Dr. Pollard’s lecture today was one of the most intriguing lectures we have had thus far in freshman seminar. Not only did he introduce everyone in the lecture to a very powerful popular song from years ago, but he also had a couple key points that I found extremely profound. I thought that his method of presentation was the best we have seen so far in that he went out of his way to go beyond the ordinary to provide us with another way to share his message instead of just teaching from a power point.
Beginning his lecture Dr. Polllard played for us “Ship Ahoy” by the Ojays, a song about slavery and Africans being taken away from their homeland on ships. As the room sat in silence we listened to this powerful song. You could feel the impact of the song in the room as everyone listened. Listening to the song I began to feel the words and felt as if I was seeing it being done right in front of my eyes. Hearing this song instead of just talking about the message of the song was definitely amore powerful experience for me.
The most powerful part of Dr. Pollard’s lecture however, were his ending words. Before leaving he told everyone that they must know who they are to accomplish anything. In order to succeed you need to have the confidence and determination that comes with knowing who you are. I believe so many problems in our culture stem from the fact that people do not know who they are. If people knew who they were they wouldn’t worry about what they wore, or holding back others, or doing whatever they could to fit in, even if it meant doing something they wouldn’t ordinarily do. I believe this one line summed up the reason most of us are at Howard in the first place, to cultivate and find ourselves so that we may be a changing force in the world.
Lauren Bolden
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