Morehouse College senior Jarrell Jordan came back Monday to Birmingham’s Avondale Elementary School -- where he started school -- to kick off the Importance of Education tour and tell the school’s nearly 100 fourth- and fifth-graders how education has impacted his life in a positive way.
Jordan said he hopes to show students one thing: “Where their education can take them.”
Two years ago, Jordan, 26, served as an ambassador for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, under former President Barack Obama. He started the tour in 2016, he said, as a way to talk with students about the opportunities available to them when they work hard in school.
“If I can go from a student at Avondale to a student at Putnam to a student at Woodlawn to a student at Morehouse to working for the first black president,” Jordan said to students, “what can you do?”
Jordan, a 2015 graduate of Woodlawn High School and a Gates Millennium Scholar, told students about the importance of getting good grades early on to help earn scholarship money for college down the road. The Gates scholarship, he told students, will pay for all of his college education, from undergraduate through doctorate, however far he wants to go.
The theme of this year’s tour, Jordan said, is “Choosing Education Over Crime.” Avondale was the first of 16 stops the tour is making at public and private elementary, middle and high schools in the Birmingham area through Monday, Dec. 17.
“Each age group has different issues,” Jordan said, so it’s important to talk with them on their level about the issues they face every day.
Speaker after speaker emphasized the need for students to do well in school. Students were quizzed about everything from what an intern does to how they plan to use what they learned at the event. Small prizes were given to students answering questions.
Birmingham Police Capt. Janice Blackwell, a 31-year veteran of the police force, told students to make the most of their time. “Learn as much as you can,” she said. “If you have a lot of free time, read a book.”
Birmingham police Chaplain Marvin Neal told students that freedom is the “most prized commodity to mankind.” He talked about the four P’s of authority---parents, pastor, principal, and police---and how important it is to be respectful to authority.
Birmingham Municipal Judge Kechia Davis drove that point home, saying, “If you follow the four P’s, then you will never have to see me.”
Judge Davis encouraged students to use their phones and tablets to read. “You have, really, a library at your fingertips,” she said. “So you can skip a couple of hours of Fortnite,” she added, and read about what it takes to be what they want to be when they grow up.
Local radio host Kris Campbell shared his moving story of tragedy and loss, including a car wreck that killed his brother a decade ago, while stressing the importance of making good choices in the face of bad situations.
Jordan Davis, a junior at Morehouse, told students that each of them has within them a passion that should be used to better the world. Davis said he always listened when his father told him, “Do what you have to do now, in order to be able to do what you want to do later on.”