Diploma Plus: Transforming Education

When you are a black or brown youth, born into poverty, everything is set up for your failure. You are not afforded the same opportunities as your white counterparts and sadly, some never catch a break. Luckily, there are programs like Diploma Plus to bridge the gap and catch some of our youth before they slip through the cracks.

Diploma Plus is a program founded in 1996, in Boston, to create a relationship with school districts and communities to implement innovative and alternative educational approaches for youth who have been failed by the traditional system. In 2003 with the help of funding from Bill and Melinda Gates the program expanded throughout New England and New York City. The primary goal of the program is to nurture and empower public school students to complete high school, go on to college and be career-ready.

I had the pleasure of attending the 20th Anniversary Fundraising Awards Gala at The National Black Theatre of Harlem for Diploma Plus and what I witnessed was nothing less than awe inspiring. I was truly unworthy to be surrounded by such greatness.

The MC, Cornelius T. Finley, Director of College and Career Readiness for the program, is no stranger to the struggle of growing up in, what seems like, a no win situation. The Texas native spoke about being in "the streets" and in trouble with the law but having a strong grandmother who provided "tough love" and allowed him to sort through obstacles himself, while still providing the nurturing and fostering that he needed to keep him from completely going off the deep end.

There were many honorees and speakers, including Dr. Calvin Butts III , Pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York, President of the State University of New York College at Old Westbury, and Chairman and founder of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, however, the following stood out because they were all relatively young, men of colour, with impressive resumes and prominent roles in education. They each delivered powerful messages to the students and to us.

The first, Dr. David Johns , tall and lanky with a dazzling smile, the Executive Director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for African Americans, said "Diploma plus is doing the work that NEEDS to be celebrated but rarely is."

Dr. David Kirkland , Associate Professor of English Education at New York University and Director of The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools (Metro Center), walked up to the podium, commanding the attention of everyone in the room with his presence, delivered a strong, clear and concise message saying, "Often the focus is not on what we CAN do but what we can't."

When Dr.Christopher Emdin took the stage, his charisma and energy filling the hall. He lit the place on fire with a riveting speech that received a thunderous standing ovation. The Associate Professor of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University, Director of Science Education at the Center for Health Equity and Urban Science Education and author of For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...And the Rest of Y'all Too, Emdin stressed that you don't have to shed your blackness to be successful. "You don't have to pick one or the other. Love your blackness...if everyone is trying to make it out of the hood, who is helping the hood?"

Let's be frank, this country isn't for us (black people). The system is created for us to fail. It's this way by design. We went from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration. Do some people make it? Certainly, but the majority don't. It's fortunate that every now and again, a person, a group of people or a program comes along and creates a change in the narrative and helps the less fortunate to succeed.

Advisory Board:

Ephraim Weisstein, Executive director

William Diehl, Chairman

Ashley Ogbonna (Attorney)

Sharity Bannermen (Attorney)

Sharifa McKenley (Director of Education)

Janice Tolbert (Ed Policy/Educator)

Chiquita Hall (Attorney)

Paul Bolaji (Attorney)