Overview
Growing up, I was always told that to truly enjoy success, you have to have experienced lost. As a leader, I have lost before. It was not the moment of lost that held on, it lesson in ensuring this does not become a habit that transitions to a behavior. Through oppression and limited rights, our oppressors imagined that the oppressed would become content with the lack of rights and privilege. Instead, the lack birthed a movement. During the BET Awards, Tyler Perry stated, “But while you’re fighting for a seat at the table, I’ll be down in Atlanta building my own.” This program will share how leaders that traditionally were oppressed have used this to create increased pathways to success (built their own table). This program reveals that each leader is pregnant with potential to win and will give birth to success. We will collective celebrate success stories of “first” in an effort to make Black Change Agent Leaders a norm and not a just a celebratory “first”. (I.e. 2008 First Black US President | i.e. 2021 First Woman of Color VP of the United States | i.e. 2021 First Black Senator in Georgia | i.e. 2020 First Black Mayor of Natchitoches, Louisiana).
Learning Outcomes
- The attendee will self-reflect on moments where leadership outweighed actions of the norm
- The attendee will learn about how many “first’ we have celebrated as a nation
- The attendee will examine how determination champions oppression when leaders are empowered
Speaker
Jarrod D. Benjamin, MBA
Mr. Jarrod D. Benjamin is the Florida International University Cybersecurity Apprenticeship Program Director and Adjunct Professor. He currently manages and develops curriculum embedded certifications for the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy. He serves as a subject matter expert on the $3 million dollar Intelligence Community-Center of Academic Excellence consortium grant. His work on this grant provides a career pipeline for students to receive career opportunity in the Intelligence Community. Jarrod specializes in various business related issues, anti-hazing, and urban development.