It took me seventeen years to realize what an extraordinary influence the Hampton Minority PhD project has had on my life. The program offered thoughtful discussions about pursuing a lifetime in academia at the PhD or terminal degree level. Growing up I had strong role models, I developed in many areas, but academia was foreign to my parents and close family members. As part of the Hampton Minority PhD project not only did I come to love the excitement of learning simply for the sake research and education, but I also came to understand the idea of giving back to the community in exchange for a new sense of life, love, and spirit.
The Hampton Minority PhD project’s passion for learning is most apparent in research and effective teaching. I was junior in college when I first came to Hampton. Every night for three weeks before the trip, my college roommate and I sat around reading about all the famous educators that attended Hampton. I vividly remember standing on the campus thinking someday I may be back to teach. To my amazement I was able to meet with the recruiting officers of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), on the Hampton University campus. And I was now beginning something that no one in my family had ever accomplished, which was a graduate level education. Eighteen months and half a dozen gray hairs later, I had come to value what I had learned in graduate school and that was this..” half the battle in academia and life is showing up to do the work