![\"Johnson\"](\"http:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/jeff-johnson-by-dan.jpg\" "\\"jeff-johnson-by-dan\\"")
<\/a>Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cIn the midst of trying to do something different, don\u2019t allow your mistakes and naivete destroy your leadership potential,\u201d the award-winning BET journalist and political commentator told UT students last Tuesday when he was on Main Campus to share the official release of his first book, Everything I\u2019m Not Made Me Everything I Am.<\/em><\/p>\n As he admitted to the students who filled the Student Union room where he spoke, Johnson knows from mistakes; he\u2019s made them, some while he was a UT student in the 1990s, serving as president of the Black Student Union (BSU) and Student Government.<\/p>\n \u201cI was here on a track scholarship, more interested in majoring in kickin\u2019 it, with a minor in hanging out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n BSU officers, though, saw leadership qualities in the fiery young man and pulled him into the organization that he eventually headed. The times and issues were volatile, perhaps never more so than when BSU invited the controversial Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam to campus.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t realize how much that threatened people until I began to receive death threats at my home,\u201d Johnson said. The University, however, was very supportive of BSU, and the event was a major success.<\/p>\n Another test of leadership for Johnson was when he and his fellow BSU officers led a march to the home of then-President Frank Horton to present a list of demands for campus changes. (Their initial mistake, Johnson admitted to the audience, was that when the 600-strong marchers initially arrived at Horton\u2019s office, he wasn\u2019t in: \u201cWe were passionate but not strategic.\u201d)<\/p>\n With some cat-and-mouse, give-and-take, the students\u2019 demands \u2014 including the creation of an Africana Studies Program \u2014 were ultimately addressed, he said. \u201cWe got gangster, but when the rubber met the road, we were willing to work with the University, sitting in committee meetings for over a year to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n He told the intently listening students, \u201cRight now you have the power to create real change if you are willing to work with the University to make it happen. What my experience as a first-year president of BSU taught me was that a bunch of people who had messed up before could still create fundamental change.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were no different than you. Don\u2019t be so concerned with \u2018Our funds have been cut, we don\u2019t have the office space we used to have.\u2019 Why so often does it seem that this generation feels helpless to change things around them?\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson, whose activism and investigative journalism have taken him global (and netted him an award of excellence last year for BET\u2019s \u201cLife and Death in Darfur, Jeff Johnson Reports\u201d series), added, \u201cHad it not been for this university, none of the other things I\u2019ve done would have happened.\u201d He also publicly thanked his mother and aunt \u2014 \u201cpowerful, beautiful, intellectual women\u201d \u2014 and,, among others, Dr. Rubin Patterson, UT professor of sociology and interim director of Africana Studies: \u201cHe was the first man outside my family who said, I see something in this young brother he doesn\u2019t even know he has.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier in the day, Johnson spoke at one of Patterson\u2019s classes about another topic close to his heart: renewable energy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe largest sector of manufacturing is going to be the production of green technologies,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a brand-new industry with limitless potential. It\u2019s going to be connected with things [UT] is doing in science and research, but also connected with regular folks who are willing to go to their elected officials and say that this is important.<\/p>\n \u201cWe as a country have to be concerned about what our country is manufacturing. It might not be sexy, it might not seem interesting, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s what will either save America\u2019s economy or be something we lost. And for people of color and disenfranchised people, it\u2019s even more important.\u201d<\/p>\n Patterson, a longtime mentor, noted, \u201cHaving the students hear about career opportunities in those fields made a strong impression coming from Jeff. I may be taking some advantage of his celebrity and his passion.\u201d Patterson initially contacted Johnson with an idea for creating scholarships in social justice and renewable energy, an idea the younger man embraced.<\/p>\n \u201cThe endowed Jeff Johnson Leadership and Service Scholarship will be established for students in Africana Studies, with a focus on environmental justice,\u201d said Ellen Ingram, director of corporate and foundation relations. \u201cThe criteria are still being determined, but one will be leadership and involvement with UT community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s groundbreaking to have an Africana Studies Department focusing on environmental justice and renewable energy,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if you will see that anywhere else in the country, and I thank Dr. Patterson for having thought to bring me into the discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n Applications will be taken beginning in February. Funding opportunities exist; contact Patterson at 419.530.4953 or Ingram at 419.530.2646 for information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jeff Johnson, an award-winning journalist with BET, talked about his days as an undergraduate at UT, how students can make a difference, and about a new scholarship that will bear his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}