KAPPA LEAGUERS ACHIEVEMENT SPOTLIGHT
Parris Brown's Kappa League Journey to Achievement
By Damon Peebles
troducing dentists to the Kappa Leagu- ers. With less than 3% of dentists in the country being Black, it was an underrep- resented profession the committee felt the young men needed to hear from. “That was actually what got me focused on dentistry.” He recalled meet- ing one of the dentists, who was also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi. “He was Black and he looked like me…so it was extremely exciting, being able to meet him and then he put me in contact with other brothers who are also dentists in the in the Atlanta area, and actually, I've been shadowing one of them that I met ever since.” Now a dental student attending The Dental College of Georgia at Augusta University, he says, “it's just wonderful thinking back on how I even got there, so it's been a great experi- ence.” From eight years of Kappa League to becoming a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, Brother Brown feels blessed to have been a part of it all. “It's just an amaz- ing program. It's a great experience, and I just I believe it was one of the most influential moments in my life…I believe you guys kind of instilled that
confidence or just something bigger than myself to look forward to, and to have mentors and everything to look up to, I think that kind of ingrained in me to just go ahead and be okay with being a leader and show off my leadership skills, and be able to influence others,” he said. Coming full circle, Brother Brown now plans to give back to the very program that gave so much to him. “Once I'm once I'm done with school and everything, I definitely am going to join a graduate chapter and make sure I'm on the Guide Right Commit- tee in that chapter. I feel like I want to give back so bad, because of everything that it has given to me….when you're when you're in 4 th or 5 th grade, you don't everything that it's doing for you at that time, but now that I'm a young adult, I'm looking back…this experience, these people influenced me all through this one program; in almost every aspect of life, you guys have been there…literally guiding us the right way, and I truly just believe, looking back at it, it's like, wow, this was a huge part of my life...just so grateful for it.”
P arris M. Brown (Alpha Delta 2017) is one of the success stories for Alpharetta-Smyrna (GA) Alumni’s Guide Right program. He was a member of its Kappa League program from 4 th – 12 th grade, and although he can now reflect on the great impact it had on his life while growing up, it wasn’t always like that. He said, “like most fourth fifth graders, you don't want to wake up on Saturday mornings early and go better yourself, you know? You want to play the video games, you know, all that kind of stuff. But you grow, and, I don't think you realize the benefits of it at that moment in time.” During his tenure, he made the most of his time in Kappa League, serving as president, participating in the South- eastern Province Student of the Year Program and engaging with many of the visiting speakers, but for Brother Brown the mentors along the way were most memorable for him. “It was almost as if the mentoring was the icing on the cake because everyone served as mentors. So, it wasn't one specific brother I had to only talk to…I had several positive male figures in my life to help out,” he recounted. Brother Brown even credits his cur- rent career track of becoming a gen- eral practice dentist to Kappa League. “Shadow a Dentist” was a National Guide Right initiative that called for in-
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