Let
me begin by
saying thank you for visiting THINKHBCU.ORG
My name is Brian Turner. I am a
native of Akron, Ohio and a proud graduate of Central State University,
which is located in Wilberforce, Ohio. I owe CSU a lot of
credit for the person that I am today. The college offered me a partial academic
scholarship when I was in high school and I made the most of that
situation.
Now my story. When I went to
enroll for the first time as a freshmen I discovered that all of my
financial aid paperwork had not been processed. In short, that meant
that I did not have enough money
to stay in school. After holding out on campus for about a week I
went back to my dorm room and packed up my two foot lockers to go back
home. I was smart enough to know that I
needed to keep enough money to purchase myself a one way bus ticket back to
Akron based on the way things were going. I called my mother (who had attended CSU for three years), told her about my situation
and stated that I would be back home
tomorrow. She asked me wasn't there anyone I could talk too. I
said "Mom, I've talked to everyone I could think of other than the
president. I'm at
the point of where I'm only eating once a day. I'm out of here!
As I was walking out of the dorm with my foot lockers Mr. Lasley, the
freshman hall dorm director, asked me where was I going? I said "I'm going home
Mr. Lasley.
The dean said that I didn't have enough money to stay in
school." He said; Take those
footlockers back up to your room and get back down here. Your
parents just dropped you off! Mr.
Lasley made some telephone calls and about twenty minutes later he instructed me to go to the
Busar's office and who to see. One of the Busar's assistant had typed
up a promissory agreement which enable me to register for classes. Although
I knew that I was going to attend Central State, I had also joined the Marines
Reserves and completed boot camp just before the start of freshman
orientation. As fate would have it, I was able to use pending reserve drill income to
make installment payments until the rest of my financial aid had
arrived. I did not have any textbooks for the first two weeks of the
quarter, but I was in class and taking notes. As I learned in boot
camp, all I needed was
a "ray of hope", which also
became my Student Government campaign slogan
three years later when I ran for the position of vice president.
After that initial experience, things
turned out well for me. While attending CSU, I was an anatomy and
physiology tutor, worked as a resident hall assistant, student firefighter/EMTA, served as the Student Government Vice President and pledged Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity. I graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor degree in Health Education and with a
zero balance! Four years later
I earned a Masters degree in
Education from the University of Akron and served a part-time instructor
teaching sports marketing and sports management courses. After almost
twenty years of service with the Akron Area YMCA, I left to become the
College Access Coordinator with Project
GRAD Akron. Project GRAD is a college bound preparatory program
for high school students which also provides them with a scholarship for
college.
I think it is fair to say that if Mr.
James "Blade" Lasley, I might not be a HBCU alumnus and advocate today. To date,
over 25 members of my family have attended a HBCU dating back to the
1950's.
I'll see you on
the yard!
