Intergenerational Mentorship

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

ah

i i am sancofa

i am someone’s daughter someone’s sister

a product of west dayton

a proud product of two illustrious

historically black universities

an engineer an executive director

a hope dealer but most importantly

i am sankofa

how many people have heard of sankofa

sankofa is an african metaphoric symbol

which depicts a bird

with the egg in its mouth flying

forwards while looking backwards

which signifies taking the knowledge

gained from the past

in hopes of using it towards the

progression of the future

it is imperative in african culture to

understand your

roots just like a tree it takes strong

roots to grow and bear fruit

what better way to acknowledge my roots

than by completing my college career

institutions that were made specifically

for me by leaders whose shoulders i

stand on today

leaders and fellow alums such as w.b du

bois

bayard rustin former dayton mayor clay

dixon

and current ohio state representative

joyce beatty

my freshman year at the central state

university

all freshmens were required to take a

first year seminar class

to help them get acclimated to their

newly found adult life

on the very first day of that class the

teacher asked a question that ultimately

changed my life she asked

how has your village contributed to your

life

up until this moment how has my village

contributed to my life up until this

moment

uh what am i doing for the village what

is my village

so many questions were going through my

mind that question made me look back on

my life

my 17 year old life at the time it made

me try to think of the first time that i

heard the concept of a village

i was nine years old when i started my

rise of passage leadership class

a leadership program designed to teach

african-american middle school-aged

children about their heritage and

culture

because as we all know sometimes it’s

not taught through affordable education

but the instructors didn’t just talk at

us they talked with us

everyone learned from each other young

old young people that look old

old people that act young they taught us

we taught them they empowered us

we empowered them they taught us you

never know

how or when you’re leaving impact or how

important your example could be for

someone else

they told us no matter who you are how

old you are where you’re from you have

something to contribute to the

betterment of your community

because you are a leader

i had no idea at the time but i know now

besides my actual family that was my

village

that was my introduction to intentional

intergenerational mentorship

growing up i was put in positions to be

a leader even though i never

really wanted to be and the people that

forced it on me the most was my family

and i don’t know if that’s because i was

the oldest out of all my cousins or

simply because i was the oldest sibling

in my household

but i was the only child for nine

very very quiet very lonely years and

then my baby sister demia was born

and when she was born i felt like it was

my job my duty my obligation to make

sure she was prepared for the world

the relationship that you have with your

younger and older siblings is considered

intergenerational mentorship

even if it isn’t intentional my

mentoring relationship with my sister

did not start off intentional

but the older i got the more i

understood the importance of sewing it

to her

so she could see the importance and pay

it forward

when i went off to college when i

dropped out

graduations good times and even not so

good times i made sure my sister was by

my side

to learn the skills get the ideas and

experiences

that are difficult to put in words but

only learn through tacit knowledge

not only does my sister attend my alma

mater she went up to me

and she is currently the 94th miss

wilberforce university

and when she ran for that position her

campaign title was legacy i asked her

why

she said honoring a legacy creating a

legacy

while intentionally leaving a legacy

the knowledge my sister acquired over

the years from being by my side

helped her understand the importance of

intergenerational mentorship

and this work of ultimately curating

this ideal world that we want to see

take another look at the saint

golferberg

well something you see now that you

didn’t necessarily pay attention to

before

the egg that egg represents

me and that moment of courage knowing

that i have the power to influence

someone else’s decisions right or wrong

good or bad

i am sankofa

it’s been 20 years since my rights of

passage leadership class and everything

that i’ve learned from then

up until now has helped prepare me it’s

helped prepare me for this moment

to be in a position to look back take

what i learned on my journey be

vulnerable to share it and not be

ashamed

and efforts to possibly aid someone else

on their journey

i know before today a couple of you may

maybe never heard of the word sancofa

but i do know a couple words that we

have all heard before

we have all heard the word legacy and we

have all heard the word responsibility

it is our responsibility to lift as we

climb

it is our responsibility to make sure

that we are leaving a legacy that

elevates those

that follow in our footsteps and for

anyone who identifies as a leader

as a leader it is our responsibility to

stand up

speak up and speak out if you see

something that is not right

you must say something you must do

something

we prepare for the future today right

now

that’s why i’m so passionate about

empowerment and leadership development

i’m a firm believer and you can’t be

what you can’t see and that’s why the

saint gopher bird looking back is so

important

we must see where we’ve been to know

where we need to go

the late great john lewis said

people on every continent have stood in

your shoes through

decades and centuries before you

and that is why the truth does not

change and the answers

worked out long ago can help us find the

solutions

to the troubles of our time

john lewis was not only sankofa while he

was alive

john lewis is sankofa

example he wrote an essay to be

published in the new york times on the

day of his funeral

encouraging us to continue to make good

trouble

i don’t know about anyone else but i

aspire to leave a legacy so great your

legacy never dies

your legacy never dies

it is the key to a better community it

is a key to the better city it is a key

ultimately to a better world

we must be intentional with the

relationships that we have

for it determines the type of people who

will continue our legacy once we leave

this world whether that’s good

or bad

when you take two sankofa birds and you

put them back to back

you create the duality of saint kofu

which is simply a heart that represents

one’s wings

once the bird appears it has the

knowledge that it needs and it is ready

to take that wisdom into the future

my intent is the only thing

that changes my saint gopher bird from

looking backwards to flying ahead with a

purpose

it is up

to each one of you to take a look back

figure out what will be the wind beneath

your wings so that you too

can leave a legacy so great it will be

talked about for generations to come

now how many people understand sankofa

we are the ones that we have been

waiting for

we are all

sankofa

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

you