KAPPA NEWS: GUY L. GRANT AWARDEE—DENZEL B. WASHINGTON
K appa Alpha Psi Fraternity has a rich, proud, and productive heritage. Undergraduate brothers are our lifeline. We must encourage them to preserve and uphold our fraternal legacy of leadership, faith, and culture. This was a quote shared by our revered founder - Guy Levis Grant - at a banquet for the Golden Anniversary Celebration in 1961. In 2017, we as a fraternity continue to hold these beliefs within our aims and purposes, in what we now dub as “training for leadership.” From the many mentors and fathers I’ve gained within my province and the grand board, to the fellowship and comfort of brotherhood I found within my home `chapter. Kappa has been a constant resource in my growth and development. As a quiet, Black boy from New Orleans, moving to Nashville, Ten- nessee was slightly intimidating knowing I would have no family near to lean on. Fortunate enough for me, I found a second home in Kap- pa. Within this home, were brothers who not only wanted to make sure that I was okay, but that I was out reaching my full potential. I remember joining the South-Central Province board of directors and learning about all of the great things brothers, more specifically black men, near and far had accomplished and feeling a sense of motivation and affirmation. I remember a brother sharing a piece of advice with me, saying “a key to success is not being afraid to grab opportunities that are presented to you, you never know where they could lead you.”
positions on campus, joined four organizations outside of my field of study, and had built relationships with many of my professors. It was moments like these and many others that have played a key role in many of my accomplishments today. Without Kappa Alpha Psi ® training me for leadership, there are many milestones I can’t say that I would have had the motivation, faith, and confidence to achieve. Accepting this award serves as a reminder of where faith, leader- ship, and culture has brought me thus far as well as where it will take me in the future. I thank Kappa for providing me guidance and a platform to know that I, too, can be great—that I, too, can achieve. I personally would like to thank Brother Mark Rigsby, South Central Province Polemarch Leonard Clemons, my home chapter Nu Rho, my parents, and my province as a whole for your help in grooming and supporting me for such an accolade. I am humbled to stand before you tonight to say that this award is not only a culmination of what Kappa has done for me but a true testimony that the words of our great Founders holds true. Proverbs 22: verse 6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Thank you to everyone who has helped the boy of yesterday become the Kappa man of today. I look forward to the days that I may pay it forward and do the same for another. Thank you, brothers.
The upcoming semester after hearing that, I had three leadership
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THE JOURNAL FALL 2017 | 87
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