to give up her seat on a city bus to a
white passenger the bus driver had her
arrested she was tried and convicted of
violating the local ordinance her act
sparked a citywide boycott of the bus
system the pastor’s I just read to you
is from a fourth grade level reading
book in 1980 when I was in the fourth
grade it would have been a struggle for
me to have read that to you actually my
struggle with reading started in the
first grade by the time I was in the
third grade I was actually in the slow
in the slow reading group
I would actually cringe when it was my
turn to read out loud according to the
Michigan Education Association only half
of Michigan third grade students score
proficient or above on the m-step 2017
test it was not until my fourth grade
teacher gave me a you which meant
unsatisfactory on my report card and was
considering making me repeat the fourth
grade that I actually learned how to
read see what happened was my father
took the initiative himself to teach me
how to read the problem that I was
having with reading was I did not know
what sounds when you put multiple
letters together what sounds they made
or how to break down words by syllabus
for example the AG’s a you put a and G
together they make the AG sound you put
a B in front of it but a back or a G in
front of it good gag once I learned what
sounds letters made and could break
words down by syllables then I could
actually read that was my first
experience with failure see I believe
that if I would have never failed I
would have never really learned how to
read and I would have continued to
struggle on after I learned how to read
I actually begin to do well in school I
did so well that I
was able to attend one of Detroit’s
elite high schools Cass Tech but once
they cast you have to maintain us above
a sea above the sea grade point average
to stay well I only did the bare minimum
and it was working for me for a while I
managed to skate through the 9th and
10th grades and I almost skated through
the 11th grade but by the end of the
11th grade my GPA fell below a 2.0 and I
was kicked out of cast that was one of
the most humiliating experiences in my
life see my father brother and sister
are graduated from Cass so here I am the
first person to break the family
tradition well I went on to Benedictine
high school for my senior year I got
myself together I got my grades up
actually I made the honor roll for three
semesters and then I came and I
graduated in 1989 and then I came here
to Wayne State University I received a
Bachelors of Arts degree in political
science thanks in part to project 350
project 350 was a program that worked
with first-generation minority college
students who did not meet the regular
admission standards to get into Wayne
they gave you support services advising
counseling study skills to help you with
your transition to college what product
what I learned from project 350 was the
value of support systems for
first-generation college students you
would have thought that after all that
failure I experienced with learning how
to read getting kicked out of casts that
I was pretty much through with failure
and that was the case for a while
after I graduated I won’t know when to
have a successful career in local
government for 13 years I held a variety
of leadership positions with the city of
Detroit and then in 2007
I lost my job I was the deputy director
of the Department of Human Services
after I lost my job I went back to
school and got a master’s degree in
public administration I had been talking
about going back to school for a number
of years but see I was actually making a
great salary and I had excellent
benefits I was comfortable failure can
be an incentive so after I got my
master’s degree I also started a
consulting business I started working
with nonprofit organizations in helping
them in the areas of capacity building
strategic planning leadership
development fundraising and I actually
developed a capacity building grant
making strategy for a foundation I began
working with nonprofits when I was
actually working for the city of Detroit
through the Community Development Block
Grant program the home partnerships
program and the headstart program and a
number of these nonprofits unfortunately
did not implement the programs that they
said they would or achieve the program
outcomes that they said they could this
stuff wasn’t done intentionally most of
the time it was due to a lack of
capacity issues but many of these
nonprofits that fail really did not want
to share that they would cover up their
failure most of the time because they
thought there would be repercussions for
their failure loss of funding so forth
but just imagine if nonprofits actually
shared their information with one
another just how much more they could
learn from each other we could learn
best practices about how to do things we
could improve our community at a much
higher rate
so let’s just think for a minute what if
we stop looking at failure as something
as punitive we stop looking at failure
as something punitive we could really
advance our community at a much higher
rate it was my interest in nonprofit
leadership and public administration
that brought me back here to Wayne State
to pursue my PhD so I want you to stop
covering up your failure and instead
look at failure as a red light or a
siren and the opportunity to avoid a
disaster when we all share our failures
together then we can learn from one
another and grow as a community for me
failure helped me find my passion I hope
that you will take learn from your
failures and find your true passion
thank you [Applause]