#FiskTaughtMe before I even set one foot on campus…

“I was just wondering if the full scholarship that you offered me still stands.”

It was late July, and I had taken part in a summer minority research program with a number of rising college freshmen who had interests in health professional careers. That experience with many students who were from backgrounds not dissimilar from my own made me take notice when they wistfully talked about where they would be going to college. Time and time again, they gleefully shouted “Hampton!”, Morehouse!”, Howard!” Having chosen to follow many of my majority classmates to our large state school, I didn’t have the heart to scream out “UT Knoxville!” (Disclaimer: I have nothing but good regard for UTK and those who chose to attend, should anyone mistake the pride for HBCUs as a slight for predominately majority institutions.)

And so on one day LATE in July, I sheepishly called Fisk and asked if I could still have the scholarship they had offered. Though my natural inclination is to over-think and assess and reassess decisions and live in a type A space, on that day, #FiskTaughtMe that sometimes you truly have to go with your gut.When I was told that, indeed, I could still attend on a full Presidential Scholarship, I made the decision to change my plans and go to Nashville for school. And, despite the fact that I had a class schedule, an ID card, paraphernalia, and my parents and I had weathered an orientation weekend to UT Knoxville weeks prior, move to Nashville is exactly what I did.

I had the privilege of growing up with particularly conscientious parents.  They knew that we attended majority public schools and would be influenced by what would be considered to be societal norms by our majority classmates.  But every other part of our lives was quite different.  We grew up in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, going to black dentists and doctors, and helped out with campaigns to elect black politicians within the Memphis community.  Both parents attended Lemoyne-Owen and supported alumni functions for their beloved HBCU (Go, Magicians!)  But even with all of this and the knowledge that my father had actively participated in Civil Rights Movement activities, including the march that brought Rev. King to Memphis, I had taken for granted just how important my racial and cultural heritage and identity were. All of that changed because #FiskTaughtMe.

Black history is ingrained in the Fisk Experience.  Unless there has been a drastic change,  students start learning about our African ancestry, the Middle Passage, and 400 years of enslavement and the legacy endured as a consequence practically from day one. Required reading for African-American Heritage and related classes includes a cross-section of some of the greatest black literary works, with the publications of Fisk’s son, W.E.B. DuBois, usually being among them.  However, reading about black history pales in comparison to experiencing it first-hand by being taught by a professor who lived pages right out of those books! This brings me to a caption of the photo for this post.  The picture featured here is of me receiving my degree from the Fisk University president, the late, great Dr. Rutherford H. Adkins.  Dr. Adkins was especially distinguished because he had served in the elite group known as the ‘Tuskegee Airmen’, the first black military aviators in the United States. The Tuskegee Airmen achieved an outstanding list of accomplishments during World War II, but experienced brutal racism in their home country, despite their success; however, their legacy would be one that led to the integration of the military in the United States. Dr. Adkins was just an overall delightful person, and I am so proud to have called him my Physics professor, my fraternity brother, and my University president.  He was one of the gems of my time at Fisk, and part of how #FiskTaughtMe pride in everything it means to be black in America.

The Fisk Experience means standing on the shoulders of W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, John Hope Franklin, James Weldon Johnson, John Lewis, Diane Nash, Nikki Giovanni, and the like. It means being steeped in everything that embodies the spirit of fighting for racial equality and social justice. There’s little chance of escaping the spirit of embracing strategic protest when you attend the University that educated Lewis and Nash, two of the most prominent members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). SNCC’s role in empowering youth to spark the Nashville sit-ins to end racial segregation as a significant part of the Civil Rights Movement is indisputable.  To that end, #FiskTaughtMe the importance of standing up for what is right and speaking out against that which is unjust.

When I first arrived at Fisk, my style was…at the very least questionable.  I was a fan of hair bows, T-shirts, turtle necks, and most of all, Keds.  I mean, I rocked Keds HARD.  That was certainly my signature look, and I was clearly straight off the farm.  This look simply would not do at a HBCU, so suffice it to say, I was encouraged to ‘be better’ amid jest at my chosen attire, and among people who I swear could have stepped right out of a clothing ad on any given day when they were walking across ‘The Yard.’  So another thing #FiskTaughtMe was to dress for success.

Fisk has a beautiful memorial chapel with weekly services, and which serves as the venue for important university functions such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Convocation and the Jubilee Day Convocation – more to follow on Jubilee and the Jubilee singers below.  One of the ways that I felt like Fisk was my home away from home as a college student was the engagement by the chapel, the dean, and the worship services.  This helped to make me feel spiritually connected and less detached from my family values of Faith, Family, and Friends than I would have likely felt at other institutions. #FiskTaughtMe the importance of staying true to family values, even when away from family of origin.

#FiskTaughtMe rhythm.  Point, Blank, Period.  It’s embarrassing to say, but I really had never learned the concept of a ‘beat’ in music until I attended Fisk.  Sadly, I had played the piano since the age of 5 and also the organ throughout my teenage years, but somehow that cadence didn’t really translate to dancing or appreciating the latest CDs (well, this part is dating me.) The first times that my roommate and friends saw me dance, it was almost like they were watching a train wreck.  They were really almost somber and consoling, saying “Ohhhhhhh, what happened to you?  Who did this to you? You don’t hear that underlying beat?  Where did you go to high school, and who were your friends?” And so, multiple practice sessions later, I had gotten familiar with the concept of dancing to the rhythm, which is what I was going to need when I started considering Greek life…

One thing that cannot be discounted is the caliber of the students who attend Fisk.  I was awestruck by my classmates who were confident and outspoken and didn’t mind even debating with our professors, because they knew just how intelligent they were and dared someone question that fact. I recall that, in one class, we had to speak about an adversarial experience growing up or something of that nature, and I chose to speak about feeling out-of-place in school growing up because my friends didn’t look like me or understand what my culture was, but those who looked like me were not kind to nerdy and square me.  Well…you would have thought I told everybody off, because there was an onslaught of “Well, didn’t you have any black friends? Why didn’t you tell people to accept you for who you were?  Who would care that people didn’t like you because you were nerdy?” and much heated discussion ensued.  Just for sheer survival of that class, I had to make an executive decision to speak up and out and assert who I was and pushback to some of their (somewhat abrasive) assumptions.  In the end, because of experiences like those, I emerged a stronger person, and I can proudly proclaim that #FiskTaughtMe to stand up for myself and display more confidence.

The 5Pak was my little crew of 5 friends during our freshman year at Fisk.  It consisted of my roommate, our neighbors across the hall, and the woman who would become my BFF/Soror/Line Sister. We became each other’s support system rather quickly as we navigated this new college world, and sealed it by creating a cheesy group name, deciding on a signature song to which we created a dance routine (after my appropriate schooling – see above), and having the ever-so-classy airbrushed sweatshirts made with said group name accompanied by personalization for each of us.  After freshman year, we were eligible for pledging sororities, and I had the privilege of joining the first and the best of them all in Alpha KappaAlpha.  This experience allowed me to become close to women with whom I know I never would have talked otherwise, and I now consider myself infinitely blessed to have joined into this sisterhood with them for life.  Granted, I had a crash course in stepping and line-dancing due to my rather recent history of being in a rhythmless nation, but I was not alone, and 21 women of different backgrounds and coordination capabilities pulled off a mighty Fine Pi ∏ 🙂 probate show! To the point, though, is that even in today’s society where women are breaking ceilings in a way only dreamed in the past (although there is work still to be done), there continues to be an emphasis on the need for women to be focused on becoming wives and mothers above and beyond becoming bosses and revolutionaries.  As a wife and a mother, I am grateful to have those vital roles.  However, one belief that I hold quite fervently is that it is important to maintain a strong support system in your girlfriends. To quote Louisa May Alcott in Little Women, “I could never love anyone as I love my sisters.” Before there were the Women’s Marches for Equality, #FiskTaughtMe the importance of having my own voice, the power of sisterhood, and the necessity of having a strong support system.

I most certainly couldn’t talk about the Fisk Experience and Sisterhood without acknowledging the fact that #FiskTaughtMe that good guys do exist.  Although many of us didn’t recognize it then because most college ladies are busy looking for the fabled and exciting ‘bad boy’, many of us befriended and confided in the good guys who had our backs when those bad boys inevitably let us down.  These are the guys we have seen become successful with career and family and are still finding time to volunteer and give back to those who are less fortunate.  So, this is a shout out to those men, and they know who they are; we do see you, and we are proud that you are Fisk Sons who are Ever on the Altar.

#FiskTaughtMe to never underestimate the power of the young or even the few to make a powerful impact. Jubilee Hall, now a freshman ladies’ dormitory, was the first building erected for the education of freed slaves (clearly, I was a tour guide and orientation leader.)  It was named after the Jubilee Singers, a group of singers from Fisk who traveled the world in 1871 (5 years after the University was founded)  to raise funds for it to remain open.  Clearly, their efforts paid off.  The anniversary of that first world tour is celebrated in the chapel annually on Jubilee Day.

Fisk is home to the renowned Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery.  Housed there are works by Georgia O’Keefe, Picasso, Renoir, and many more highly regarded artists.  In addition to  art, Fisk offers a variety of musical lessons and choir offerings for students.  I was fortunate to have been able to take piano lessons and sing in a choir while a Fisk student, and I’m happy that #FiskTaughtMe to nurture an appreciation for the arts.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons that Fisk taught me is one that I am still learning today.  Because of Fisk, I was able to earn a Bachelor’s Degree and a Doctor of Medicine Degree in 7 years (as opposed to 8) through a joint program with Meharry Medical College.  I have been able to reinvent my career time and time again, having practiced clinical medicine with two different specialties for many years in different settings, worked as an assistant professor at an academic institution, and now as a physician executive in managed care.  I have been privileged with these experiences because #FiskTaughtMe that my education and career potential are limitless.  Fisk professors demonstrate an unparalleled commitment to investing in their students, and make that clear by motivating students to reach for the sky in personalized career guidance mentoring.  What has been even more exciting is to now be able to work with my Fisk classmates and other Fisk alum across multiple job sectors because they, too, have realized a degree of success that is also a result of our common experience of beginning the journey of our life’s work at Fisk University.  To say that I have Fisk Pride in everything that the University, my classmates, and other alumni represent would be a wild understatement.

I love Pink and Green and my Sisterhood of the First and the Finest.  However, have no qualms about it, I am a Daughter Ever on the Altar, tried and true, and in the end, my heart most certainly will always bleed Majestic Dear Old Gold & Blue. FISK FOREVER!