Students, parents, and guests filed into the William “Billy” J. Nicks Building for the Founder’s Day and Honors Recognition Convocation last Wednesday. This year celebrates 130 years of “Excellence in Achievement Through Academic Perseverance.”The program was marked with musical selections by the University Brass Ensemble, the University Symphonic Band, the University Concert Chorale, and the University Marimba Ensemble.
Senior marketing major Bruce Riley rendered the invocation while management information systems major Adrienne Quickley offered a greeting. After management and electrical engineering major Ronhoward McNeil offered the occasion, the student body president, Oludayo Olusanya, graced the crowd with a brief history of Prairie View A & M University. Finally, the audience was ready for the speaker, Dwayne Ashley.
Ashley is the chief executive officer and president of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund. During his tenure Ashley has increased the scholarship fund’s revenues beyond the $50 million mark. He also established the Thurgood Marshall Leadership Institute and the Thurgood Marshall President’s Summit.
Ashley holds many leadership positions, including membership on the board of directors of the Newark Public Library, the Gallup Organization, and the Doley Foundation.
Ashley is a well-known advocate for higher education and a prominent leader. As he addressed Prairie View as an “awesome, audacious, and outstanding university,” he presented the crowd with five leadership lessons: “1. Count on yourself and depend on your own money. 2. If you want it, you have to work for it. 3. Don’t get caught being unprepared. 4. Understand the game and play to win. 5. Be your #1 fan and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.”
Last but not least, the honor students and honor societies were recognized. As the audience remained standing for the recessional to “Pomp and Circumstance,” Ashley’s words hung in the air, “Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream and when he/she wakes up, they have nothing but a dream.