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Nearly 200 people,
primarily UT students, turned out for the first such event
of the season. Goss, currently a fellow in the Advanced
Leadership Initiative program at Harvard University, has
been involved in philanthropy for more than 20 years. A
native Detroiter, Goss has a BA in sociology and a masters
in social work from the University of Michigan.
She has served as a
program officer with the Stuart Foundation in San Francisco
and program director at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in
Battle Creek, Michigan. Crain’s Detroit Business named her
one of southeast Michigan’s Most Influential Women, an honor
bestowed only once every five years on the region’s most
dynamic and powerful women.
Her experience also
includes more than 20 years involvement in child welfare,
family services and youth development in Detroit and
Oakland, California.
“What has happened to the
black community?” she asked her audience before ticking off
her four reasons for the decline of black neighborhood: the
exodus of middle class black families from the urban core;
the lack of remedial assistance in those neighborhoods as
institutions also move away; crime and drugs; structural
racism.
For the students, Goss
offered suggestions to ensure their success:
First, “Focus, focus,
focus,” she said. “You must learn how to use technology.”
Goss spoke of the benefits of using technology in this day
and age.
Second, “form or join a
study group … identify the smart kids and join their
groups,” she said.
Third, “use social media
wisely,” she cautioned, warning the students that whatever
was posted on social media would be on social media forever.
Fourth, “find mentors,”
she advised.
Fifth, “study, study,
study.” She suggested that a student should take one really
difficult course every semester, one course just for fun and
fit the rest in between the two in terms of degree of
difficulty.
Sixth, “have a good time.”
She told her audience to look for opportunities to mix with
diverse groups of people.
“Make a commitment to be
successful,” she concluded.
After a question and
answer session with the audience, closing remarks were
presented by Anthony Quinn, PhD, assistant dean, Recruitment
& Retention, College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics and
president of the Association of Black Faculty & Staff and by
Willie McKether, Ph.D, associate dean, College of Languages,
Literature & Social Sciences and president of Brothers on
the Rise. |
