The quilt of the up to date version of “A Legacy to Share.”
By: Lauren Hertzler Walsh, govt director of strategic communications in College Advertising and marketing and Communications
For generations, Black Drexel alumni have solid paths, damaged limitations and lifted others as they rose. Now, their tales return to the highlight within the second quantity of “A Legacy to Share: Navigating Life’s Challenges & Celebrating Our Greatest Achievements” — a robust anthology of lived expertise, perseverance and neighborhood, printed by the Drexel University Black Alumni Council (DUBAC).
The latest version expands on the original volume launched in 2022, showcasing the genuine and resilient voices of Drexel-credentialed CEOs, scientists, students, entrepreneurs and extra. Proceeds help the DUBAC Endowed Scholarship Fund, which supplies alternatives for present and future college students.
Angela Dowd-Burton, a two-time Drexel graduate, College trustee, and the e-book’s chief editor, emphasizes the significance of honoring these alumni legacies. “I need to institutionalize what has been excellent achievements by my fellow Dragons,” she explains. “They’re bizarre individuals who have executed some extraordinary issues, and lots of if not most are humble as they climb one mountain after one other.”
Typically, Dowd-Burton says, these similar alumni “discover a technique to attain again out and elevate the following technology.”
Take Jesse Rhodes Jr. ’98, for instance. A longtime mentor to Chantee Butler ’13, Rhodes first linked together with her by their respective involvement with the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Accountants (NABA). Butler adopted in Rhodes’ footsteps, not solely serving as an officer of NABA’s Drexel chapter but in addition working at Deloitte after school, ultimately launching her personal enterprise as a profitable entrepreneur.
“I hope that by standing in my reality, different leaders, significantly younger Black leaders, will see themselves in me,” Rhodes writes in “A Legacy to Share.” “Then, maybe they are going to start to imagine that irrespective of their errors or limitations, they’ll do virtually something inside their lifetime. Aiding them alongside their journey is my highest calling as a pacesetter.”
DrexelNOW lately chatted with Rhodes, Butler and different contributors of the brand new quantity to realize deeper perception into their private {and professional} journeys. Beneath, they mirror on resilience, mentorship, advocacy, management and neighborhood constructing.
LEONARD COMMA ’92
Q: In “A Legacy to Share,” you mirror on some important obstacles you’ve confronted and withstood. What does resilience imply to you?
A: As human beings, we will typically get a bit misplaced in our issues, and we swim in them, they usually virtually drown us. We’ve to get to a spot the place we will form of come ashore, get out of that “downside swimming pool” lengthy sufficient to simply achieve perspective. It’s a brave determination to take that step ahead into the unknown. I name it a “mezzanine second.” A mezzanine in a constructing is a transition place from the chilly climate or the rain and all the things else that’s outdoors. If you end up in a foul place and also you determine to get out of it, the primary couple of steps that you simply take, you’re simply getting into into the mezzanine. Sure, you don’t know what’s subsequent, however you’ve decided to step away from what was. Within the mezzanine, your head can clear, and you’re sturdy for getting your self there.
Comma graduated together with his bachelor’s diploma in finance from Drexel in 1992. He started his profession at Mobil and later labored as an govt at Jack within the Field, the place he served from 2014 to 2020 as chairman and CEO. He at present serves as a mentor at The ExCo Group, an govt coach and management growth agency.
JESSE RHODES JR. ’98
Q: In your excerpt, you observe a lifechanging expertise in highschool, and the way it’s impacted your perspective on mentorship. You typically advise youth to not let adversity take them down a path of disruption. Why is that this so necessary to you?
A: I would like the world to know that if you happen to do the work at your middle, in your coronary heart, and look inside, tackle concern, set boundaries, present and search readability, lean in and construct that belief, you’re unstoppable — irrespective of how a lot society, particularly proper now, will attempt to make you suppose in any other case. On the finish of the day, the world is determined to see the affect that solely you may make. It’s difficult to say, “Sure, I’ve fallen.” And you then get again up and fall once more, proper? But it surely’s crucial, it’s human. The most effective a part of my story is sharing not solely my falls however what I realized from these falls, and hoping what I’ve realized can present steerage for others.
Rhodes is a 1998 graduate of Drexel, the place he majored in accounting and administration info techniques and minored in African American research. Whereas a pupil, he was energetic on campus and based the Drexel chapter of NABA and his fraternity Alpha Chi Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. An entrepreneur and a philanthropist, Rhodes’ profession spans administration roles at Amazon, Deloitte, Ernst & Younger, Goal and Walmart, and he’s lately printed a e-book titled “Management Unlocked: Harness the Energy of Your Ambition.”
BRIAN ELLIS ’05
Q: Even together with your spectacular credentials and hard-earned roles, you’ve mentioned dealing with imposter syndrome all through the years. How have you ever been capable of leverage these experiences into advocacy work?
A: I’m a child from West Philadelphia. I first witnessed imposter syndrome after I moved to the suburbs in New Jersey for highschool, and once more as I began to actually develop in my career. Then once more as I pursued a PhD, and time and again. I used to be so afraid of failing, and I saved questioning if I used to be good sufficient to be the place I used to be. My coronary heart would pound throughout conferences. However, over the course of time, I began to appreciate that I did have one thing to contribute. I do belong. Everybody tends to query themselves, so I attempt to pay it ahead to others, particularly younger individuals, to share my lived experiences with them and assist them understand that they, too, belong.
Ellis at present serves as affiliate dean of educational packages administration at Drexel’s LeBow School of Enterprise and govt director of the Goodwin School of Skilled Research. He earned his undergraduate diploma in communications from Temple, his grasp’s diploma in increased training from Drexel and his PhD in world management from Indiana Institute of Expertise. Probably the most satisfying endeavors of his profession, he says, was founding the Drexel LeBow Constructing Relationships in Various Group Experiences (BRIDGE) program in 2012.
MONIQUETTA SHAFER ’11
Q: You’ve held many management roles and infrequently hunt down alternatives to mentor others inside and outdoors the office. What’s certainly one of your largest items of recommendation for individuals who aspire to guide?
A: I’m actually large on self-confidence. Whenever you stroll right into a room, the mindset that you want to have is that you’re one of many smartest individuals within the room, and if you happen to’re not one of many smartest individuals within the room, you’re one of many hardest working individuals within the room. You possibly can’t management who’s within the room, or how many individuals appear like you within the room, or how others are going to understand you within the room. However what you’ll be able to management is your individual perspective, and your individual perspective shall be what makes you profitable on the finish of the day. Self-confidence can go a really great distance in overcoming a whole lot of obstacles and even typically flattening limitations.
Shafer is a two-time graduate of Drexel, incomes her undergraduate diploma in biology in 2009 and her grasp’s diploma in science of instruction in 2011. After profitable stints at Integral Molecular and WuXi Superior Therapies, and dealing on the aspect as an adjunct professor at numerous increased training establishments, she’s now pursuing her PhD in pharmacology at Cornell’s Medical Faculty in New York Metropolis, the place her analysis is targeted on most cancers metabolism.
CHANTEE BUTLER ’13
Q: As a pupil, you made certain to get entangled in each method you might, from becoming a member of golf equipment and finding out overseas to discovering mentors and being a mentor. Why was doing this transformative for you?
A: I’m a first-generation school graduate, and I used to be all the time in search of out individuals who might lend me recommendation or speak by large selections. Once I was in school, I knew it was necessary to have these varieties of individuals round me, in my nook, serving to to carry me up. And whilst a pupil, I discovered methods to even be a mentor — there may be super worth in each the mentee and mentor roles. My motto is, “In case you don’t see it, create it,” and I made certain to construct my neighborhood. There may be a lot energy in networking and relationships.
Whereas an undergraduate pupil finding out accounting and finance at Drexel, Butler landed co-ops at high-profile firms BlackRock, J.P. Morgan and Ernst & Younger, and through her senior 12 months, she helped discovered DUBAC. After graduating from Drexel 2013, she labored at Deloitte after which earned an MBA at Wharton, earlier than touchdown managerial roles at Vanguard and DoorDash. She has since pursued her entrepreneurial journey full-time with all-natural skincare firm Nayko Naturals and baseball coaching firm Graveyard Mentality.
