Izaac Hester '21 Takes Second Place in 2018 Black History Oratory Contest
Congratulations to Izaac Hester '21 who recently took second place in CBS Baltimore's 2018 Black History Oratory Contest. Named one of 20 semifinalist last week, he presented his essay in front of a panel of judges on Sunday, February 25, at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore. His essay, titled, "Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it," exemplifies lessons learned while attending Loyola Blakefield. The top three winners received scholarship money for college.
Read Izaac's full essay below:
Now, as I walk the halls of my school community, I feel a sense of honor knowing that my small contributions will help make the next generation of minority students who walk through these halls feel as though they belong, and they will be able to stand up and educate the young men who will come after them. As the African-American proverb says, “Each one teach one." With this amount of power, there will be no stopping the changes that will come.
I must again stress the importance of education and how it affects the communities that we are in and how the knowledge that we have and carry with us out into the world will make generational changes that can and will only make our communities and the world a place of great possibilities and better than what the generations before us saw.
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Read Izaac's full essay below:
Today, as I ponder what direction my life will take and the footprint that I’m destined to leave on my community, I can only feel a calling to seek and obtain all of the knowledge that is available to me and some that has not yet revealed itself. As a young African-American man, I have watched and often wondered why such an emphasis has been placed on education, but as I have seen in today’s climate, one statement I came across stands out with a powerful punch: “Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.“ [Marian Wright Edelman]
I’m a young man watching and sometimes struggling with the injustices that the world and some of its occupants have placed before not only me, but the communities that I live in. Today's societal climate is full of misjudgments and harsh realities that are placed due to lack of knowledge. I believe that our communities are full of people who are being placed in situations that could be better handled if the parties involved took a step back and took the time to do a little research on how to best resolve the problems that are plaguing our people. Once this practice is in place, a more corrective action would result in a more productive resolution. As with any issue, how can you handle it if you’re not sure why it exist.
I’ve recently had to deal with the issue of racism in my school community, and again, this is due to students getting misinformation from the communities in which they are thriving. As a young African-American man, my first reaction was to label everyone who didn’t look like myself as the culprit who invaded my school and made myself and others like me—the silent minority—feel uncomfortable, but I had to step back and think about the total lack of knowledge this person must have of people different from himself, including the contributions we have made and will make to this world. My brothers and I at Loyola took a pledge to stand up and educated ourselves on the differences that we have as future leaders, as well as the effects of hatred and the people who invoke it on others. As a community, we felt the best way to fight matters such as this was to educate all who would listen, because every ear that gets even the smallest amount of knowledge is one more person with the understanding that with knowledge comes power.
I’m a young man watching and sometimes struggling with the injustices that the world and some of its occupants have placed before not only me, but the communities that I live in. Today's societal climate is full of misjudgments and harsh realities that are placed due to lack of knowledge. I believe that our communities are full of people who are being placed in situations that could be better handled if the parties involved took a step back and took the time to do a little research on how to best resolve the problems that are plaguing our people. Once this practice is in place, a more corrective action would result in a more productive resolution. As with any issue, how can you handle it if you’re not sure why it exist.
I’ve recently had to deal with the issue of racism in my school community, and again, this is due to students getting misinformation from the communities in which they are thriving. As a young African-American man, my first reaction was to label everyone who didn’t look like myself as the culprit who invaded my school and made myself and others like me—the silent minority—feel uncomfortable, but I had to step back and think about the total lack of knowledge this person must have of people different from himself, including the contributions we have made and will make to this world. My brothers and I at Loyola took a pledge to stand up and educated ourselves on the differences that we have as future leaders, as well as the effects of hatred and the people who invoke it on others. As a community, we felt the best way to fight matters such as this was to educate all who would listen, because every ear that gets even the smallest amount of knowledge is one more person with the understanding that with knowledge comes power.
Now, as I walk the halls of my school community, I feel a sense of honor knowing that my small contributions will help make the next generation of minority students who walk through these halls feel as though they belong, and they will be able to stand up and educate the young men who will come after them. As the African-American proverb says, “Each one teach one." With this amount of power, there will be no stopping the changes that will come.
I must again stress the importance of education and how it affects the communities that we are in and how the knowledge that we have and carry with us out into the world will make generational changes that can and will only make our communities and the world a place of great possibilities and better than what the generations before us saw.
