On Friday, February 24, 2017 at 6:00 pm in the James L. Bolden Campus Ballroom, Alcorn State University’s Office of Student Engagement welcomed syndicated columnist, journalist and host of TV One’s NewsOne Now morning program, Roland Martin. NewsOne Now with Roland Martin is the first daily news program in history to focus on news, politics, entertainment and sports from an African American perspective.
Before Martin spoke at the event the Delta Kappa Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. presented him with a Certificate of Appreciation. After pictures were taken, Martin began his informative and uplifting speech in front of faculty, staff and students to discuss a plethora of concepts from saving money to the decisions that African Americans make today.
Martin stated, “Everybody has the capacity to be great but what we do today, all of the decisions that we make today, no matter what classification you are, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior or Senior can actually have an impact on your life tomorrow.” He went on to say, “This is our history and the bright side to all of this is we have never, ever, failed to exceed expectations.”
Martin’s speech of helping students to move forward in life and become better individuals went over exceptionally well with the audience. La’Keilla Veal, a Junior Mass Communications major from Woodville, Mississippi, stated, “This was truly an honor and a privilege to meet an accomplished individual such as Mr. Martin. He gave me much hope tonight that I can succeed at whatever I do in my life.”
The speech concluded at 8:45 pm and afterwards there was a 15 minute question and answer session from the audience upon which Martin graciously participated in and divulged his vast knowledge on many topics.