Guest speaker’s turnaround inspires VGCC audience

The Male Mentoring Program at Vance-Granville Community College hosted author, entrepreneur, social activist and educator Dr. NKrumah D. Lewis as a special guest speaker on March 30 in the Civic Center on VGCC’s Main Campus. VGCC students, faculty and staff, joined by community members and students from Henderson Middle School, heard Lewis movingly talk about his own life and offer advice to young people.

After an introduction by VGCC student Curtis Jefferys of Henderson, Lewis said that his goal and his destiny are to “refute the notion of impossibility.” To explain what that meant, he had to share his improbable life story. Growing up in Durham, Lewis endured years of physical abuse at the hands of his father. Homeless at age 16, he got into “some trouble” but never stopped going to school. After graduating from high school at age 17, Lewis enlisted in the Marine Corps, but his troubles continued and he found himself behind bars. His message to young men: there is “nothing manly about going to prison.” Lewis recalled that his fellow prisoners became his first “professors” by giving him books to read. “They were actually angels who prepared me to become the professor I am today,” Lewis said.

His life took a new turn when evidence showed that he did not commit the crime for which he had been imprisoned, and he applied to UNC-Greensboro before he was released from prison. He completed his four-year degree in sociology in two and a half years while raising a child, which is why today he accepts “no excuses” from those who claim that they are not able to complete their education. Lewis went on to earn advanced degrees and is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Winston-Salem State University and the Minority Male Mentoring Program Evaluator for the University of North Carolina. He is also involved in various non-profit organizations and recently published his autobiographical sketch, entitled “Becoming A Butterfly: From Prison to Ph.D.” The butterfly of the title represents “something beautiful that we are meant to be,” Lewis said. “You are not what people say you are! The last chapter in your life has not been written!” He added that speaking to groups like the one at VGCC is “what I am supposed to do, what God called me to do. I must do this, so that perhaps at least one young person will decide to turn his life around.”

For more information on the VGCC male mentoring program, contact Dr. Tolokun Omokunde at (252) 738-3205.