Having reached his 36th birthday in September, Brandon Pendarvis Brown is a testament to the old adage that age is just a number, based on the many accomplishments Brown has garnered in such a relatively short period.

He’s about to add one more accolade to the long list of achievements. In good company, Brown, along with CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien and other distinguished individuals, will receive the national Legacy Award for outstanding service to higher education during the UNCF NAC/PAC Leadership Conference, Friday, February 3, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. The Conference, held annually, features college presidents, educators, alumni, students and philanthropists who gather to learn how to better render support to UNCF institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

When the South Carolina native was named Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Paine College in 2008, the job appointment could have been hypothetically titled, “The Return,” if speaking of Brown’s matriculation where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in History in 2000. He would later go on to earn a Master’s degree in Human Resources from Webster University of St. Louis.

For Brown, the Paine experience is personal and significant, considering that he is following the legacy footsteps of his father, Bennie F. Brown Jr., a chemistry major who graduated from Paine College in 1969. The older Brown would go on to enjoy a successful career as a high school math and science teacher, in addition to continuing the family funeral home business in the Brown homestead of Greenville, S.C. The Browns are also proprietors of Brown Rentals and Properties. The younger Brown has also provided his expertise to ensure both family businesses have continued to remain viable.

Brown says he is honored to have the opportunity to return to his alma mater. “It’s a special privilege to work with Dr. Bradley to move my alma mater forward,” he said. Dr. George Cleveland Bradley was named President of Paine College in October 2007.

As Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Brown is charged with raising in excess of $14 million for the institution’s Health Education Activities Learning Complex (HEAL), which is currently under construction on the Paine campus. The new facility will in part replace the historic Randall A. Carter Gymnasium which has been part of the Paine campus for the past 60 years. “The HEAL will also include classrooms, laboratories and a 2,400-seat arena with new amenities Paine athletes have gone without for way too long,” Brown said

He is responsible for fostering scholarships, endowments, furthering the institution’s strategic plan and helping to move the Campus Master Plan forward.  Of particular note, the College has witnessed an upsurge in capital improvements and support.

Fundraising and friend raising are comfort zones for Brown, considering his 2006 experience as State Deputy Political Director for Senator Joe Biden’s Presidential campaign. Biden would go on to become Vice President of the United States in President Barack Obama’s administration. Brown continues to cherish a warm relationship with VP Biden and his staff.

Brown’s commitment to making higher education accessible to students is unparallel. He served as a recruitment officer at Claflin University, in Orangeburg, South Carolina for 3 years and went on to create the Greenville HBCU Basketball Classic in 2003. The HBCU Classic was one of a kind in the Upstate and is credited with spurring enrollment at several HBCUs throughout the country. Later, in 2004, he founded the HBCU Football Classic in the Upstate and brought the Battle of the Bands to half-time that was a sidebar to the College Fairs and Recruiting sessions that were forefront.

Brown comments that the Greenville HBCU sports classics were born out of his desire to make college affordable and accessible to his community.  “I wanted to give young people access to a quality education at valuable institutions that are credited with producing many of the nation’s leaders today,” said Brown.

Having caught the political bug, Brown became the first African-American South Carolina candidate for U.S. Congress (age 28) in the Fourth Congressional District and won the Democratic nomination.  Needless to say, Brown leads the Governmental Relations initiatives at Paine College and as a result, the College is witnessing an increase in federal and state funding and support.

Constantly at the forefront of social justice issues, Brown was an organizing member of the Greenville Technical College Multi-cultural Diversity Board that was formed after a senior member of the Greenville Tech Administration made insensitive statements about Katrina Evacuees. Brown contributed heavily to the healing process and went on to serve as an advocate on many fronts.

Rooted in community service, he served as Executive Director of the Allen Temple Community Development Center that catered to at-risk children; and co-founded the Upstate (S.C.) Black Family Reunion, which promotes community unity.  He remains active in civic and social organizations in both Georgia and South Carolina and has served on the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce Advocacy Committee; the Augusta Symphony Board of Directors; and the Greer,
SC Hospital Advisory Board. He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and a member of the John Wesley United Methodist Church, Greenville, Ssouth Carolina.

The fall of 2011 marked a personal milestone in Brown’s life who had been a longtime committed bachelor. On October 29, 2011, Brown and Augusta TV news anchor/personality Kimberely Scott of WJBF-TV, exchanged marriage vows during distinguished ceremonies that attracted well-wishers from near and far.

“Obviously, this is an exciting time of my life in more ways than one,” said Brown.

“I fully believe in the vision and leadership of our president and feel absolutely certain that Paine College will continue to evoke positive changes locally and nationally — from now and into the future.

“Frankly, I’m having the time of my life,” he added with a smile.

Helene Carter, Assistant Vice President at Paine College and long-time associate of Brown said, “I’ve watched Brandon mature into an exceptional servant leader who is committed to higher education and he’s just beginning to reap some of the benefits of his dedication to servant leadership and his conviction to social justice.  He is a walking testament of the power of exercising positive vision and anyone who is in his company is inspired to reach for greatness.”

Actress Tonya Lee Williams will receive the Martin Luther King, Jr. Achievement Award at the Black Theatre Workshop (BTW)’s 26th Annual Vision Celebration Gala a week from Saturday in Montreal for her contribution in the Black performing arts.

Williams remains best known as fan favorite Dr. Olivia Williams on the top-rated daytime soap, The Young and the Restless. Her other notable roles includes Octovia Jones on the CBC drama The Border, and most recently as Maxine Williams on the VisionTV sitcom She’s The Mayor.

Tonya made her debut as the host of the children show Polka Dot Door, which led to guest spots on What’s Happening Now!, Gimme a Break!, Hill Street Blues, Falcon Crest, and Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.

Her role as Linda Dukes on the groundbreaking African-American NBC soap Generations led Tonya to her highest-profiling role to date: Dr. Olivia Winters as Y&R, earning her two Daytime Emmy nominations and two NAACP Awards.

In 2001, Tonya created and founded Reelworld (www.reelworld.ca), a film festival celebrating cultural diversity with the screening of films, documentaries, music videos, and shorts to both Canadian and international audiences.

The Vision Celebration begins with cocktails at 5:30pm, followed by dinner, dancing and entertainment an hour later at 6:30pm.

For tickets, call the Box Office at 514-932-1104 (ext. 226); more information on the Black Theatre Workshop can be found at www.blacktheatreworkshop.ca

Techno pioneer Saunderson recently relaunched influential US techno outfit Inner City, whose first two albums had combined sales of more than six million, for a new album due early next year. We find out more about the 47-year-old New York DJ.

He really wasn’t cut out to be a pop star.
‘It was a bit bizarre, because I had no intentions in that direction. I just wanted to produce music. I didn’t want to be on Top of the Pops. I didn’t see myself as any kind of typical band, but all of a sudden I was being looked on as typical because I had commercial success. I made it very clear in the beginning to my managers that I didn’t wanna do this, and they were like, “You’ve got to do this, this is important to the record, and this is how it works.” So even now, I’m not gonna be on every tour with Inner City. I’m gonna be at home making music, while they might be out performing. I’ve grown, and if we can’t do it this way, I won’t do it. That’s the difference between then and now. I was young, a little naïve.’

He hasn’t updated his equipment much since the old days.
‘I might work with two or three plugins, until I wear them out. It’s easy to say, well, that sound doesn’t work, let me try that one, or this one. That’s the more conservative approach. It’s not easy – it takes time, but when it comes you appreciate it. Some people never experience that, so they never know that.’

He doesn’t listen to music much any more.
‘People would be surprised, but I don’t listen to music like I used to. I play a lot of music, because I’m DJing, but I don’t sit at home and put on my favourite tracks. That’s not to say there’s something wrong with the quality of what’s out there, it’s just not my thing. If I run into a track I love, I’ll ask who it is, but I don’t generally follow music.’

Britain’s early-’90s acid house revolution blew his mind.
‘I saw things move so quickly, coming to the UK in the early part of 1988 and then later that year: it transformed. It blew me away. It was like a virus! Truthfully. This big phenomenon started happening around it. It was very special. That’s something that just doesn’t happen. You can’t just go out and say, I’m going to make something like this happen!’

He doesn’t think that could happen again unless something else happens first.
‘We would have to have some massive thing happen. If half the world got blown up and society was recreated, that’s what it would take for us to come up with something like that, because your experience was so deep that you were on another level of recreating humanity and yourself through creativity. That’s the only way something like that’s gonna happen. I ain’t saying it’s not going to happen, but we should hope that it ain’t happening, ha ha!’

He thinks black people have been deleted from house history.
‘Definitely. I don’t know how much it was remembered in the first place! Because when this music was first created, it was all black people dancing to it. A black people. It’s amazing how it went from all black people to no black people. I was in a college fraternity called Phi Beta Sigma, we did these parties, a thousand black kids on campus partying. They were all progressive. They weren’t into what was on the radio, they were getting it! All these black kids, smoking these German cigarettes, calling themselves preppy, dressing all cool. Between when I released “Big Fun” [in 1988], and about ’92, it totally flipped. And now on the college circuit, all the white fraternities, they’re booking Tiësto and David Guetta!’

The Alpha Mu Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. won the 2011 Outstanding Alumni Chapter of the Year Award at its district convention in Johnson City.

The Knoxville chapter has been in existence since 1930. The criteria for the award is based on fraternity and community service, as well as developing programs and activities to promote education and awareness on several causes in the Knoxville area, including voter’s education, Go To High School Go To College and Project Alpha.

The chapter will represent the Tennessee District at the regional Alpha Phi Alpha convention in Columbia, S.C., in March.

For more information, visit http://alphamulambda.com.

A classmate. A fraternity brother. A colleague in the American struggle for civil rights. A high school student. Their lives intersected with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Decades later, on the holiday celebrating King’s life and the civil rights movement he led, these contemporaries of King recall how the young preacher from Atlanta influenced them.

Herman W. Hemingway, 79, Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Attorney and retired professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Hemingway first met King in 1952 when the two were Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity pledges. King was a doctoral student at Boston University. Hemingway was an undergraduate at nearby Brandeis University.

From the moment King walked through the door, said Hemingway, he stood out — serious and erudite.

“The doorbell rang and here comes this short guy with very brown skin,” Hemingway said. “And he’s a reverend. He was older than the rest of us. We were teenagers. We wanted to have fun, joke around, tease each other. . . He kind of distinguished himself from the rest of the group.”

King became the fraternity’s chaplain and a father figure, Hemingway said. He recalled how they never called King by his first name, only “Rev” or “Brother King.”

All pledges were required to remember a poem, William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus.”

“It exemplified how to deal with struggles and challenges and how to be self-sufficient,” Hemingway said. “It seemed to be a dress rehearsal for things he was later to face.”

How King influenced him: “I feel blessed to have met and spent time with Brother King. I was inspired by him as well. This was a man who was on a different wavelength than the rest of us.

“… We learned the importance of community efforts, brotherhood, self-reliance and respect for our own people. His contributions weren’t specific but his participation with us was the message. His contribution to the group was to keep it real and to encourage us to hang in there until we accomplished our goals. The collective nature of his participation was the inspiring part.”

Samuel DuBois Cook, 82, Atlanta

Retired president of Dillard University.

Cook and King were classmates at Morehouse College, both sons of Baptist ministers.

A friendship developed on the all-male Atlanta campus. King, as Cook remembers, was popular, outgoing and stylish.

An unforgettable experience for Cook was hearing King give the senior sermon at Morehouse in 1948, where a young King displayed the oratory skill that would help transform the nation.

“I remember M.L. saying in that sermon that there are moral laws in the universe that we cannot violate with impunity any more than we can violate physical laws with impunity,” Cook said. “He was talking about the moral order of the universe and our relationship as brothers in that universe. It was the most moving experience. It was a powerful, powerful address. He soared.”

Cook and King remained friends until his death. Cook still chuckles at how during a holiday gathering — in either 1966 or 1967 — he and his wife struggled over whether to serve King eggnog with a little something extra.

“I told her don’t just give ML this eggnog, put a little bourbon in it. She said, ‘No, you can’t do that. You can’t give him any bourbon,’ ” Cook said. “But she put a little in there. When she gave it to him he tasted it and said in his unique voice, ‘Sylvia, honey, I don’t know what in the world you put in this eggnog but whatever it was put in some more.’ “

How King influenced him: “The depth of his sincerity and his commitment to the kingdom of God had a great impact on me. M.L. was serious and sincere about social justice, about equality and about God. It challenged me. It made me want to be a better individual and to make a deeper commitment to the kingdom of God.

“That’s what ML was about, really, the kingdom of God.”

Dorothy Cotton, 81, Ithaca, N.Y.

Retired Dean of Students at Cornell University.

Cotton, as education director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, traveled the country with King. She did so when the civil rights movement was at its peak. Danger lurked everywhere.

Cotton was in the traveling party that went to Memphis in April 1968. She was with King on his last plane ride.

Cotton was set to fly back to Atlanta on April 4, the day King was killed.

“I was eating breakfast in the restaurant, when he called for me,” Cotton said. “His last words to me were ‘get a later plane.’ But I had to get back to Atlanta. I got on my 1 p.m. flight, got home and took a nap and said I would go to the office later. While I was taking a nap my neighbor rang my doorbell and said, ‘I really have some bad news, Dr. King has been shot.’ ”

Cotton knew of the dangers but believed in the civil rights movement. It’s why she left Virginia and followed her pastor, Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, who was head of the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality, to help King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta.

“I became director of education for SCLC,” Cotton said. “And my role was to plan the five-day sessions to help black folks un-brainwash themselves.”

How King influenced her: “After his death, I worked with Mrs. King to start the King Center … Now I spend a lot of my time speaking and teaching about Dr. King and the civil rights movement. I do a lot of work looking at the lessons we learned and helping people organize. People are doing a lot of creative things, building off of the civil rights struggle. I am also finishing my book, ‘If Your Back’s Not Bent: The Movement from Victim to Victory,’ which will be out soon. And I am always answering the question of Dr. King’s last book, ‘Where Do We Go from Here?’ ”

Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., 70, Atlanta

Dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College

As a high school student in the 1950s, Carter dreamed of attending Morehouse College, but couldn’t afford the tuition. In 1979, he finally got there.

Carter met King four times, first as a 10th grader in Columbus, Ohio when King visited his church.

“He asked my name and asked if I had considered [attending] Morehouse,” Carter said.

Carter would hear King speak again at a local high school.

“I was swept off my feet and rushed back to the school to call my mother to tell her I wanted to go to Morehouse,” Carter said. “But she was working three or four jobs and we couldn’t afford it. So I decided that I would go to Boston University and be taught by the same professors who taught him.”

Carter met King again when he was a student at Boston University, which he said pleased King. He recalls the heartbreak of hearing of King’s death.

“With tears streaming down my face I prayed out loud for the Lord to let me do something significant for Martin Luther King Jr., before I close my eyes,” Carter said. “[Former Morehouse President] Hugh Gloster invited me to be dean of Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on July 1. 1979.”

How King influenced him: “Dr. King helped me prepare my vision for my ministry and for all of my peace work. Martin Luther King Jr. is a moral cosmopolitan. His most famous statement is proof of that — ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’

“He did not believe in putting a straightjacket around his expression of unconditional love of Christ. There was an internal consistency about what he believed and sought. That is how he impacted me. (Having not attended Morehouse as an undergraduate) King would say to me that what I am doing is a much more powerful response to his recruitment. He did not realize he was anointing me to keep his message alive. I have kept his Kingian, non-violent philosophy alive in the academy. I have been here for 33 years. I have spoken in 37 countries about him. He would be proud.”

At Howard University in 1908, sisters Beulah and Lillie Burke helped to found Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority. At Washington and Lee University 103 years later, sisters Devin Cooper ’11 and Amber Cooper ’12 helped to found a W&L chapter of that Greek organization.

“We tease them and call them the Burke sisters,” said Tamara Y. Futrell, associate dean of students. Futrell, a member of AKA herself, worked with the Coopers to bring the sorority to W&L.  The Tau Zeta Chapter of AKA, which was chartered last March with 12 members, is one of two historically black sororities on campus.

The other is the Tau Omega Chapter of  Delta Sigma Theta, which is a joint chapter with Hollins University and Roanoke College. It is recruiting and has active members on the other campuses, although none is currently enrolled at W&L. Both sororities belong to the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC), which oversees the nine traditionally black fraternities and sororities. Except for one that dates to 1963, those Greek organizations were founded between 1906 and 1922. With the arrival of AKA, W&L has eight Panhellenic and National Pan-Hellenic sororities in all.

AKA established a presence on campus in 2005 when three W&L students became general members, meaning they were unaffiliated with a specific chapter. Several obstacles delayed colonization on campus. “It takes 12 people to start a chapter, and I don’t think that they had the numbers early on,” said Futrell. “We underwent international administration changes, and that held up the process, and then we had to wait until we had trained graduate advisors in the supervising graduate chapter, Beta Chi Omega, which is located in Roanoke that could assist us with the chapter.”

“In terms of recruitment and retention for Washington and Lee, I think it’s very important that people see all sides of Greek life,” said Amber Cooper, AKA’s current president. While the existing Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council (IFC) Greek organizations may be the best choice for some students, said Cooper, a mass communications major, it’s good to have the option of NPHC fraternities and sororities. “I’m hoping that in the coming years there will be more.”

Kahena Joubert ’13, AKA’s treasurer, agreed. The first in her family to join AKA, she was impressed by the sorority’s dedication to public service. “I really wanted to be a member of an NPHC organization, and after doing my research, I realized I really wanted to be a member of AKA because I really liked what they were about, service and sisterhood.” Joubert is majoring in business administration and politics and has worked with the Multicultural Student Association.

Dedication to community service is one of the most notable characteristics of NPHC fraternities and sororities. The sorority is “very service-oriented, very philanthropic. We don’t do a whole lot of partying and things like that. While we do have social activities, that is  not our focus,” said Futrell. Women who join NPHC sororities consider themselves lifetime members and take seriously their commitment to continue philanthropic activities after graduation.

NPHC fraternities and sororities are not part of the IFC or the Panhellenic Council. “Totally separate bodies, but we encourage collaboration,” said Futrell. “We are totally separate because our recruitment and member  intake processes are completely different. We have different rules and different policies that govern us as opposed to the other two bodies.”

Women planning to join AKA, for example, do not go through Panhellenic-style rush,. Instead, AKA hosts a Rush Session in which interested women submit applications for membership and then are voted on. AKA is open to all women, and two non-African-American students became charter members at W&L last spring. One of those, sophomore Sally Platt from Fredericksburg, Texas, said she joined for a variety of reasons.

“As a blond-haired, blue eyed Texan of Irish descent I kind of look a little out of place. But that is the awesome thing about AKA — it is really not about color. The ideals of the sorority stay the same, no matter what,” Platt said. “Our goal is to provide ‘Service to all Mankind,’ and this is something the sorority really stands for.”

AKA’s new members are looking forward to starting their philanthropic projects. Internationally, the sorority focuses on seven signature initiatives: emerging young leaders, health, global poverty, economic security, social justice and human rights, and internal leadership training. The W&L chapter plans to work on breast-cancer awareness and to partner with an Atlanta organization, Living Water for Girls, that aids young victims of sex trafficking. Devin Cooper began her involvement with Living Water while she was a student. A biology major, she is now a member of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps in its medical school.

“One that we haven’t started, but that I’m excited to start, is the Emerging Young Leaders Program,” said Joubert. “We partner with girls in middle school to get them excited about going to high school and college, and just being their mentors.”

Amber Cooper and Joubert are glad W&L took an active and supportive role in bringing AKA to campus. “Bringing diversity to campus says a lot about the way W&L is moving,” said Joubert, “and how diverse we’re becoming, and how accepting we’re becoming of just lots of different things.”

Name: Cherrie Lemon
Major: Chemistry
Year: Senior
Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri

After four years of marching band in high school, Cherrie Lemon was done. She decided not to join the Purdue “All-American” Marching Band her freshman year, but that all changed when she heard the tapping of drums after class. Since her sophomore year, Cherrie has been a dedicated member of the marching band and is currently serving as the first African-American drum major.

Bold beginnings

“I was in the eighth grade band and out of nowhere I asked my teacher, ‘Can I conduct the next song?’ I didn’t know anything about conducting and she let me. I figured out the pattern: down, in, out, up and I thought, ‘I could do this in my sleep!’ She told me I should be a drum major in high school and I went from there.”

Humbled by success

“I’m a really grounded person because I know I worked hard to be a drum major, and I know a lot of other people did, too. I know as easy as you get things they can be taken away, so I wasn’t going to get a big head about it.”

Adrenaline rush

“Marching is one of those mental things that comes from within. When we walk out on the field, everyone is looking at us. However long it is that we walk onto the field, you just have to be on it and in the zone. You can’t think about anything else.”

Mutual admiration

“I like it when women come up to me feeling inspired. It’s always interesting to see how they get inspiration from me, and how they inspire me, as well.”

Fearless leader

“I think people are afraid to succeed because expectations change once you’re successful. People expect greater things from you from that point on because they know your potential. I hate wondering, ‘What if?’ The worst thing you can do is not try.”

Velveeta Reid-Hairston, President and Owner of Family Training and Assessment Services, LLC, has been selected as an Honored Member of the Biltmore Who’s Who Executive and Professional Registry. The selection recognizes Velveeta Reid-Hairston’s commitment to excellence in Community Social Work and Networking.

Reid-Hairston, who received her undergraduate degree from Livingstone College and a Master’s Degree in Clinical Social Work from Norfolk State University, is a certified clinical sexual offender treatment specialist.

As owner and president of Family Training and Assessment Services, Reid-Hairston is a contract trainer specialist, specializing in MAPP-GPS, Deciding Together, Shared Parenting, Support Group Development, Family/Individual Assessments and Treatment of Offenders. She has experience in child welfare/foster care & adoption services with tenure in these two areas spanning over 15 years.

Reid-Hairston is founder of the non-profit, The Shepherd’s Heart Ministry, which provides financial resource assistance to seniors, as well as empowerment opportunities/strategies to meet basic daily needs for survival.

Employed with the Department of Health and Human Services-Division of Services for the Blind in Greensboro, Reid-Hairston provides holistic case management services to the blind and visually impaired. She is a 2011 graduate of the Department of Health and Human Services DHHS-Excels Leadership Program and is a member of Alpha Alpha Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. of Salisbury. She attends Jerusalem Baptist Church in East Spencer, NC. A native of Elizabeth City, NC, she is a daughter of the late James and Maggie Eggleston Riddick. Reid-Hairston is also the administrative assistant to her husband, Tommy H. Hairston, Sr., of Hairston Funeral Home, Inc. in Salisbury, NC. She and her husband have four adult children and six grandchildren.

It has been a whirlwind year for Langston University’s Jonathan Solomon since he first pledged to be a member of Phi Beta Sigma during the fall semester of 2010. A week after being accepted as a member, he was voted in as President. Then, the chapter was named the International Collegiate Model Chapter of the Year in the spring semester, and this fall Solomon himself was named a 2011 National Greek All-Star.

Solomon, who is president of the Beta Epsilon chapter of Phi Beta Sigma, said he was most proud of the award being a reflection of the work the entire chapter has done over the course of the past several months. He said he considered the latest accolade an extension of the honor named to the chapter earlier this year.

“I don’t see this is as a victory for me but as a win for the chapter,” Solomon said. “We weren’t doing so great a few years ago, and now we have come a long way in becoming one of the better chapters in the nation.”

Solomon was selected from millions of entries worldwide and was one of only 24 student Greek-letter organization members selected. The National Greek Fraternity and Sorority Awards is the national standard for academic, community service, positive organization involvement, performance prowess, and career excellence and achievement within the Greek fraternity and sorority world.

Community service was one of the main reasons Solomon said he believes he was selected for the honor. He pointed to the partnership the fraternity had with Omega Psi Phi and Collegiate Outreach in providing food to the homeless as just one of the many new initiatives the Greek organization has participated in to help in the community.

Another new initiative – Sigma Saturdays – is a partnership with Marcus Garvey Leadership Charter School in Oklahoma City in which members of Phi Beta Sigma help mentor kids at the K-8 school while building lifelong relationships.

“We really wanted to be able to do more in terms of working with the community and these initiatives were ways we could achieve growth as a chapter while also helping others,” Solomon said.

The personal achievement for Solomon followed the naming of the chapter as the International Collegiate Model Chapter of the Year at the Fraternity’s 97^th International Conclave. That distinction was awarded to the collegiate chapter that demonstrated the highest level of commitment to the organization’s cardinal principals – brotherhood, scholarship and service.

For Solomon, they all go hand-in-hand with the overall goals of the chapter. And for the Beta Epsilon Chapter that has been around since 1947, the awards are the start of what is expected to be a trend in making a difference.