy.
A stickler for meticulous planning, Dr. Cox-Edmondson made it clear from the jump not to take the class lightly. Unfortunately, our group took "not taking things lightly" lightly, and found ourselves behind the eight ball very early. Who could forget our very first presentation? Our group was suited and booted, had more than 31 slides, and we even bought Chick-fil-a for the entire audience. This was more than enough for any other class, but we soon found out, this was no other class. Within seconds of our opening statement, we mistakenly addressed our audience as stakeholders instead of shareholders and watched helplessly as Dr. Edmondson commanded everyone in the room to leave. Only shareholders could see privileged company information.
Lesson 1, knowing one's audience was under way, and little did we know there were many other lessons to learn. Hailed as the dream team, everyone was fully aware our humiliating and mediocre performances. I've never worked so hard for a mere C in my life, but the relief of just passing really can't be articulated.
Normally, I could band with a select few hard workers and find a way to still get an A. Unfortunately, just like in life, some work is too overwhelming for two or three people to take on all the responsibilities, and your whole team has to be sharp to win. I was irate that we were penalized for the poor work of slackers, but I should have been angry at myself for poor decision making. We picked our teams, we didn't follow explicit instructions, and I chose to stay with a team that wasn't performing up to my standards. Not only that, she supplied bonus points and extra credit that most teachers never do.
In Brazil I honestly was embarrassed that I didn't get a chance to show her I was a better student than that, but things didn't really come full circle until I was presenting my magazine to a family friend. I did what I thought was respectable for causal advice, but what I got was a comprehensive review from her and her head of marketing (who happened to come from Samsung). Needless to say I was torn to shreds, but sadly everything they said I already knew to do from Dr. Edmondson's class. I sat shaking my head as they voiced their main concern, knowing my audience.
Lesson 2. Good teachers teach students, but great teachers push students...... even when they don't want to be pushed. If you never had the spirit of excellence, I guarantee Dr. Edmondson will show you what it looks like. If you have the spirit of excellence and think you will skate by on just being good, she's who will always catch you. I'm clearly a work in progress, but I'm blessed to always have her teachings as the perfect guide.
Dr. Elaina Hudson
Dr. Hudson was the first and only professor who was literally brought to tears by our work and not in a good way. However, if it wasn't for her I never would have found the perfect industry for me, advertising.
Every single thing we did in class had immediate real-world application, and the more we did the more I became hooked. She had such passion for pushing past group-think, and every time we wanted to do the bare minimum she made it impossible to do so. It was her class that I constructed my first print and radio ad, and the same class where my first argument over creative vision took place. I finally had the freedom to use anything and everything that interested me to communicate a message, and I loved every minute of it. What I thought was busy work turned out to be one the best learning experiences I could ever hope for.
That weekend I spent at the Morehouse Creative Boot Camp showed me two things. The first, was what I was capable of, and the second was the need for me to get better. Within a few weeks I had started a blog, and none other than Dr. Hudson pulled me aside to let me know she loved it. How she found it and I don't know, but it was what an ambitious young man needed to continue in uncharted territory.
I had no idea that her case studies would be my blueprint for how I would run my business, or that the incredibly thick packet of market research she demanded would become a future lifeline. All I knew was that she knew what she was talking about, and if I could stop being hard headed for one second I could learn something. Thank God I did, because I truly love what I do.
It's not enough to just have a desire to do something, you have to be equipped to take action. I can't thank Dr. Hudson enough for equipping me with tools and most of all the mindset to be great.... in advertising and life. Even though I had to sell my books in college (broke people problems), I've already made a commitment to re-buy them. If she used them, I need them.
It is my hope that everyone has such impactful professors in their life, and if you do please take the time to thank them. Oftentimes it’s a thankless job, so be sure to give them their flowers while they can still smell them.