White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities

John Wilson (Executive Director, White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities), LCDR Zeita Merchant, and the Commandant
Originally uploaded by uscgpress

Shipmates,

The Coast Guard began a new phase in our growing partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) this week, as we were a sponsor of the White House Initiative on HBCUs. We also supported the event with volunteers and participated in workshops.

Earlier in the week RADM Steve Rochon was honored as one of the 105 "voices of history" at the Kennedy Center. RADM Rochon is a graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans.

HBCUs have provided great leaders, scientists, writers, military leaders, and musicians to our country. Alex Haley attended both Alcorn State and Elizabeth City State Teachers College before joining the Coast Guard.

At a dinner this evening to honor radio personality Tom Joyner who has raised over 55 million dollars for HBCUs, the keynote speaker was Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Secretary Duncan began tutoring low income, minority students at an early age in Chicago at an after school program his mother ran. He rose to become Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public School system.

I met many HBCU Presidents this evening and had the opportunity to introduce CAPT Steve Baynes who is our liaison officer to HBCUs. I also spoke about our new partnerships with North Carolina A&T, Norfolk State, Lincoln University, and Morgan State. These partnerships support our Diversity Strategic Plan that was announced earlier this week. More will follow.

My thanks also to LCDR Zeita Merchant who volunteered this week and did a terrific job coordinating our participation. The picture above shows Zeita and me engaging in a discussion with John Wilson, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs.

ADM A