I AM Penn State I am honored and deeply humbled to receive the Penn State Black Alumni Reunion H. Jesse Arnelle / Cynthia A. Baldwin Outstanding Alumni Award for 2014. I first experienced Penn State as summer intern from LSU, working with Dr. Forrest Wortham in the office of off-campus living. My positive interactions with Black students at Penn State, many of which were members of my fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, influenced me to apply to Penn State for graduate school in 1995. In my 2004 novel, Black Sheep, I described a fictitious “Big State” with a majority White population who shared a “Pollyanna” worldview, and were often smug and naïve to problems facing inner cities. I’m sure most of you all can identify the source of my muse. Like me, many of you experienced racially and economically diverse environments with all of the social trappings and gifts that come with imperfect living. And, like me, you might have often felt invalidated by people at this university who would rather see us assimilate to the Penn State way, rather than challenge the status quo. In that shared reality, we, as Black students, organized, learned, fought and grew, but most of all, we altered the meaning of what it means to be a Penn Stater. Let us continue to be the conscience of the university – the living embodiment of our responsibility to achieve true diversity here at Penn State, and the responsibility that we have to people who live beyond the borders of State College. A special thank you to Katherine Wheatle for nominating me for this prestigious honor and to the selection committee for distinguishing me, this year, from thousands of great Black Penn State alum spanning over a century. Ivory Toldson
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 18:59:14 +0000
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