- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

New student success coach hopes to inspire students through work with Student Affairs Diversity Initiatives

John Hill — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 17:06:28 +0000

As ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s newest student success coach, Dominque “D.J.” Thomas is helping inspire the next generation of Trojans through his work with the Student Affairs Diversity Initiatives (SADI). “I’ve always had a passion for working with college students,” Thomas said. “When I was an undergrad, I was part of a mentorship program known as the African American Male Initiative. I served as a mentee, and then I became a mentor while I was older. I love sharing my story to inspire and motivate and encourage those who come after me.” Thomas mentors students in SADI, a student success and retention mentoring program that includes the African American Male Initiative, African American Female Initiative, and the Hispanic/Latinx Initiative. “I help students with time management, organization skills, and any challenges that may arise and could hurt them academically or personally,” Thomas said. “We figure out a plan of action that can keep them on pace, so they can complete and have a successful semester.” As a coach and mentor, Thomas believes it’s important to be an active listener to better understand how he can help students. “There have been cases when students come to me just to talk. It also gives me the opportunity to work on my active listening skills,” Thomas said. “I try to be that safe space and place for people to come to my office to talk, get homework done, or have a coaching meeting. I show them ways they can succeed. Not by trying to conform them to a student I want them to be, but by making some minor adjustments that can help them be a better version of themselves.” Additionally, Thomas teaches one of the��First Year Experience courses at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock,�� where students learn about the university and student resources, study strategies, and career prep. “The First Year Experience course is a class for incoming freshmen where we equip them with knowledge, tools, and insight that can help them have not just a good semester but overall a good undergrad experience,” Thomas said. “We hope that the knowledge and skills that we teach them help them graduate, and we hope that they are transferable to their personal and social lives as well.” While an undergrad, Thomas encountered many obstacles before successfully completing his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. According to Thomas, his experiences have only made him a stronger person and better mentor for minority college students. “I do understand the needs of African American students in higher education,” Thomas said. “I definitely feel the need to be here so that the minority students can have someone they can identify with and who can understand the things they go through on a day-to-day basis outside of college. Having a support group of officials and peers is what strengthened me to persevere through all of the challenges I faced as an undergraduate student.” After completing his undergraduate degree, Thomas has pursued many more opportunities to advance his education. He earned a master’s degree in higher education at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock while working as a graduate assistant for the Chancellor’s office and the Green Dot Program. Next, Thomas moved to Memphis to earn his Ed.D in higher and adult education from the University of Memphis, where he worked in the university’s Disability Resource Center. Now, he is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, which he plans to complete by 2023. “I am also an active member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Pi Lambda Chapter, and I serve as the on-campus advisor,” Thomas added. “I’m also a proud member of St. Mark Baptist Church.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Greek members urge fellow college students to get out and vote

John Hill — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 14:30:52 +0000

Members of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Greek life are taking the message to go vote to their fellow college students by creating their own videos and posting them on social media.�� This follows a national movement of videos produced by the National Pan-Hellenic Council, the coordinating body for nine historically African American fraternities and sororities. Nakiah Willis, a sophomore ASL/speech pathology major and treasurer of Zeta Phi Beta, said she and her fellow sorority members are committed to spreading the word about the need to vote to fellow college students. They’ve even volunteered at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s voter registrations drives this fall to encourage more students to vote. “It’s important that we get younger people to vote, especially for those that just turned 18,” Willis said. “Like I said in my video, your voice is your power. Every single vote counts. There are a lot of college students who are eligible to vote, and we need to exercise our right and our power to do so. I wanted to volunteer to be an example for other college students to tell them to vote. If you want to see a change in your community, that starts at the poll.” Willis also to encourage people to vote in sign language, because she wanted to empower those in the deaf and hard of hearing community to vote. “I wanted to do the video in ASL to cater to the deaf community,” Willis said. “There is also closed captioning for everyone to read what’s being signed. I think the deaf community is overlooked, and I didn’t want to happen, especially when I am giving out an important message on why you should vote.”��

Keyonna Thomas

Zavian Wilburn, a senior marketing major from Lake Village, Arkansas, also created a with two of his Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brothers. “I believe this voting is critical, and a lot of people don’t believe their vote counts,” Wilburn said. “We wanted to make sure that we got the word out, and that everyone’s vote matters.”�� In his video, Willis encourages people to visit the to learn about the voting process in Arkansas. “Other chapters have been doing videos nationwide,” Wilburn said. “Our national office has been promoting it. The people we know at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock have been engaged by our videos.” Keyonna Thomas, a junior nursing major from North Little Rock, to encourage people to vote with her sorority sisters in Delta Sigma Theta. “It is important for college students to vote because there have been many times when I have heard, ‘Our vote doesn’t matter,” when indeed it does,” Thomas said. “There is power in the voice of college students as we are the future of America, and we have a right to let our voices be heard, for our lives could be potentially impacted.” In the upper right photo, Nakiah Willis, a sophomore ASL/speech pathology major and treasurer of Zeta Phi Beta, made a video to encourage people to vote in sign language.

Graduating student wants to be a mentor for others like him

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 11 May 2018 13:09:54 +0000

For Nigel Spears, serving as a mentor has been one of the most rewarding experiences of his life.�� He understands how important it is for young people to have positive role models in their lives, so he has volunteered as a mentor for the African American Male Initiative and Charles W. Donaldson Scholars Academy at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. �� “My dad was in the U.S. Army for 22 years and wasn’t really around when I was growing up,” he said. “He was gone for months and years at a time. I didn’t have any male figures that I felt comfortable looking up to. I want to give back to those who are in the same situation as me. I understand that feeling like you have no male to live up to is hard, especially for African-American men. There are a lot of things you miss out on. If I can be the one that an African-American male wants to model themselves after, if I am able to influence them in any positive way, I want to be that person.” Spears, a native of Fort Smith and a member of the U.S. Navy Reserve, will graduate May 12 from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock with a bachelor’s degree in applied communication. After graduation, he plans to earn a master’s degree in applied communication from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock and then attend seminary school. Spears plans to work as a motivational speaker, trainer, and consultant for mediation conflict, social media, conflict management, and customer service. “I want to see everybody be successful in life,” he said. “I want to give back to my community.” In 2017, Nigel Spears found himself at a point in life where nothing seemed to be going right. “I wasn’t talking to my family. The relationship I was in was going south. I didn’t have a job, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do in my life. I was in a horrible space,” he said. He credits Dr. Gerald Driskill’s class with giving him a new lease on life. “I took Dr. Driskill’s Human Communications Concepts class, and it saved my life,” he said. “Taking his class made me realize how much I needed to grow. It gave me a reality check. I learned the foundations and the principles of self-reflecting, being able to look at yourself and be honest with yourself, and how to fix the problems going forward. His class is what laid the foundation of how I operate my relationships today. I say it saved my life because without those core principles, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”��

Photo of Nigel Spears by Ben Krain.

Spears funneled his new life lessons into a motivational video series called SELFISH, which stands for Self, Expand, Language, Forgiveness, Invest, Strategy, and Hone. “In the period between me dropping business finance as a major and finding applied communication, I had to reevaluate myself,” Spears said. “I had to figure out who I was. There are a lot of people, especially students, who live their lives for other people. You have to be able to know who you are, what you want to do, and how to accomplish that.” Spears’ project caught the attention of his applied communication professors. “Nigel won our departmental Making a Difference award in 2017 for his work in developing a video series focusing on showing teens and young adults how to incorporate positive communication into their relationships and their environment,” said Dr. April Chatham-Carpenter, chair of the Department of Applied Communication. “His messages impart practical advice about the impact of such things as word choice in dealing with conflicts.” The catch phrase of Spears’ video series is “Salute Your Struggle.” He believes that every struggle in his life has helped him become the person he is today and wants to help others to embrace their struggles as well. Spears started at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in the Summer Bridge Academy, a three-week residential program aimed at preparing incoming freshmen for college-level work by eliminating the need for them to take remedial math and English courses. He built good relationships with Jonathon Bobo and Kalan Horton. He also worked as an aide for the Green Dot Program and interned as a patient advocate at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He also credits his fraternity brothers in Alpha Phi Alpha for helping him become a leader and providing a support system. Spears is also thankful to his “school mom,” Kristen McIntyre, Chatham-Carpenter, Mia Phillips, Melissa Johnston, and girlfriend, Marqueashia Thompson, for helping him through his ��Vlog��ý Little Rock journey.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

New student success coach hopes to inspire students through work with Student Affairs Diversity Initiatives

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Greek members urge fellow college students to get out and vote

Graduating student wants to be a mentor for others like him

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Greek members urge fellow college students to get out and vote