Jonathan Bland, physics senior, joined the brotherhood of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. his freshman year, proceeding through the rigorous application and testing process of the historically black National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc. organizations. Since then, projects with his brothers have opened him to his passion for mentoring others.
"One of our fraternity brothers, Nate (Irving's) aunt runs a foster care-type center and then she has a program that pretty much invites youth to come play basketball and give them a safe space, so we worked with them not too long ago.
I really like mentorship. I've worked with a church in Crewe that has set up a program to help tutor students who are struggling in school, so I've done stuff like that. ... (They're) energetic, really energetic. We tutor them in their trouble subjects because they're pretty much about to lose accreditation because the SOL (Standards of Learning) scores are so bad.
(I got into mentorship) probably through my fraternity, which is one thing we really pride ourselves on is trying to mentor the youth and trying to uplift the youth, so I think that's one thing that really brought something out of me.
(My fraternity) has opened me up to new relationships with new people. It's helped me grow a lot because of the different things that go into it, it definitely has helped me grow as a person. ... Learning through the experiences of joining this fraternity, different stuff like that has helped me grow, which is one of the reasons why I always stay busy is because I was so busy back then that now I wouldn't want to just sit around and waste time when I know I have that time to give."
