Discover the transformative power of community support and philanthropy in our special 40th birthday series for Entrepreneur Appetite. Join host Dr. Langston Clark as he sets an ambitious goal to secure 40 new donors for the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship at North Carolina A&T State University, a vital initiative designed to support educators pursuing graduate degrees. Throughout June and July, all podcast profits will be dedicated to this scholarship, propelling future leaders in education. Be inspired by heartfelt testimonials from A&T alumni who share how their PhD journeys have shaped their lives and careers, creating ripples of impact within their communities.
In a riveting conversation with Dr. Terrell Morton, assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and co-founder of the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship, we explore the indispensable role of philanthropy and early academic support. Dr. Morton delves into his own educational path from A&T to his current esteemed position, emphasizing the significance of investing in Black institutions. He underscores the necessity of both financial aid and mentorship, revealing how these elements have propelled many students toward remarkable achievements. This chapter also sheds light on the broader impact of graduate education at HBCUs, advocating for these institutions as a backbone of professional and societal parity for Black individuals.
Our conversation takes a deeper look at the critical role of graduate education in achieving professional advancement and societal equity. We discuss the historical context of Black education, pre- and post-Brown v. Board of Education, and the pressing need to bolster graduate programs at HBCUs as a form of reparative justice. Highlighting the importance of initiatives like the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship, we aim to create a robust network of care and recognition that nurtures scholars and enables them to make significant contributions in their fields. Tune in to learn how you can be part of this vital cause and help foster a new generation of Black leaders in education.
Discover the transformative power of community support and philanthropy in our special 40th birthday series for Entrepreneur Appetite. Join host Dr. Langston Clark as he sets an ambitious goal to secure 40 new donors for the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship at North Carolina A&T State University, a vital initiative designed to support educators pursuing graduate degrees. Throughout June and July, all podcast profits will be dedicated to this scholarship, propelling future leaders in education. Be inspired by heartfelt testimonials from A&T alumni who share how their PhD journeys have shaped their lives and careers, creating ripples of impact within their communities.
In a riveting conversation with Dr. Terrell Morton, assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and co-founder of the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship, we explore the indispensable role of philanthropy and early academic support. Dr. Morton delves into his own educational path from A&T to his current esteemed position, emphasizing the significance of investing in Black institutions. He underscores the necessity of both financial aid and mentorship, revealing how these elements have propelled many students toward remarkable achievements. This chapter also sheds light on the broader impact of graduate education at HBCUs, advocating for these institutions as a backbone of professional and societal parity for Black individuals.
Our conversation takes a deeper look at the critical role of graduate education in achieving professional advancement and societal equity. We discuss the historical context of Black education, pre- and post-Brown v. Board of Education, and the pressing need to bolster graduate programs at HBCUs as a form of reparative justice. Highlighting the importance of initiatives like the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship, we aim to create a robust network of care and recognition that nurtures scholars and enables them to make significant contributions in their fields. Tune in to learn how you can be part of this vital cause and help foster a new generation of Black leaders in education.
What's up everybody? Once again, this is dr langston clark, the founder and organizer of entrepreneur appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting Black businesses. I want to welcome you to a special series of our podcast celebrating a milestone that is close to my heart our 40th birthday. As part of this celebration, I'm setting an ambitious goal to gain 40 new donors for the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship in North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, an endowment that I co-founded to support teachers and educators who are on their journeys to get graduate degrees. For those of you who have joined our live discussions, you know that typically, 10% of the profits from the podcast go to support this endowment. However, for the months of June and July, I'm thrilled to announce that 100% of the profits from the podcast go to support this endowment. However, for the months of June and July, I'm thrilled to announce that 100% of the profits will be dedicated to the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship. If you are inspired to support this cause, a link to contribute to the endowment can be found in the show notes. We're asking listeners to generously support the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship to help more educators increase their education so that they can better support the students in our community. This special series will feature testimonials from A&T alumni who have gone on to earn their PhDs, sharing their journeys and impact of their education on their lives and career journeys and impact of their education on their lives and career. It will also feature some new episodes from authors who have written books about HBCUs and a few throwback episodes.
Langston Clark:
In this first bonus episode, we feature a conversation with one of the co-founders of the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship, my good friend, dr Terrell Morton. Dr Morton is an assistant professor of identity and justice in STEM education and educational psychology at the University of Illinois, chicago, and so, terrell, give us an overview of what your journey has been and then we'll talk a little bit about where you are in your career as an academic and a scholar. And Terrell is. Terrell is going to be like one of those like legendary STEM scholars, and I know that, like a lot of the audience isn't into academia and things like that, but Terrell is like well on his way to being a world-renowned legendary scholar type of person, and so I think it's great to have him here on the show to talk about. You know what the philanthropy that is attached to this show. Does so Ter Terrell? Tell us about it.
Terrell Morton:
I'm going to do my best to try to hold up to that introduction of becoming a world-renowned STEM scholar, but I am currently an assistant professor of identity and justice in STEM education at the University of Illinois, chicago. I mean, as you've already announced fellow graduate of the illustrious North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, finished in 2011 with a bachelor's of science degree in chemistry, and from my journey at that point to date, while I was an undergraduate student at A&T, I didn't necessarily know that this was going to be my path per se, like I knew that I wanted to be in a space where I could give back to Black folks and be among those who are supporting the Black community, and at the time, I thought that that would happen through medicine. But, you know, through my own path to self-discovery, through my post-ANT and during-ANT experiences, realized that I have a greater passion for uplift through education, which prompted me to make the decisions that I did today, or that led to where I am today in terms of being a faculty member and doing research on STEM education, particularly through a racial justice lens. And so I mean, if I think about that initial question right of what is the importance and the value of the philanthropy and what is the importance and the value of investing in our Black institutions. I can think about it holistically in a sense, like for my own personal experience, having a space that saw me as a person and didn't just see me as a statistic, what it is that I would major in and how it is that I could understand my purpose in this world and finding the career path that gave that opportunity to do so, while not having to worry as much about the broader societal stereotypes and stigmas, about being a Black man in America and trying to advance oneself.
Terrell Morton:
And I think you know the philanthropy component to that is I was fortunate enough to navigate my undergraduate experiences and even my graduate experiences as the result of philanthropy.
Terrell Morton:
So I am a Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholar.
Terrell Morton:
And so, because of their investments in education at the time, I was awarded a scholarship that covered my bachelor's, my master's and my doctoral degree. And outside of my own experience, I just think about other colleagues and friends of mine who education was made possible as a result of other people's philanthropic endeavors and like the different ways that they've been able to make an impact on society and an impact on Black folks and an impact specifically on our alma mater. So it's very important for me as an alumnus, but also as just someone part of this greater collective, to recognize the need to invest in our HBCUs and invest in our future generation of leaders and thinkers and creators and innovators and doers, because as I get older in the workforce, I start to think about who's going to be the generation that takes care of me once I'm at that age of retirement and everything else, and what kind of world do I want to exist within as an older person Get along, what kind of world would I want my future generations to exist in as well?
Langston Clark:
So, speaking of getting older, if I didn't mention it already, this is part of a campaign for my birthday. This is part of my effort to get 40 new donors to support our endowment before I turn 40 on July 21st. And so I hear you speak about your aging. You're not that old, by the way.
Langston Clark:
I want to go back, not thinking about you aging, but a group of us went back to A&T, probably six, seven years ago now, to engage with some graduate students there and talk about the journey from A&T to PhD and bridge build this between those of us who left to get our doctorates and those of us who stayed at A&T to get their doctorates. And I told people there when I was speaking that I got my doctorate from the University of Texas, I got my master's degree from Ohio State and that I got my birth certificate from A&T, and so your story is a little bit more a little bit more biological than mine. This is true. Talk about your origins as an Aggie, and then let's fast forward to like what you're doing today in your current work as someone who is a STEM ed scholar.
Terrell Morton:
So, although I am not turning 40, I guess they say I'm closer to 40 than I am 30, but even still so. Yeah, biologically I was not necessarily born at A&T, but I was definitely conceived at A&T. So both of my parents are Aggie alums. They met in college and they actually had me while they were still college students at A&T. So I tell people that I went to classes college classes before I went to daycare. It's no longer Scott Hall, but I stayed in Scott Hall with my uncle and his roommates. Before you know, I might have had a crib or something, not before but, you get the general sense.
Terrell Morton:
I was definitely under the age of two, living on a college campus until my parents moved off, which I think is now. They might have moved into like what was Riverwalk when we were in school I don't know what it's called now, but proximity to A&T until my mother graduated and then we moved on because of the fact that my parents were students at A&T. I had a lot of people from A&T both students and faculty invest in me as a young person, so my godparents. I had two sets of godparents at A&T Franklin McCain II and his wife, vicki McCain. So the son of Franklin McCain Sr, who was at A&T IV, was one of my godparents. The McCains were really good friends with my father because Vicki McCain and my father grew up together in Rocky Mount and so they would care for me. And then, when they were unable to care for me because they were also students at A&T at the time, dr Johnny Hodge Sr and his wife, the band director at the time, would also care for me, and so that was also because the band director was my father's major advisor, because my father was studying music at the time and my parents actually met in the band and so other members of the band who were friends of my parents would take care of me. And so I think about like what it meant to truly be Aggie, born in a sense where my first community, my first family outside of my biological family, was an Aggie family, and recognizing what it meant for a professor or what it meant for another 22-year-old college student right to really invest in a toddler, seeing their possibilities, seeing their potential, recognizing that the different struggles and circumstances of life that people are having to navigate are things, spaces or our ability to engage in certain activities. And so, because professors and classmates saw it worthwhile to invest in me by way of investing in my parents, I see a lot of my scholarship and my work as being someone who invests in young people, college students specifically, so that they can have opportunities to explore their wildest dreams of medical school. That did not turn out, because I ended up with a master's in neuroscience from the University of Miami in Miami, florida, and a PhD in education with a concentration in the learning sciences and psychological studies from UNC, chapel Hill.
Terrell Morton:
My research and focus has been around Black identity and undergraduate STEM engagement, and so asking questions about what does it mean to be Black, or to be a Black woman, or to be Black first generation? Within these STEM spaces, how do we use our identities to make certain decisions about not only our majors but why our majors, what resources we seek when we need help? No-transcript and how are we processing all of these external influences to make these internal decisions about staying, persisting and engaging in our STEM spaces? Really try to honor again the agency and to honor the strategizing and theorizing of Black college students who find ways to make a way when it's not easily accessible to them because of these other life factors, and so, through my work, my goal is to not only listen and learn from Black folks about how they navigate, but then to use that information to change systems and to change structures so that it is easier for people to obtain their dreams, particularly in higher education, and also still be able to navigate the life circumstances, because life be lifin' and it happens to all of us, and whether or not we're able to successfully stay within certain endeavors or if we have to pivot really depends on the resources and the support network and if people of power believe in us.
Terrell Morton:
One of the things that I learned as a professor is that you hold so much power over people's lives by simply determining their grades.
Terrell Morton:
And yes, grades are things that are earned. But if we think about all of those behind the scenes structures that come with grades, like we set when assignments are due, we set the value that's associated with certain assignments, we set the parameters for the assignments, and all of these things can have implications for people who might be working or who might be parents, or who might have five or six siblings that they're caring for at home and they're trying to balance that with obtaining and completing their assignments. And so we can be sticklers to our rules and our policies, because it makes it easier for us, and hoard the power. Or we can be intentional to say I see you young, 22-year-old, with a son living with you on campus, trying to make a way. What is it that I can do to invest in you so that your future and your child's future can be successful? So I really try to lean into that, because I would not be here if somebody else did not do that.
Langston Clark:
For me and my family, there's been like interesting conversations about how we define scholarship, and mainstream institutional ways of of thinking about philanthropy have made it seem like black folks don't engage in philanthropy and so I would say that in so many ways, like you're the product of philanthropy. That happened at A&T right. So it's not every type of university or institution where the band director babysits one of the students' newborn Like. That's not normal, that's not happening everywhere. You know what I mean. And the fact that you had your uncle who you could stay with, and other folks in the band and people who supported your folks as you were in the mix while they were finishing school, you know your story's a little bit different.
Langston Clark:
If that doesn't happen, like that happens at another institution, like your dad may not have graduated, your mom may not have graduated, they may not have got married do you know what I mean?
Langston Clark:
So this, to me, kind of goes back to the reason why we started the endowment, because because in a lot of ways, even though this is for graduate students and we'll talk about the significance of that in a moment like $2,000 that someone might get from the endowment could mean the difference between them dropping out of school or carrying on right. And so we wanted to create and establish this endowment to stand in the gap in ways that a lot of times, historically, black colleges have been inhibited from doing in terms of giving people funds because they've been underfunded. And so imagine what we are able to do when that ethic of care exists, when you have someone who's your professor, your major advisor, your band director, who will watch your son so you can go to class, but, at the same time, the institution has the ability to provide funds for you to be able to succeed. When life happens. I think a lot of people may not understand why graduate school Right.
Terrell Morton:
Now, honestly, before you go to the graduate school component, can I get on that philanthropy mindset? One of the things that I think also speaks to me from our endowment is in diversifying this concept of philanthropy. We recognize that alums our presence on the campus space is also very much connected to it. So how do we and not even like trying to be present, to like regulate and control things, but it's how do we think holistically, what does it truly mean to be somebody who invests in someone else's success and future? And even though we may not have done as great a job advertising that part of our endowment, but we can do that now through this podcast and your celebration of your 40th. But I mean, I think about separate from what we're doing with the money, your intentionality to continuously invest in A&T through other endeavors, my intentionality to invest in A&T through other endeavors.
Langston Clark:
BJ's intentionality to invest in A&T through other endeavors so that it is more than just donations. Yeah, and shout out to BJ she is the other founder of the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship. Definitely think you're right in a lot of ways that we haven't really promoted, like we've created a constellation of support among folks in terms of giving back, whether that means engaging with the administration at A&T, writing grants, doing research and scholarship with folks at A&T, encouraging people who are scholars at A&T right now to apply for awards and get involved in professional organizations and things like that. But even thinking about how we engage with current students at A&T and people who have gone to A&T for undergrad but went to a PWI for graduate school still being able to pick up the phone, answer the email on a call of those folks who are going through some things, and so this again is really, like you said, twofold. It's the traditional Black scholarship where we build this network and ethic of care, but being successful in the way that we are in our careers, you know, being able to give back monetarily has been something that has been the icing on the cake, if you will. So Terrell is being modest.
Langston Clark:
Terrell got some early career award from some STEM organization, for every time I see him he's getting a new NSF grant or whatever and things like that, and in a lot of ways, he's not tenured yet as we are recording this episode, but I have no doubts that he will be, and so I don't want us to not recognize what your from A&T to PhD journey has been and that you are.
Langston Clark:
I wouldn't even say that you're an up and coming STEM ed scholar. I think that you have solidified your place in our profession and in the academy and, as things go on and you progress to full professor, get an endowment of your own someday to support students in your own way. I have no doubts that those things will happen. Your own someday to support students in your own way. I have no doubts that those things will happen. Talk a little bit about what it means to support graduate students, in particular in terms of historically Black colleges, maybe A&T in particular, and why that's important, because I think a lot of people on the outside view supporting undergraduate students as the thing to do, and it is, but it's important for us not to forget the work and the support that graduate students need as well.
Terrell Morton:
Yeah, that's a really great question and thought and I appreciate the shout out for the awards and stuff. It is nice to be recognized, you know, for the efforts and the energy, although for me the best recognition can truly come from the community that we set out to serve, because we know that when your folks say that they're proud of you, they're looking at it holistically and all that you've been through, and so it definitely hits a lot harder for me in that capacity. But so when I think about the state of graduate education and I think about it across multiple disciplines and not just STEM so STEM science, technology, engineering, mathematics and not just STEM education in terms of like science education, math education, but like across all disciplines it is my opinion that where we are as a country and as a nation, our bachelor's degrees, with the exception of a few disciplines, are somewhat equivalent to high school diplomas, in a sense that it is the expectation for a person to have a bachelor's degree as a bare minimum qualification in order for them to obtain a quality standard of living. Now, of course we know that there are all kinds of caveats and of course we know that there are all kinds of other opportunities that can come from vocational and technical schools and programs, and so I am not at all discrediting and I am not at all disparaging those programs, because I recognize the value and the importance of those programs in the broader economy. But when I think about, like that mainstream messaging that has happened pretty consistently since the 90s it has been get your four year degree, because that four year degree for all communities has now become the new benchmark for access to a career.
Terrell Morton:
Now what separates those from? How do I want to say this? What then separates those from who maintain sort of that day-to-day kind of operations versus those who society positions as thought leaders, who society positions as visionaries, who society positions as visionaries, who society positions as the quote unquote elite? That's supposed to take things to the next level. That's where you see graduate and professional education coming into play. Now, I'm sure people will have different opinions and people may come at me for that, but I'm speaking maybe not necessarily from my own beliefs, but from what we recognize as pretty much fact in society.
Terrell Morton:
People who have terminal degrees PhDs, psyds, mds, ddss, any kind of terminal doctorate degree or MBA for business doctorate degree or MBA for business, right, that is a different class of person in terms of how society perceives, treats and engages them?
Terrell Morton:
Yeah for sure.
Terrell Morton:
And so, thinking through that right, it is important for us to not only be well represented in undergraduate spaces, but it is important for us to be well represented in graduate education spaces, and not just represented in graduate education spaces, but us to have graduate education opportunities that continue to see us as holistic people and beings so very similar to your experience.
Terrell Morton:
You know, my master's and PhD came from predominantly white institutions and my lived experience as a Black man in those spaces were significantly different than what my lived experience was like as a Black of being the only one, or one of a few, in these predominantly white spaces. That impacts people's social, emotional, psychological and even physiological well-being and that then constrains our opportunity to be present in these professional spaces in ways that mirror our population parity. I mean, if Black folks make up 14% of the US and we can critique how these census are actually calculated, but if we believe that to be true, then population parity says that we should be 14% of the doctors, we should be 14% of the faculty, we should be 14% of the engineers, and those statistics don't show, no matter what discipline you look at across those domains.
Langston Clark:
Yeah, I would say this before we close and I'll give you the final word that we talk about historically Black colleges and universities being able to compete with predominantly white institutions of higher ed, and the way that the rankings come out right, the way that support gets allocated to institutions, is, in many ways, what happens in graduate education. It's not as much as what happens with undergrads, as it is like the quality of scientists, researchers, people who are going to become, you know, phds and go to other like top tier type universities to work and do research. Those are the metrics that get used to determine where your school ranks uplift and engage with A&T in ways that sometimes we don't think about historically Black colleges and universities being able to develop students at the graduate level as well as they've been able to do in undergrad, and so we want to bolster that ability at our beloved alma mater.
Terrell Morton:
So, terrell I want to add to that really quick. You know I'd be a little radical at times, but I think it's also a reparative mechanism. So, dr Leslie Fenwick, former Dean Emerita at Howard University, she gave the Brown v Board of Education lecture for one of our professional associations, american Educational Research Association, and in that lecture that she gave, looking at the landscape of Black education post the Brown v Board Supreme Court decisions, one of the things that she shared that stood out to me is that before Brown, so Black folks have always been very highly educated and, because of segregation, were very highly educated in our own communities, in our own spaces, in ways that reflected our own cultural ways of knowing, doing and being. Post-brown, what was supposed to be desegregation, that became more integration.
Terrell Morton:
Right, we see a stripping of our Black institutions and actually being able to offer graduate and professional spaces. We only have, like what, two medical schools at HBCUs at the current moment, or maybe three where prior to Brown there were multiple medical schools that were at HBCUs. Let's us know that that investment in graduate and professional education at HBCUs is also an act of reparations, because we had this before institutions, because we had this before and it's like now people have felt the need to divest from it because these other quote unquote institutions are supposed to be more viable and giving us more quality education. But we know that that's not entirely the case.
Langston Clark:
Yeah, All right, Terrell. Dr Morton, thank you for joining us here today. Aggie Pride, when's your birthday?
Terrell Morton:
July 18th, so I got you a little.
Langston Clark:
Yeah, so Terrell's birthday a few days before mine. So, as you're seeing this, and if you love Dr Terrell Morton, you can also give to the From A&T to PhD in Dial Scholarship in his name. So we appreciate the support from all of you who are watching this, all of you who are listening and, once again, aggie Pride.
Terrell Morton:
Hey, Aggie Pride.
Langston Clark:
Thank you for listening to today's show. As I mentioned in the introduction, this episode is part of a special series featuring voices from historically Black colleges and universities. This is part of a larger effort to support the From A&T to PhD Endowed Scholarship at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, an effort that I co-founded with two friends of mine who are also on their doctoral journeys. If you would like to support this effort, please review the show notes to make a donation to the endowment. Thank you.
