Annual Celebration

Harold Jimenez, Kelvena Beynum, Nathalie Polanco, Essi Aziakonou, Benjamin Mbou and Kafui Atsome celebrate their high school graduation and college-bound plans at FGCB's 21st Annual Celebration on June 15, 2011.

First Generation College Bound’s 21st Annual Celebration on June 15, 2011, honored 121 college-bound graduates of five high schools, as well as 58 students who just had earned college or other higher-education degrees.

The celebration took place at the Marriott Inn and Conference Center of the University of Maryland University College.

Attorney Raemond Parrott

One highlight was a talk by Raemond Parrott, who this year became FGCB’s first law school graduate, completing his J.D. degree at Duke University. Raemond met FGCB founder Joe Fisher in sixth grade. Fisher became a mentor, helping Raemond learn to differentiate what was “considered cool” and what was “right.” He guided Raemond and his mother through the college application process and, with Fisher’s help, Raemond was admitted to one of the top undergraduate schools in the country, Williams College. After graduating from there, he headed on to Duke. Raemond gave the following advice to college-bound students in his Annual Celebration talk:

“When I was a kid, my mother used to say life did not come with an instruction manual and there was no road map. I had to wing it and make decisions along the way.

“That’s actually false, because it’s 2011 now and, even though there is no road map, there is a GPS. And that GPS is right here in your brain. So in the same way you set your destination and it tells you ‘right turn, left turn, get off at this exit,’ when you arrive in college or graduate school – or wherever you’re headed – you’ve  got to put that destination of where you want to be 10, 15, 20 years from now into that mental GPS. That way you take the right turns along the way.

“When you’re doing something you’re not supposed to be doing, that’s not conducive to getting where you need to go, you need to have that GPS go off and say, ‘toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, wrong turn, recalculate.’ When it’s 2 a.m. and your friend wants you to party but you’ve got that 8:30 class, you’ve got to listen to that GPS and realize that’s the wrong direction.

“You’re going to make mistakes – we all make mistakes – but all that does is make the distance you have to travel longer, and it makes it harder to get there. You may not get there as fast as everyone else. Some people take four years. Some people take five, six or seven years. But that’s all right, because the cars that speed past you, they’re not going to where you’re going. You have your own set destination, and that’s the destination you need to keep your eye on.

“So when people in school offer you alcohol, or drugs, or unprotected sex or anything else out there, make sure that GPS goes, ‘Toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, wrong turn.’”

County Executive Keynote Speaker

Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker

The keynote speaker at the Annual Celebration was Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker. He recalled his experience as a first-generation college student:

“I too was the first in my family to go to college and to finish college. By chance I had an aunt who had graduated from college. Since there was no First Generation College Bound when I was growing up, she came and helped me fill out my applications, fill out my forms, told me about scholarships. And she told me, ‘You need to apply to three colleges; you can apply to three colleges for free.’ I was like, ‘Free? Wow! Dad’s going to like that!’

“So I applied to the University of Hawaii. I applied to the University of Massachusetts. And I had a friend who was applying to Howard University. I was living in Springfield, Massachusetts. The African American population at that time was about 10 percent. I had never met a black lawyer. We knew the black dentist and the black doctor. They had all gone to Howard University. So that clearly was out of my league; I wasn’t getting into there. But as a fluke I’m going to apply.

“By luck – and I do mean luck – by God and by faith, I got into Howard University. It allowed me the opportunity to do something, not only that no one in my family had ever done before, but it allowed me to open a door that I didn’t think was available to me. I was a student who always struggled with reading, a student who was always two years older than his peers, because I stayed back in the first and second grades. So the shock on everyone in my family’s face when I got into Howard University, and the pride that I felt, and the nervousness that I felt as to whether, in fact, I had what it took to compete with others.

“There was not a more nervous student coming to Howard University. But it opened my eyes to things that I never knew I could accomplish or do. It gave me an opportunity to meet friends that are friends today. It allowed me to run for student government and see that I, too, could live out, not my dream, or my dad’s dream, or my mom’s dream, but the dream of people who had dedicated their lives to providing programs just like this – that it allowed them to touch into the future and to see what could happen when you open up those doors, when you’re willing to take a chance on individuals, what they can do.

“I am so pleased and happy that you, the graduates of 2011, your parents, your supporters, First  Generation College Bound, have allowed a county executive who sometimes feels beat up, who walked into here feeling weary after spending a day in Upper Marlboro struggling over legislation and what we will do – I want to thank you for reminding me of why we do all of this, and more importantly, what the future looks like.”

Donors Sponsoring the 2011 Celebration

Baltimore/Washington Corridor Chamber Foundation
Bobby and Evelyn Barnes
John and Lesley Brinton
Janelle Bryant – Global Strategies, LLC
Evon Ervin
Jerome A. Fisher
Kenneth Garrison
Ronald and Ellen Giles
Raymond Harrod
Elizabeth Anne Helm-Frazier
Dwayne Jones, principal, Laurel High School
Latin Image Salon
Laurel Presbyterian Church
Robert and Lorraine Levan
John and Effie Macklin Charitable Fund
Sandra T. McKinney
Minuteman Press Laurel
Elaine Morse
Joseph and Marilyn Murchison
Frances and Norman Saunders
Ibi and Felicia Ojo
Ronald S. Oser, M.D. – Laurel Eye Physicians
Pam Rockland
Nickole Sedgwick
Bryan Smith
Marcie Oser Wertlieb, M.D.  – Laurel Eye Physicians

High school and college graduates gather around ABC7/WJLA-TV news anchor Leon Harris, Annual Celebration keynote speaker in 2010

Annual Celebration Tradition

Each June, FGCB holds a similar Annual Celebration to honor its high school graduates about to enter college and its former FGCB participants who have just earned a bachelor’s or graduate degree from a college or university. This highlight of the year has featured such speakers and emcees as former University of Maryland basketball star Len Elmore, Prince George’s State’s Attorneys Alexander Williams and Glenn Ivey, nationally prominent defense attorney Willie Gary, award-winning ABC7/WJLA-TV news anchor Leon Harris and actor Tico Wells, as well as FGCB alumni.