A group of McAdams High School students heard a motivating presentation by educator, businessman and author Stedman Graham last week.
The event was held Wednesday, Oct. 12 at the Oprah Winfrey Boys and Girls Club, which is named after Graham’s longtime partner who is a Kosciusko native.
Graham talked to the students about identity and how knowing who you are can help you succeed in life.
“You don’t have to wait for school to learn,” said Graham. “In order to be successful, you have to be a reader and you have to be a learner. What I’ve learned is to take information and make it relevant to who I am based on what I love. … I work on looking at the glass half full instead of the glass half empty. So my ability to be able to create, design and self-actualize my potential is the same process and the same opportunity you have because the process is the same for everybody.”
Graham’s “Identity Leadership” presentation focused on teaching youth about identifying their self-worth. Graham also talked about his life experiences and the importance of education and reading. He asked the students questions and had interactive activities for the students and staff members attending.
Graham said he knew once he discovered the process of knowing who you are he wanted to teach it around the world. “The whole world needs to know who they are.”
One of the steps, he said, is understanding the most powerful word in the world. He asked the students what they thought is the most powerful word in world.
It took a few tries before a student replied, “Love.”
“Why is love so powerful?” Graham asked. “It’s hard to find love if you’ve been taught you’re never going to be anything. It’s hard to do that if you have a bad self-image of yourself. Love is the universal principal for life, for success, for organization. Order is the highest level of development, so you’ve got to organize yourself around the most powerful word in world, which is love.”
Arma Cooper, a teacher at McAdams High School who facilitates the school’s Advanced Placement courses, coordinated the event. McAdams’ AP program is provided through Global Teaching Project, and it offers AP biology, AP computer science and AP physics. Global Teaching Project, which delivers access to advanced STEM curricula in rural and underserved communities particularly in areas affected by severe teacher shortages, sponsored the event.
“For me, I really thought it was an awesome presentation,” said Cooper. “I’ve been working with Global Teaching now for three years, and it’s always been an exciting moment because you just never know what they’re going to present to the students.
“Mr. Graham works very closely with the Global Teaching Project and Matt Dolan (CEO of Global Teaching Project).”
There were 25 ninth and 10th grade students attending the event, as well as McAdams and Attala County staff and administrators. The students were selected based on who the school felt would be a good match for the Identity Leadership program and mentorship.
Cooper said she was happy about how the students responded during the presentation.
“I sat back and I watched them respond to the questions and the opportunities to participate, and oftentimes our students can shy away from participation, and a majority of them when they were called on or asked questions, they showed up and presented very well,” she said.
The Global Teaching Project has been a success at McAdams, which recently celebrated improving its test scores and going an F-grade school to a C by the Mississippi Department of Education. The program started at the school three years ago. Before then, McAdams did not offer AP classes.
“One of the things that they offer our students is an opportunity to be tutored from other students from Ivy League colleges, such as Yale, Harvard, Columbia,” said Cooper. “Those students tutor our students anywhere from two to three times a week via Zoom.”
The Global Teaching Project also provides opportunities for the AP students to spend a few days, all expenses paid, at one of Mississippi’s colleges and universities during the school year and a couple of weeks during the summer. The students get hands-on learning experiences and instruction and attend workshops.
Cooper said she has watched her students grow through this program.
“It’s just been a blessing to work with them and just be a part of the growth at McAdams High School and just be able to offer those classes to them and give them an opportunity to excel,” she said. “It’s something that otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do or have. … Anytime we can bring a program into our school that’s going to help boost our students’ moral, character and academically, it’s always a plus. … We are excited that we are at the point we are now, and we are looking to go up even higher.”
