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Michael Bertty II presents Acting Dean Jane
Rhoades Hudak with a thank you gift from the Conference.
Assisted by funding from the College of Liberal Arts and
Social Sciences, Michael Bertty II, a student in our Master of Public
Administration Program, took a group of students to the Carroll F. S.
Hardy National Black Student Leadership Development Conference in Arlington,
Virginia in January of this year. The Conference is the vehicle used to
create and empower a diverse collegiate leadership group who attend predominantly
white colleges and universities.
The conference is an intensive interactive three-day leadership
experience. Keynote speakers this year included Attorney Maria Echaveste,
Congressman Charles B. Rangel (Democrat from New York), and Dr. C. Delores
Tucker, National Chair, National Political Congress of Black Women, Inc.
The daughter of immigrant workers, Maria Echaveste rose
to become Deputy Chief of Staff to in the Clinton administration. She
served as one of the highest-ranking Latino officials in the White House.
An attorney, her work is dedicated to defending the rights of the poor.
Rev. Francys Johnson, J.D., faculty member in
the Political Science Department at Georgia Southern, Ms. Echaveste,
Michael Bertty, and Robert (Bobby) Bryant, Student Affairs Counselor
at University of Georgia and CLASS Alumnus.
"The key to making the most of the opportunities
and chances one gets in life is having the best possible education."
A graduate of Stanford University and the University of California Berkley
Law School, Maria Echaveste continues to use her time and talent to make
absorption of our immigrants a priority.
This year's conference culminated in a celebration led
by students who had attended a Dr. Arminata Njeri's workshop on Masks.
Dr. Njeri and Michael Bertty
Michael Bertty describes the call of Dr. Njeri:
"Removing the Masks, Redefining Our Images--Will
the real you-the true you stand up! As we advance forward into the 21st
century, we must constantly challenge, reexamine and face up to critical
issues that often times impede our progress as individuals, as a community
and as a people. Leadership for Black community is a mandate, not an
option. In order to become an effective leader, we must demand authenticity
of ourselves; in other words, we must be true, honest and sincere to
who we are and what we are.
"We have been socialized in a dysfunctional society,
that has defined who we are and what we are, thereby keeping us in a
continual mode of survival-behind a mask. As leaders, potential conductors
in the "Neo Underground Railroad," our challenge will be to
conquer the chains and images of psychological slavery and remove the
mask, embrace our true selves and move beyond survival. Dare to be!
Dare to be you!"
Celebration!
Links
Stuart Educational
Leadership Group. Carroll F.S. Hardy is the Founder of the National
Black Student Leadership Development Conference.
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